Surely this has to be the best diner in New Jersey

If you had somebody visiting you from out of town and they had heard we are "The Diner State," where would you take them?

Chances are you are no more than 10 minutes from a few diners in your area unless you are in far South Jersey or the far northwestern corner of the Garden State.

There are diners there, too, but it might be more than a 10-minute drive. A few diners near where I live in Burlington County are really good in reputation, food and service.

But if you really wanted to wow your guests, you'd take a ride from wherever you live to head to East Newark.

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Now, don't worry, East Newark has nothing to do with Newark (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's across the Passaic River and is the home of Tops Diner, a legendary spectacular example of a New Jersey diner on steroids. Most people consider it in Harrison, but it's all the same area.

The diner went through a major renovation in 2020 and is a spectacular example of a New Jersey diner with all the bells and whistles of a modern New Jersey diner. They were named the best diner in the country in 2022 and are a perennial staple on the list of top diners in the state.

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They're definitely the busiest diner in the state, serving 15,000 customers PER WEEK! It first opened in 1942 and was reconstructed from the ground up in 2020 with 16,000 square feet of space.

Co-owner Dimitrios "Jimmy" Golemis is carrying on his family tradition of running this legendary spot in a very busy part of the state. This place has just about everything anyone could want to eat. You will be hard-pressed to find many diners with an "executive chef" and a diner that butchers their own meat like filet mignon, NY strip, skirt steaks, rib eyes and whole chickens.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at this legendary New Jersey iconic diner here.

Looks like the kind of place that's worth the drive from anywhere.