BUD

DAN

Main Dish

Cuban Panini

This is a good place for a preliminary note about the Northvale Classic menu. We ate in early afternoon on a Saturday and were handed a two-page brunch menu featuring cocktails, a variety of egg dishes, and other conventional brunch items. On the website it looks like they have a general-purpose menu plus separate menus for breakfast and for brunch, not to mention the dessert menu we were offered (but which I don’t see on the website). There’s nothing inherently wrong with this—I think Dan and I agreed that there was still sufficient selection, even if it our brunch menu wasn’t the ten-page comprehensive behemoth we’ve come to expect—but it felt conspicuously un-dinery to me.

That said, I had no trouble picking out a Cuban roast pork panini: “spice rubbed pork, smoked ham, Swiss, pickle, dijon mayo, on baguette.” The portion size was no joke. The sandwich overall wasn’t oversized, but I think the picture gives a good impression of how crammed it was with meat and cheese. The bread was a bit softer than I prefer (I like when panini bread has that grilled crunchiness), but the pickles and the little spicy punch of mustard were on point.

Main Dish

NYC Burger

You know, I often get called out by Buddy for speaking in extreme hyperbole, but this is not the case when I tell you guys this was THE. BEST. BURGER.

This bad boy was stacked with sautéed onions and mushrooms and just absolutely slathered in Swiss cheese. I can say with 100% certainty that it wasn’t the onions that caused me to weep with joy. I didn’t even need ketchup or anything.

And the SIZE. This was the biggest burger I’ve ever had. I literally got tired of eating it halfway through because I wasn’t hungry anymore. Obviously pushed through and finished it, mumbling while mushrooms fell out of my mouth that I was making this sacrifice “for the blog.”

Fries

Plain, unfancy, well-done (execution-wise, not burntness) fries, with the right salt and the right crunchiness. They come in that little ramekin, which reduces the serving size, but that may be a good thing: it can be exciting when the waiter delivers a plate that’s bristling with French fries from all angles, but it makes the ratio of fry to sandwich all wrong and the novelty appeal is fleeting. I came here with an empty stomach and felt perfectly satisfied at the end, instead of dutifully forcing myself to cram down the straggler French fries and then dutifully finishing Dan’s, too.

Fries

Along with Northvale’s limited menu came a limited selection of fries. By this of course I mean they did not serve waffle fries. They do have the option of curly fries, which I do sometimes see in lieu of the waffle sort, but it’s just not the same. I went for the regular fries. Nothing knocked my socks off about these fries. Perfectly serviceable but wholly unremarkable. I ended up only eating a few and leaving the rest for Buddy to dutifully finish.

I will say this much, though, the side of honey mustard was delicious. Maybe top 5 throughout my diner experience.

Dessert

Spiced Apple Tart

Northvale does the usual refrigerated glass dessert case at the entrance, and we were surprised by the limited options. We asked for a dessert menu at the end of the meal, thinking there might be an additional stock tucked away in a closet somewhere, but nope: what you see in the picture is all there was. There was a single, plain cheesecake option, and we opted for spiced apple tart a la mode instead.

I won’t hesitate to speak for both of us: this was one of the great decisions we’ve made in our lives. The presentation was a sizable disc of warm coffee cake with apple pieces baked inside, topped with a dome of vanilla ice cream, drizzled with caramel sauce, with a dollop of whipped cream beside. I’d award six burgers (or seven or ten) if I could. The ratio of the components was ideal (even considering that Dan always loves to screw it up by taking too heavily from one part or another) and the cake was spongy soft and full of apples sliced to the right size. My usual gripe with apple pie is that a lot of bites are entirely apple, and if I wanted a mouthful of apple then I would eat an apple. But here, every spoonful mixed apple, cake, and ice cream in delicious combination.

Dessert

Spiced Apple Tart

I swear on Guy Fieri that this dessert was the best thing that’s happened to me in my life.

Service

There was a bit of a crowd for brunch, but we were seated quickly. Our waiter was Gregorio, and he was a perfectly amiable fellow. He filled up my drink without much ado. The food came out fast. Not much to complain about.

Service

Excellent service. Our waiter was very attentive and I didn’t find myself with an empty glass once. I can’t find one thing to complain about here, which stinks because I love to complain.

Value

State Line set a tough mark to beat, considering the sizable sandwich with fries for $9.50 and the more-than-sizable cheesecake slice for $4. The prices here weren’t out of the ordinary: $12.00 panini and fries, $5.75 dessert. (The cheesecake would’ve been $7.) The fancy-schmancy brunch menu might imply an accompanying bump in prices, but I don’t think that was the case.

Value

My burger was $13, landing itself at the more pricey range of specialty burgers I’ve had, but considering how much I enjoyed it, I’d pay it again without hesitation.

The cheesecake would’ve been $7!? That’s bananas. There weren’t even strawberries on it, Bud!

Ambience

Northvale Classic is a lovely place. The dining room is large, bright, and wide-open, there’s a set-apart back room (for when it’s crowded or maybe for private groups), and there’s an outdoor patio that looks like an attractive option when the weather’s right. (It was not right, at least for Dan and her hair, but maybe next time.) It also looks recently renovated or at least well maintained. And the exterior hits all the diner staples: stainless steel accents, art deco typeface for the signage.

Ambience

Buddy has no respect for the correlation between humidity and hair frizziness. His solution is always “Dan wear a hat” and I’m like “No, Bud, what the heck.”

Northvale is quite a pretty diner. It stands out from the usual copy and paste diner interiors that you see a lot. As Bud said, there were several different dining spaces, ensuring that no one is bumping elbows with the next table.

One unique feature I noticed is that this place offers bags up front for customers to put their wet umbrellas in so that the raindrops don’t drip all over the place. How cute is that!?

OVERALL

Very quickly, we’ve found a competitor for our beloved State Line Diner. I’ve driven past Northvale Classic a thousand times over the years and never made time to visit, and it’s a shame it took so long. My complaint, if I had to search for one, is the unorthodox approach to a diner menu, but in all other respects I was perfectly satisfied. The spiced apple tart was easily the highlight, but the panini and fries were above average, the service friendly, and the ambience pleasant.

OVERALL

I hate to give two five-burger ratings in a row, but you gotta give credit where credit’s due. Though it was a bit of a drive for us, if you readers are ever in the area, or live nearby but haven’t experienced this wonder, please pop by, even if it’s just for that apple tart. You won’t regret it!