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YES you most certainly should! Do you know if they have s'mores at all of their locations in Manhattan? If so, I'm definitely heading there tomorrow night, but it's going to have to be one of the locations that's open until 2 am.

Mark my words: If I ever decide to drink alcohol again, I want the very first drop to be consumed in that place!!!

It really depends on your personal preferences. Are you looking for upscale, casual, Asian, French, steaks, vegetarian, and so on? Probably the first thing you should do is get a good map of Bergen County, because you're going to get a lot of recommendations from neighboring and not-so-neighboring towns, depending on exactly what it is that you crave. However, in Ramsey, the most-agreed upon top restaurant is Café Panache on Main Street across from the little movie theater. It's (new) French cuisine with some crossover to Italian, but unfortunately I've never been there myself so I can only tell you that it's been well-received without offering my own impressions. As Jason Perlow stated, the Tiffany Diner is your best local diner, but in my opinion they've fallen off a bit in the past few years. Still though, at ALL costs you should avoid the Horizon and Stateline diners. If you're not yet familiar with the institution that is the Jersey diner, just remember that they're best when everything else is closed and stick to the simpler items on the menu. Terri's Gourmet Chinese (in a little shopping plaza on Spruce Street, just off Main Street in Ramsey) is decent Americanized Chinese food. I believe they deliver as well, so you might have already tried them. The Trackside Inn is pretty popular (read: noisy) these days after its semi-recent renovations. Personally, I don't think there's anything outstanding about the food there, but you'll probably have to go just so that you can tell your neighbors that you have gone. Pietro's Pizza is to be avoided at all costs. Generally agreed to be the worst pizza in Ramsey and rumored to stay in business only as a front for some other type of business. If you like thin crust pizza, I'd recommend Kinchley's on Franklin Turnpike in Mahwah. It doesn't look like much, but it's very close to Ramsey and they've got nice thin crust. It's probably a good place to bring kids if you've got any. In Allendale, some of the dishes at Allendale Bar & Grill can be hit or miss, but it's a nice local alternative to the spreading influence of chain restaurants on Route 17 (largely a culinary graveyard). It can get almost as noisy as those places though. Hmmm... there are many other places to try in the area, but I can't say that I've tried them myself. Again, if you're looking for something specific (Thai, Mexican, Seafood, etc.) I'll second Jason's recommendation to do a search for the term. Most likely you'll turn up something less than 30 minutes away. Good luck.

Apparently La Posada in Teaneck fell into this category but I HAD NO IDEA!! I wish I had, otherwise I would've posted it here. Well, at the very least I'm popping this thread to the top now so that maybe we can get a little heads-up on other places which may not be doing well yet would be greatly missed.

What the F?!?! I thought they were just closed for vacation. Now I see what you mean about the non-Kosher restaurants in Teaneck closing. Well, I guess I don't have any reason to go to Teaneck anymore. This is depressing.

I had a tiny sampling of take-out from Malee this evening, so I thought I'd add my two cents. Basically, just go back up top and read Tommy's posts, because I pretty much agree with what he said. I only sampled the beef pad krapow and the spring rolls. The pad krapow was good (though I thought beef was a wee bit too dry), but it was definitely NOT as spicy as it could have been. I said, "Make it as spicy as you possibly can. TOO spicy. Don't tell the chef that I'm a white guy... tell them that I'm the Thai-est guy you've ever seen and I want it REALLY spicy!" Didn't work... oh well. That's why one should keep some chili paste at home. The spring rolls were sort of "eh...". Four little finger-sized rolls which tasted primarily of the bean thread noodles. I'm not entirely sure why I ordered them though since I'm not a huge fan of little fried rolls anyway. Come to think of it, I'm not really a fan of big fried rolls either. I also had two cups of Thai iced tea (one while I was waiting for the food and one for at home). They asked if I wanted the "sweet one" and I said yes, but it sort of lacked that strong bitter tea flavor that usually co-exists underneath the sweetness. I'll have to ask about that next time. It's a little pricey. Total for my meal was $23 (it would've been $18 at Wondee's). I guess technically it was a meal for two people, but let's just say that there aren't any leftovers sitting in my fridge. To sum up, I still prefer Wondee's, but it is nice to have a proper Thai restaurant budding in Ridgewood. If I'm in the mood for Thai and don't have the time to go to Hackensack, then Malee is where I'll end up.

I realize this is satire, but a 22 for food at Baumgart's??? I'm sure Tommy meant "12", but just had a little typo in the beginning there. Other than that, I think that Tommy should start doing this mock-Zagat review a LOT more often. I'm looking forward to great things.

I had breakfast at Fink's for the first time yesterday. The plan was to make up for a bad morning with a really good meal and in the immortal words of Col. 'Hannibal' Smith: "I love it when a plan comes together!" BISCUITS WITH GRAVY, people!!! I cannot stress that enough! If you're a fan of that thick light-colored country gravy, you'll think you had died and gone to heaven. Take the best example of that gravy you've ever had, multiply it by 5, and then add in lots of little pieces of smoked sausage. Mmmmmmm.... THE CHIPPER: Tired of having all of your breakfast ingredients (potatos, sausage, taylor ham, bacon, cheese, eggs) spread out all over your plate? How about putting them ALL on one sandwich? I added hot sauce to mine, because I generally like some heat with my eggs. Which brings us to... HUEVOS INCOGNITOS: A mountain of chili burying two eggs over toast. Actually, mine were over a corn tortilla instead (a welcome suggestion from Fink), but it's really the chili that shines here! It's got some really nice heat to it that just sort of creeps up on you and settles in your mouth for a delightful visit. There are still many things on the menu that I have to try and I'm still very excited about that.

I lived in El Paso for three years and the only thing I noticed about the water was how much it tasted of chlorine. As for laid back and mellow residents there, my stay was during the height of El Paso's street gang problems so I didn't notice too much mellowness. Maybe they added the lithium to get rid of the gangs, because El Paso seemed much improved when I visited last summer. Anyway, I generally drink tap water wherever I am unless it either tastes very bad (as in Paramus, NJ), looks very brown (as in my cousin's old $450/month apartment in Manhattan), or comes from a lake (as in my family's cabin in Maine). The first case can usually be solved with a filter, the second would require bottled water, and the third means a short trip through the woods to a natural spring. Of course, some members of my family are just too damn lazy to do that so they pick up bottled water along with their groceries. The funny thing is that they buy Poland Spring which comes from a source that's only about 45 minutes away from our own spring. Go figure.

I never took the opportunity to get there either. I actually suggested it to a couple of family members two weeks ago, but we ended up at the Trackside in Ramsey. They refused to let me pay for dinner, which meant they got to choose the location. However, for a different family occassion, we DID finally try The Sicillian Sun in Ho-Ho-Kus. We had take-out of lasagna, eggplant parm, garlic bread, a string bean antipasto of sorts, and a pizza with half sausage & peppers. It's pretty run-of-the-mill from what we sampled (which are certainly run-of-the-mill choices). Nothing really special here, but nothing truly vomitous either. How's THAT for a recommendation?!

I'm soooooo there! Thanks for the tip!

I completely agree with most of what's been said already. It ALL depends on who you sit with and what your respective moods are. Of course, I do NOT think it makes much sense for people in a bad mood to go out for something like hibachi, but that's another issue altogether. Some memorable shared tables: The very first night after moving to El Paso, TX my family went to a hibachi place and started chatting it up with the people at our table (who immediately recognized that we weren't from the area). Turns out that they lived literally on the next street over from our new home and I remained very good friends with them for the three years I lived there. Tad's by Times Square. Just part of a VERY surreal and complicated evening (which half-explains why I was at Tad's, though the food wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting). A friend and I shared a table with a young boy from Argentina and the man who was pretty obviously a card-carrying N.A.M.B.L.A. member. Talk about awkward! An udon shop in Boston. There were three picnic tables with HUGE lines of people waiting for available seats on a Saturday morning. I tend to eat my noodles pretty slowly, so my two fast-eating buddies were out of there looooong before I was done eating. Of course, I took my time because there were plenty of interesting people I hadn't spoken with a million times already (AND I had the car keys). Side note: I don't think hibachi's actually intended to have any flavor and the chefs' routines all seem VERY routine, but for some reason I still always seem to have a good time when I'm at a hibachi table. Something about the kitschiness of it all maybe? Side side note to TMTM: Mount Fuji's a weird place. I remember the days when I could go there and expect to see a couple of birthdays. Now it seems that EVERY SINGLE TABLE is having a birthday!! They have at least one employee whose job is JUST to do the little "Bonzai!!" thing they do for birthdays and the poor man looks like he wants to shoot himself. It just does strange things for the atmosphere, but on the other hand, I do enjoy the pretty Ukrainian ladies taking drink orders!

I just skipped that meal between lunch and dinner. Linner, lunner, dinch... whatever it should be called. Of course, if I had been really hungry or intent on having a meal, I probably would've headed over to Fink's. Which MAY have been his sinister plan all along!!! Other options would've been numerous in the Hackensack area. There's no danger of me not finding somewhere acceptable to eat around there!

Well, since it's open only for dinner I would tend to think that's true. Of course, those New Haven places ONLY serve pizza (and drinks) and they aren't open for lunch either. Does your mother-in-law have any opinion of Lido? By the way (yet still on topic), I saw another restaurant/pizza place advertising thin crust pizza today on my way through Saddle Brook. I want to go there just to shake the hand of the person who named the establishment (drum roll, please): Pizghetti (or something to that effect, the way young children mispronounce spaghetti... I don't recall exactly how it was spelled). It's on Saddle River Road and I think it's new, but I also think the last time I was on that stretch of Saddle River Road was about four years ago. Anybody been there?

Damn you, Sarcasm!! Damn you for not conveying very well on message boards!!!

I don't drink and I didn't really have that much time to kill. Since it was going to be a meal between lunch and dinner (linner?) anyway, I decided just to skip it. I'm not really mad at Fink though, that reaction was meant to be too over-the-top to be taken seriously.

Damn you, Fink!!! DAAAAAMMMMN YOUUUUUUU!!!! For everyone else... Lido doesn't open until 5 pm. A little piece of information that Mr. Fink failed to note in his post, but I happened to pick up when I showed up around 2pm with saliva dripping down my chin from all the anticipation. Ah well, another day.

Ah... screw it! I'm gonna be in Hackensack anyway and since they've got medium pies, I may as well try this Lido place today. Report to follow... (I know, I know... it doesn't take much to twist my arm sometimes)

You get the idea that Fink's excited about this place? Seriously Fink, I'm gonna try it eventually ('cause I know you recommended it to me before) ... but I've got to be in a pizza mood AND I've got to remember the name of the place once I'm in that mood. Of course, this helps:

I've been a long-time fan of Kinchley's, but unfortunately I'm not a fan of steamed burgers. Thanks for Denino's address and the suggestions though. I enjoy L&B Spumoni gardens quite a bit, but I don't travel exclusively to get there since I'm not the sort who would travel very far for pizza (working in a pizzeria for 3 years can sometimes have that effect). I wish there was a place around here where I could get the same style of Sicillian pie that they serve there (dough, cheese, sauce... layered in that order). Anybody got any ideas?

"I wish Pinchy was here to enjoy this!"

I've been to both Sally's and Frank Pepe's and I really feel that Sally's is better. It's subtle, but the crust is just tastier, the cheese seems more flavorful, etc. Pepe's just didn't leave the same impression on me. However, I completely sympathize with you about not understanding "the whole cult following around New Haven pizza". I travel to Boston pretty frequently (from 6-12 times a year) so I like to stop in every now and then for some pizza when I'm passing through New Haven during the 5 hour window that these places are open. It's definitely worth a stop if you're in the mood for thin crust pizza, but I wouldn't base an entire trip around it. Denino's sounds like it's interesting though. I think I'd enjoy it because I like to order my "traditional" pies to be a little bit well done so that the crust is crispier. Generally speaking, I'm only in Staten Island when I'm passing through to see friends in Bensonhurst (at which point I'd choose to head over to L&B Spumoni Gardens), but I may make the stop at Denino's if you give me an address.

What style of pie do they serve at Denino's? If it's thin crust, my next question would be if you've been to Sally's Apizza in New Haven? The ingredients they use for everything there are just sooooooo good. The only thing I think they could do better would be to put some "oomph" into their sauce.

I just love the full circle of human emotion that comes through in this bit!

Funny enough, that was my ORIGINAL plan yesterday, but I started with J&H first, got two dogs, then decided to go to Totowa to get some ice cream, and then thought it would be a good time to drop in on a chef friend of mine... In short, I got side-tracked and filled up on all sorts of food unrelated to hot dogs. Luckily we have Tommy to stay focused!