Princeton Area Restaurant Ranked Best in New Jersey

Princeton, NJ -- This is Princeton, so of course there are plenty of great places to eat.

But did you know the best restaurant in the entire state is practically in your own backyard?

Brick Farm Tavern in Hopewell topped New Jersey Monthly’s annual list of 25 New Jersey restaurants where, the publication says, you should "eat here now."

This list is all about the elegance of dining, spotlighting restaurants that serve pork, chicken, turkey, duck, goat and lamb on the menu that are raised on local farms.

According to the publication:
“Brick Farm Tavern takes farm-to-table farther than virtually anyone has dared. Jon and Robin McConaughy, who own the restaurant, also own neighboring Double Brook Farm, which provides most of the fruit and produce served at BFT. Moreover, all the pork, chicken, turkey, duck, goat and lamb on the menu are raised at Double Brook and slaughtered there in the only USDA-inspected, on-premises facility of its kind in New Jersey.”

Brick Farm Tavern is located at 130 Hopewell Rocky Hill Road. Its phone number is 609-333-9200. It is open 5 p.m.-11 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday. It is closed on Mondays.

Below is the list of other restaurants in the Princeton area that made the list, with some excerpts from the publication's reviews. To get the full New Jersey Monthly list, click here.

Elements, Princeton
“Like the world-famous Noma in Copenhagen, Elements takes the concept of an open kitchen beyond the norm. As at Noma, the food at Elements is advanced in technique yet rooted in tradition (pickling, fermenting, foraging, seasonality, etc.), and it is brought to the table from the kitchen (even more visible and open than at Noma) and presented, with a brief overview, by the chef or cook who prepared it.”

Elements is located at 66 Witherspoon Street. Its phone number is 609-924-0078. It is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m.; Friday, 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.; and Saturday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. It is closed on Sunday and Monday.

Mistral, Princeton
“Chef de cuisine Ben Nerenhausen has a deceptively simple credo. “It has to be fun,” he says of his food. He keeps finding new ways to make it so. Chilled English pea soups are a spring staple, but this year, Nerenhausen, 33, not only worked tarragon, parsley and mint into the purée for an herbaceous twist, he also submerged a tangy disc of manchego panna cotta in the bowl, topping it with a quenelle of steak tartare poking up like an island. The pea soup, big enough to share, is $14."

Mistral is located at 66 Witherspoon Street. Its phone number is 609-688-8808. It is open 5 p.m.-9 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays; 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., and 5 p.m.-9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., and 5 p.m.-10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4 p.m.-9 p.m. on Sundays.