One plate arrives hanging from a miniature clothesline. Another piles lobster, garlic gravy, cheese curds, and fries into a glorious mess that could derail the rest of dinner.
Elsewhere, fried oysters land on deviled eggs, Korean wings disappear before the cocktails do, and warm pita turns a collection of Greek dips into the most fiercely guarded food on the table. New Jersey restaurants do not treat appetizers as polite little warmups.
The best ones make them the main event, building opening rounds so good that ordering an entrée begins to feel almost unnecessary.
This list travels from basement tiki bars and historic oyster houses to modern Korean dining rooms, sprawling diners, neighborhood tavernas, and Shore restaurants where seafood towers still know how to command attention.
Bring at least one person who understands the importance of sharing, order more than seems reasonable, and remember the oldest rule of appetizer-heavy dining: the last crispy bite belongs to whoever reaches it first.
1. Cellar 335 — Jersey City
A basement beneath Jersey City’s Newark Avenue is not where you would expect to find tropical cocktails, vintage church details, and some of North Jersey’s boldest shareable plates, which is exactly why this place works.
The kitchen leans into Asian-influenced American cooking, turning familiar bar-food ideas into dishes that demand another round of napkins.
Start with the house-made cornbread, served with honey, butter, Parmesan, and scallions. It is inexpensive, deceptively simple, and useful for buying time while the table negotiates everything else.
The sticky spare ribs bring ginger, scallions, and soy caramel, while the Korean-style wings come in maple-chipotle or garlic-soy versions. Both are built for people who insist they only want one and then quietly reach for a third.
Salmon tartare on crispy rice adds a cooler, cleaner counterpoint, combining avocado, sesame, soy, and scallion. Even the cucumber salad refuses to behave like a supporting player, arriving with chili crisp, peanuts, and sesame dressing.
Cellar Fries, loaded with bacon, scallions, and cheese sauce, handle the late-night comfort-food duties. The room is dark, playful, and particularly good for groups, although weekend reservations are a smart move.
Since the restaurant currently opens Tuesday through Saturday and closes Sundays and Mondays, do not save a craving for the wrong night.
2. Cuban Pete’s — Montclair
The smartest move at this colorful Montclair favorite is to resist choosing a single appetizer. Its tapas menu is long enough to turn the opening course into dinner, especially when everyone at the table has a different idea of what should come next.
Cuban egg rolls are the obvious conversation starter, wrapping ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles in a crisp shell. They taste like a Cuban sandwich decided to become party food.
Pernil with tostones takes another route, pairing crisp pork with fried plantains and garlicky mojo, while chicharrón de pollo brings crunchy chicken lollipops and cilantro sauce.
For something richer, order the almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon or the goat cheese fritters filled with hazelnuts and finished with sweet honey vinaigrette.
Then balance the table with shrimp ceviche or guacamole served alongside tostones instead of ordinary chips. Papitas rellenas, the Cuban beef-stuffed potato dumplings, are compact, comforting, and unusually difficult to split evenly.
The room’s weathered island styling and crowded tabletops make a slightly overambitious order feel perfectly normal. Prices for many tapas stay within comfortable sharing range, so four people can try several dishes without committing to a formal tasting-menu budget.
Just pace yourself. The portions may be appetizer-sized, but the combination of fried plantains, pork, cheese, and pastry has a way of sneaking up on a table.
3. Pithari Taverna — Highland Park
Before anyone commits to lamb, seafood, or a bubbling casserole, warm pita and a table full of dips make a convincing case for stopping right there. This Highland Park taverna has been serving Greek food since 2006, and its opening dishes capture the pleasure of eating slowly while reaching across the table.
The Greek spread is the natural place to begin, bringing together cool tzatziki, smoky eggplant-based melitzanosalata, briny taramosalata, and stuffed grape leaves. Each dip offers something different, which means the pita basket empties with alarming speed.
Grilled octopus is another essential order. Prepared simply with oil, vinegar, and oregano, it relies on tenderness, char, and bright seasoning rather than a pile of distractions.
Spanakopita and other familiar mezze round out a first course that feels generous without becoming heavy too quickly. Part of the restaurant’s charm comes from its neighborhood scale.
It is not a cavernous Greek banquet hall or a polished chain interpretation; it is a colorful, casual dining room built around an open kitchen and food that encourages passing plates in every direction.
The restaurant began after its owners operated a Greek food shop next door, and that market-born appreciation for spreads, vegetables, cheeses, and pantry staples still makes sense when the appetizers arrive.
Bring a group, order the spread immediately, and accept that somebody will request a second basket of pita before the entrées appear.
4. Meximodo — Metuchen
A guacamole order can easily turn into a full-scale table strategy at this downtown Metuchen showstopper. The dining room is enormous, bright, and theatrical, with colorful murals and a bar backed by more than a thousand agave spirits.
Yet the best way to settle into the spectacle is with a loose collection of dips, tostadas, crudos, and masa-based small plates moving around the table. Fresh guacamole provides the familiar anchor, but it should not stand alone.
Add something citrusy and chilled, then something crisp and cheesy, followed by a taco platter that everyone swears is meant to be shared equally. The kitchen’s approach is broad rather than rigidly regional, allowing traditional Mexican flavors to meet polished presentations and crowd-friendly combinations.
That makes Meximodo particularly useful for mixed groups: adventurous diners can explore seafood and chile-forward dishes, while cautious eaters still have recognizable options within reach. The Metuchen location sits near the borough’s walkable downtown core and is open for weekday lunch, weekend brunch, and dinner nightly.
Reservations are advisable, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, when the room fills with birthdays, date nights, and groups photographing the towering tequila display. Cocktails naturally play a major role, but the food should not be treated as something to absorb the margaritas.
Order the appetizers in waves, and the table may happily postpone the main course until no one can remember whether one was ever necessary.
5. Red Horse by David Burke — Rumson
A strip of bacon hanging above the table is not interested in being subtle. When David Burke’s signature clothesline-style presentation appears, it delivers exactly the kind of playful excess that makes the opening course feel like dinner theater.
The Rumson restaurant is a modern American steakhouse, but the appetizers often loosen the formality before anyone begins discussing cuts of beef. Expect raw-bar choices, oysters, composed seafood plates, and richer creations that borrow the indulgence of a steakhouse while refusing to look predictable.
The best approach is contrast: pair something smoky or bacon-heavy with a chilled seafood option, then add one polished plate that gives the table an excuse to order more bread. Tuesday is especially useful for appetizer-minded diners because the restaurant promotes all-day bar specials that include discounted oysters and live music.
Happy hour also runs on select days, making the bar area a practical way to sample the kitchen without committing to a full steakhouse bill. The dining room calls for smart-casual clothing, so this is not the stop for flip-flops after a beach day, despite its Monmouth County location.
Reservations are worth securing for prime weekend hours. Come prepared for a little showmanship, though.
Burke’s cooking rarely places food quietly on the table when it could arrive suspended, smoking, stacked, or otherwise announcing that the first course has officially taken control of the evening.
6. Rails Steakhouse — Towaco
Peanut butter and jalapeño jelly sound like questionable partners until a slab of applewood-smoked bacon lands between them. Rails understands that steakhouse appetizers should be a little outrageous, and its thick-cut Nueske’s bacon delivers salt, smoke, sweetness, and chile heat in one memorable opening plate.
The rest of the starter menu is equally capable of distracting from the dry-aged steaks. Wagyu sliders come with caramelized onions, fontina, and truffle aioli, while lobster paella arancini hide lobster and chorizo inside saffron rice balls served with romesco.
Spanish octopus gets potatoes, olives, pistachios, pickled fennel, and lemon-garlic yogurt, creating a plate with more brightness and texture than the usual charred tentacle presentation.
Seafood fans can go classic with a Maryland-style crab cake or build an entire first course around oysters, clams, shrimp, lobster cocktail, and the restaurant’s large raw-bar towers.
Steak tartare arrives on crispy sushi rice with caviar, bridging old-school steakhouse luxury and a more modern bar snack. The Towaco dining room is expansive, rustic, and dramatic, complete with stonework, heavy beams, and the sort of setting that makes a shared seafood tower feel entirely appropriate on a Tuesday.
Prices reflect the steakhouse category, but the appetizers offer a useful way to experience the place without immediately ordering a premium cut. Bring several people; choosing only one starter here is an unnecessary act of self-denial.
7. Cuzin’s Seafood & Clam Bar — Marlboro
Here, the opening round can involve lobster three different ways before anyone even glances at the entrées. The Marlboro seafood destination goes big, presenting a lengthy hot-appetizer lineup beside an equally tempting raw bar.
Crispy lobster wontons pair lobster with ginger, scallions, garlic, and soy, while lobster mac and cheese folds the meat into orecchiette with fontina-Gruyère béchamel and toasted breadcrumbs. The lobster roll appetizer takes yet another approach, using hand-picked meat, tarragon mayonnaise, brioche, and a tomato marinade.
For pure spectacle, the Mediterranean mezze board spreads hummus, tzatziki, stuffed grape leaves, grilled halloumi, roasted pita, vegetables, olives, and more across the table. Seafood purists should look toward the crispy shrimp, firecracker shrimp, sautéed scungilli, grilled Spanish octopus, or coconut-crusted shrimp.
The crispy calamari is a reliable group order, although sweet-and-sour calamari with pine nuts and raisins offers the more distinctive choice. Cuzin’s works best when the table embraces controlled excess.
Order one raw item, one fried plate, and one creamy or cheesy dish, then compare notes before adding anything else. The restaurant describes itself as elegant yet casual, which fits the reality: polished enough for a celebration, relaxed enough to attack lobster wontons with your hands.
Reservations are sensible on weekends, and the large parking area removes one common Central Jersey dining headache before the seafood parade begins.
8. 618 Restaurant — Freehold
Dinner starts to feel like an event before the menus open. The Freehold Borough dining room uses dramatic lighting, greenery, sculptural details, and carefully styled cocktails to create a polished night-out setting, but the appetizers keep the experience from becoming too precious.
Stuffed mushrooms bring the familiar comfort of an old-school restaurant starter into a more contemporary presentation, while short rib ravioli offers the richness of a full entrée in a shareable format.
Mac and cheese and Cajun shrimp with grits push the table further toward comfort-food territory, making it easy to build an opening spread that covers creamy, savory, spicy, and crisp in a few plates.
The kitchen is particularly good at dishes that feel recognizable on paper and more elaborate when they arrive. That makes 618 useful for groups whose tastes range from cautious to adventurous; nobody has to decode the menu, but the food still feels special enough for birthdays and anniversaries.
A practical bonus arrives early in the evening. The restaurant currently offers half-price select appetizers and cocktails at the bar Sunday through Thursday until 6 p.m., one of the better reasons to begin dinner before the usual rush.
Hours are dinner-focused, and the restaurant is closed Mondays, so plan accordingly. Reservations are strongly recommended on weekends, when the photogenic room and celebration-friendly menu draw a steady crowd to Park Avenue.
9. Dock’s Oyster House — Atlantic City
The first decision is not whether to order oysters. It is how many kinds the table can reasonably manage.
This Atlantic City institution has been operated by the Dougherty family since 1897 and may offer as many as 10 oyster varieties in a night, making the raw bar the natural center of attention.
Oysters can also arrive broiled Rockefeller-style or with champagne and leeks, while fried versions come plain or dressed with marinara, buffalo sauce, or a wasabi crust.
The appetizer medley is an excellent move for indecisive tables, combining oysters Rockefeller, clams casino, and grilled jumbo shrimp. Steamed clams sit in a savory mixture of tomato, wine, garlic, hot pepper, and onion, and the clams casino add butter, peppers, lemon, and bacon.
Grilled octopus and classic oyster stew offer quieter alternatives to the shellfish spectacle. The setting has white-tablecloth polish without erasing the restaurant’s old Atlantic City personality; historic photographs and maritime details remind diners that this place was serving seafood long before the casino towers arrived.
Dinner begins nightly at 4 p.m., with a daily happy hour from 4 to 6. Reservations should be made well ahead for weekends and summer evenings.
Even after more than a century, Dock’s proves that a cold platter of impeccably handled shellfish can still stop a dining room’s conversation the moment it reaches the table.
10. The Farm & Fisherman Tavern + Market — Cherry Hill
Seasonality does the heavy lifting at this Cherry Hill tavern, where appetizers feel less like permanent menu obligations and more like a running report from nearby farms and suppliers.
Chef-owners Josh and Colleen Lawler built the restaurant as a more casual continuation of their Philadelphia BYOB, keeping the ingredient-driven philosophy while placing it in a relaxed suburban tavern.
The best opening order usually mixes one vegetable-focused plate with something fried, roasted, or deeply savory. A carefully prepared seasonal vegetable can be just as satisfying as the richer bar snacks, particularly when local produce is at its peak.
The menu’s changing nature is part of the appeal: mushrooms, greens, squash, tomatoes, seafood, and cheeses move in and out rather than hanging around long after their best moment has passed. That gives regulars a reason to examine the starters instead of automatically repeating the same order.
The dining room is comfortable and unfussy, making it easy to stop for a casual lunch, an early dinner, or a Sunday brunch without turning the visit into a production. Patio seating adds another option in pleasant weather, and the restaurant maintains a limited number of seats for walk-ins even though reservations are available.
Groups should order across the menu and pass everything. This is the rare place where the vegetable plate may become the item everyone argues over after the last bite disappears.
11. Old Causeway Steak & Oyster House — Manahawkin
Four fried oysters perched on deviled eggs and streaked with sriracha tell you nearly everything necessary about this Manahawkin restaurant. The dish is called Jersey Devils, and it captures the menu’s ability to mix Shore seafood, bar-food humor, and enough polish to keep the combination from becoming a gimmick.
The starter list is enormous. Fire-roasted oysters get shallot-herb butter, while Rockefeller oysters bring spinach, bacon, and Parmesan.
Bonsai tuna rice cakes layer sushi-grade tuna, spicy mayonnaise, eel sauce, and crisp rice, and the calamari arrives with fried jalapeños, lemon slices, and chimichurri mayo. Then there is the lobster poutine: house fries covered with garlic gravy, lobster, tomato, and fresh mozzarella curds.
It is technically shareable, though territorial behavior should be expected. Other strong options include blackened filet tips with Gorgonzola and bacon cream cheese, honey-brushed dry-rubbed wings, Mexicali mussels with chorizo and chipotle butter, and the Old Bay crab dip.
The restaurant sits on the mainland approach to Long Beach Island and carries the energy of a Shore bar even in colder months, with cocktails and live music on many nights. Summer waits can be substantial, so reservations help.
Arrive hungry, but do not let the phrase “steak and oyster house” convince you that the entrées deserve all the attention. The appetizer menu has enough range to become its own Shore feast.
12. Tops Diner — East Newark
The danger of opening the menu at this East Newark landmark is realizing that an appetizer order can spiral into a banquet. Tops has served diners since 1942, but its current incarnation is far larger and sleeker than a narrow vintage lunch car.
The appetite, however, remains pure New Jersey. This is the place for disco fries under gravy and melted cheese, crisp wings, fried mozzarella, calamari, and enough loaded comfort food to make a sensible entrée plan collapse immediately.
Lobster mac and cheese, one of the restaurant’s best-known indulgences, works just as naturally in the center of the table as it does beside a main course. The key is accepting that “diner appetizer” does not mean a delicate portion.
Plates are built for groups, late nights, celebrations, and people who have spent too long in traffic without eating. Tops is also useful when nobody agrees on what kind of restaurant they want.
One person can chase seafood, another can order bar snacks, and someone else can pivot to breakfast without forcing the table to relocate. Crowds are common, especially during weekend brunch and prime dinner hours, and parking can require patience when the lot is busy.
Still, the fast-moving dining room is part of the experience. Order several plates, clear space in the middle, and watch a casual diner stop turn into the kind of full-table spread New Jersey does exceptionally well.
13. ONDO — Jersey City
Cold, warm, and hot are not casual descriptions here; they form the organizing logic of the menu. ONDO’s name means “temperature” in Korean, and the Jersey City restaurant uses that idea to build a progression of shareable dishes that can easily overshadow the larger plates.
Begin cold with yellowtail crudo, sharpened by gochujang and yuzu. It wakes up the palate without burying the fish.
Move next to the warm section, where spicy Korean-style boneless fried chicken arrives with pickled daikon. The contrast of crisp coating, chile heat, and cool radish makes the plate disappear quickly, particularly with one of the restaurant’s soju-based cocktails nearby.
Galbi short ribs occupy the hotter, richer end of the spectrum, served tender with broth and chestnut purée. Although substantial enough to feel like a main course, they work especially well as the final shared plate in an appetizer-led meal.
The dining room sits in Harborside Plaza near the Hudson, but the restaurant avoids leaning on skyline views as its entire personality. The interior is contemporary and restrained, allowing the plates and cocktails to provide the visual drama.
Prices and presentation place ONDO firmly in special-occasion territory, and reservations are wise for weekend dinner. Bring diners who are comfortable sharing, order one dish from each temperature category, and let the table build momentum from bright raw fish to bubbling, deeply savory comfort.