Mastori's and NJ Diners

[Rosie]

Lowell recently had lunch at this diner and thought the place was great. I've never been. Have you? He brought home a page with the history of the diner. They serve between 120 and 2800 people on busy days. They use 300 dozen eggs for breakfast on Sat. and Sun and employ 160 people. What NJ diners do you like to go to?

[Happyeater]

I am surprised that Lowell would find this dinner great. We have over the last fifteen years eaten there on occassion. Fifteen years ago it was decent, since it keeps expanding the food has gone down hill. Alex. the current manager is the son of the owner, does a decent job running the establishment, Sat. and Sun. the place is a zoo. The drawing card umongus portions. No one leaves without a doggie bag, wether they have a dog or not.

[tommy]

in my experience, the diner that you go to is the one closest to home or the bar.  for me, that has been the Malibu in hoboken.  i suppose the food is OK, but i guess anything is OK at 2 or 3 AM.  the diner in downtown hoboken on Hudson st, whose name espapes me, was always fast and just what the doctor ordered.  a slightly more "hip" clientele than the "yuppified" and young malibu crowd.

we've been going to the Tick Tock on route 3 for breakfast/lunch recently.  i actually do enjoy this diner.  they are consistent and of course, cheap.

the bendix on rt 17 is another favorite.  the atmosphere is part of the meal i suppose.  the food can be hit-or-miss in my experience.

nothing beats a good taylor ham egg and cheese on a roll.  what does the rest of the world (outside of NJ) do without taylor ham???

[NewYorkTexan]

Diners are one of the great intuitions that have never really taken root outside of the northeast.  I am not sure why.  

I tend to agree that your favorite diner is usually one that is close to you.   I had spent many Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Colonial Diner and Seville diners in East Brunswick and the Somerset Diner in Somerset.  

Before that it was the Bay View Diner in Bay Ridge when my wife and I were living in Brooklyn.  I probably had some of my best high school memories take place in the Scobee Diner in Little Neck Queens.

Interesting how a single type of restaurant can weave a thread throughout ones life.    

[RockADS21]

As a veteran of the 3 A.M. NJ Diner scene I must stay loyal to the Tick-Tock on Route 3 in Clifton...very consistant and very good. Some other top tin spots in my opinion are Willies Diner in Bloomfield(excellant breakfast), the Versailles on Route 46 in Fairfield, the Reo in Woodbridge and heading home from the shore a stop at the Toms River Diner on Route 37 is a must...I also believe that it should be a crime to refer to Taylor Ham as pork roll and we need to make a strong effort to convey this message to our good friends south of the Driscol bridge...

[rockhopper]

It's Mastoris and not Mastori's by the way.  The s is part of the name and not the possessive contraction.

[Jason Perlow]

My diner of choice is the Royal Cliff House in Englewood Cliffs off of Sylvan Ave/Palisade and exit 1 off the Palisade Parkway. Great sandwiches and burgers and breakfast.

You can always tell if you have a good diner if they make turkey club sandwiches with fresh oven-baked turkey. If they use yucky slimy deli turkey stuff, you dont wanna eat there.

[wagyuboy]

Mastoris is hilarious. It's the place my parents would take us on the way to the beach, when me and my brothers when were kids. We'd fill up on the bread and not eat the lousy food we ordered. The bread was and is the only good thing about the place...they had three different kinds. The sweet cinnamon bread was my favorite, while my brother prefers the cheese bread. I remember people making a big deal about the bakery, which you can just come in and buy from without ordering. Crystal's in Lawrenceville is my favorite diner in Jersey (partly, now that I live in New York, for a newfound appreciation for its smoking section), but it's certainly not worth going out of your way for. Just across the river in Newtown is Goodnoe's, which (I think) makes their own ice cream; in any event, their ice cream is great (though not as good as Halo Farm in Trenton, who makes the best ice cream ever).

[Wiener]

Tick Tock is decent for breakfast(s) and late night road trips. How they prepare those huge dinners in less than 10 minutes is beyond me. Almost scary. My favorite was the Clairmont . If you are ever in Cape May county and want a diner breakfast, try the Rio Diner on Rio Grand.

[rlibkind]

In Central Jersey, I like the Colonial Diner on Rt. 18.

In South Jersey, Ponzio's on Rt. 70, even though it's evolved way beyond a diner.

When I lived in Elizabeth and environs 25+ years ago, I enjoyed every Rt. 22 diner. What I miss are the Weequahic and Claremont diners.

[Rich Pawlak]

Lowell recently had lunch at this diner and thought the place was great. I've never been. Have you? He brought home a page with the history of the diner. They serve between 120 and 2800 people on busy days. They use 300 dozen eggs for breakfast on Sat. and Sun and employ 160 people. What NJ diners do you like to go to?

Mastoris (the family name) Diner is the biggest damn diner I've ever experienced, and their food quality alone is worth the trip. The portions for EVERYTHING are enormous, so be forewarned. A dish that contains boneless chicken breasts, for example, will contain at least 3, maybe 4. Paul Bunyan food for sure, and generally expertly cooked. Service staff is top notch, too, well trained and responsive and anticipatory, remarkable in a place of this size and breadth. We probably eat here at least twice a month, a good 25-30 min. drive from our house.

Soups are almost always terrific, burgers brobdignagian, and pasta dishes are more like family-style platters. Most of their seafood os also quite good, as are their lamb dishes.

Make sure to read the family history placemats; the patriarch of the Mastoris family, Al, has just passed away, so they may be changed since my last visit.

If this isnt the best diner in which I've ever eaten (Jenny's Diner on Rte 30, near Lancaster, PA, comes very close), it's in the Top 3.

[Kim WB]

It's jsut so un-diner-like. Wouldn't you agree that Mastoris is more like a family restaurant than a diner?

[menton1]

For eggs, there is nothing in this world like the Egg Platter in Paterson/Clifton. A stainless steel dining car throwback place, it is immaculately clean inside and serves up perfectly cooked eggs and the best-ever home fries. They now do other stuff, sandwiches, burgers and the like, but eggs is their forte. And they have crazy hours, they CLOSE from 3PM to 10PM, so don't go there at dinnertime-- But do try their eggs!!

The Egg Platter

159 Crooks Avenue

Paterson/Clifton, NJ

(Near Paterson Market & Corrado's)

[menton1]

It's Mastoris and not Mastori's by the way.  The s is part of the name and not the possessive contraction.<p><p>

The misuse of a possessive apostrophe is more and more common in American English usage these days. Signs announcing "Open Sunday's" proliferate, and one on a store I pass proclaims "New shipment of shoe's has arrived". We have forgotten what plural means.

[Rosie]

For eggs, there is nothing in this world like the Egg Platter in Paterson/Clifton. A stainless steel dining car throwback place, it is immaculately clean inside and serves up perfectly cooked eggs and the best-ever home fries. They now do other stuff, sandwiches, burgers and the like, but eggs is their forte. And they have crazy hours, they CLOSE from 3PM to 10PM, so don't go there at dinnertime-- But do try their eggs!!

The Egg Platter

159 Crooks Avenue

Paterson/Clifton, NJ

(Near Paterson Market & Corrado's)

I've been there. The place is a hoot!

[hannnah]

I spent a week on a work project at Fort Dix a few years back, and we ended up eating at Mastoris every night simply because it was the only place other than fast food anywhere close. They have absolutely the largest menu I've ever seen - it was perfect, because no matter what you wanted you could get something that would satisfy. The soups and the bread were excellent, and I remember their sauteed soft-shell crabs being particularly good.

I was also amused that every night we went, we ended up being seated in a different wing of the building - it's that big! Didn't realize that the original diner part was in there someplace, though.

[NJ2FLA]

Ok where is this place? I'd like to check it out.

[Rich Pawlak]

It's jsut so un-diner-like. Wouldn't you agree that Mastoris is more like a family restaurant than a diner?

Oh quite true, very little vestige of anything diner-ish, save the one room with counter and stools and booths, and still, relatively un-diner like.

[plax]

Wow! It was fun to see this thread, which somehow I missed when it started. We used to go to the Mastoris Diner all the time when I was a kid; our next-door neighbors were Greek-Americans, and owned their own diner, the Starlite, in Levittown, PA. Then, the girl next door, Peggy Pappas, married Alex Mastoris, so the place has even more sentimental value to me.

I'm glad to see people are appreciating it!

[Curlz]

The misuse of a possessive apostrophe is more and more common in American English usage these days.  Signs announcing "Open Sunday's" proliferate, and one on a store I pass proclaims "New shipment of shoe's has arrived".  We have forgotten what plural means.

You've just hit on one of my biggest pet peeves, Menton! Or is it peeve's...?!?

[tommy]

i don't mind the apostrophe thing in writing so much. but when it's on a sign, i have to wonder how much thought these people are putting into their business when they can't even be bothered to spellcheck their sign.

there's nothing wrong with not knowing. but they should know better when it comes to presenting their business to the public.

i should add that this doesn't apply to chinese or vietnamese restaurants, when funny spellings and errors on the menu are part of the charm.

[menton1]

i should add that this doesn't apply to chinese or vietnamese restaurants, when funny spellings and errors on the menu are part of the charm.

That reminds me of a takeout place I passed once in Queens called "Dum Luck". Don't know if it's still there, but that really is funny!

[legendarystarbolt]

Willies Diner in Bloomfield(excellant breakfast),

yeah they do have a good breakfast, but I don't think that their other food is that great. For that I would rather go to the Nevada on Broad St. in Bloomfield, it's only like 3 blocks away.

[porkpa]

I've been going to Mastoris Diner since 1967. Wow!! That's 37 years ago!! When I first started going it was less than a quarter of the size that it is now. Its now huge.

But beware, if go on a sunday you will still have to wait in line. Although the menu has expanded enormously, in my opinion the food is not quite as good now as it was then. Nevertheless I make it a point to get there at least twice a year. The cheese bread which is given gratis, together with their cinnamon bread is fantastic, but extremely filling. The portions are huge. I've never had a bad dish there. On the other hand I can't recall recently having anything that I've raved about. Years ago, they had a dish of spaghetti with chicken livers on the menu that was awesome. I haven't looked to see if its still available.

Porkpa

[porkpa]

Mastoris is located in Bordentown New Jersey. Its about a mile or two from exit seven of of the New Jersey Turnpike. Get off the Turnpike turn right on rt 130, go about a mile or two and it will be on the left. You can't miss it.

Porkpa