11 cheap (and delicious) North Jersey restaurants

Chefs will tell you you don't have to spend a lot of money to eat really good food. You just need to know where the good grub is. Sure it may be in that candlelit dining room with the crisp linen tablecloths, fresh-cut flowers and seemingly more waiters than diners. But more and more nowadays, delicious eats can be found in simple dining rooms where the service is help-yourself, the utensils are plastic and the menu is written on a board. The following 11 restaurants are among North Jersey's best casual restaurants serving quality food at near breakneck speed (aka, fast-casual restaurants).

Eons Greek Food For Life, Paramus

Want authentic Greek food cooked by a skilled and talented Greek chef, food that will hardly make a dent in your wallet but will make a huge impression on your taste buds? Head straight to Eons in Paramus; it's just a stone's throw away from Shake Shack, another popular fast casual restaurant. This three-month-old spot, the brainchild of George Georgiades, the former chef of high-end Greek restaurant Varka in Ramsey, serves wonderfully flavored, wonderfully cooked Greek food in a big, brightly lit, modern dining room — fast. He likes to call Eons "quality quick" rather than "fast casual." Get on line, choose your base (pita or rice), a protein (chicken, steak, lamb or pork) and finally sides (chickpea salad, lentil salad, Greek salad or gigante beans). Treat yourself well and add some homemade hummus and tzatziki to your feast — it's a bit extra but worth it.  Then grab a seat and begin chomping. BTW: Spinach filo rolls is a new item on the menu ($4). The price ranges from $9 to $14.

  Go: 501 Route 17 South, Paramus; 201-523-9500  eonsgreek.com

A Taco Affair, Little Falls

Culinary Institute of America alum Jessica Phillips makes 12 varieties of tacos at her barely two-month-old restaurant, A Taco Affair, only one of which is traditional. The flavors of the rest will take you around the world — or at least to the places that Phillips has been or heard about from her fellow food lovers. Her gourmet tacos include bhan mi, marinated pork with cucumber, cilantro and sriracha aioli; po boy, Cajun popcorn shrimp with tomatoes, cabbage and Old Bay mustard aioli; buttermilk fried chicken with jalapeno ranch dressing; and chicken tikka masala, chicken in a creamy curried tomato sauce with cucumber slaw. The most popular however is the smoked brisket. Phillips said she smokes 120 pounds of brisket a week. Want to eat more "healthy"? You can substitute lettuce for tacos. "Lettuce wraps sell like crazy," Phillips said. The tacos cost $4.75 each, except for the traditional, which costs $3.75. You can enjoy them at A Taco Affair's lovely, airy dining room, which provides 32 seats around communal tables. Rather eat alfresco? There are two tables on the sidewalk just for that.

Go:  A Taco Affair, 81 Main St., Little Falls; 973-812-8226, atacoaffair.com. 

Mighty Quinn's Barbeque, Clifton

When the pitmaster worked for top-notch chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, when your brisket has been slow cooked for 22 hours, when the smoked meat is topped by Maldon sea salt, you know you're going to have yourself one fine barbecue meal. This joint, which started out as a popular stand in Brooklyn and grew to a mini empire of restaurants in the metropolitan area, may use cardboard containers and plastic cups for its food and craft beer, but don't be fooled: the craft beer is stellar, the spare ribs, pulled pork and the brisket are divine. The must-get: the out-of-this-world brontosaurus rib ($28), enough to feed 2 or 3. Share it with a friend and treat yourself too to a side of baked beans with burnt ends ($3.25 for small; $11.50 large). Just don't tell your cardiologist; we won't. FYI: one more Mighty Quinn's is scheduled to open later this year at the Westfield Garden State Plaza.

Go: 850 Route 3 West, Clifton; 973-777-8340, mightyquinnsbbq.com 

Juicy Platters, Fair Lawn and Hackensack 

This local halal grill with two locations is often compared to Five Guys, but let's not go there. They each have their strengths. Juicy Platters has its fan base -- and not a tiny one, considering how crowded it can get during peak hungry hours.

They know to come to Juicy Platters for awesome plates of chopped chicken and gyro meat served in a pita ($5.99), over rice ($7.94) or wrap ($5.99) -- fast and efficiently. Choose your protein and your veggie, and get some add-ons (up to $9 each) — especially the "green blast," a garlicky mixture of sautéed kale, broccoli, spinach and green pepper. Make sure to squirt a whole lot of zesty white sauce on it all (you can take home a bottle for $6.99), and have yourself a blast. If you get the munchies late, stop in for another round; the Fair Lawn location is opened until 2 or sometimes 4 a.m.; the Hackensack location until midnight.

Go: 23-16 Broadway, Fair Lawn; 201-773-8400; 370 Pleasantview Ave., Hackensack; 201-880-7277; juicyplatters.com.

Empanada Mania, Bergenfield 

For the past five years Galo Grijalva has been slinging delicious empanadas stuffed with non-traditional fillings — buffalo chicken with blue cheese, fresh spinach and feta, and a cheesy pizza pocket that should meet just about anyone's daily calcium requirement. He is so sure of the quality and deliciousness of his little pockets that he has said, if you don't like it, it's on him. Cost: $2.50 per empanada; $25 for a dozen. 

Go:  62 S. Washington Ave., Bergenfield; 201-374-2150, empanadamania.com.

Ma Mi Eatery, Closter

This tiny casual spot, the sister to full-service restaurant Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly, offers made-to-order Vietnamese fare — fast. It's counter service only for such southeast Asian goods as bahn mi sandwiches (crispy tofu, grilled chicken, cold cut; from $6.95 to $10.95); pho soups (beef, seafood, vegetarian; from $9 to $11); and bao buns ($5).

Go: 546 Durie Ave., Closter; (201) 660-7826, mamieatery.com.

Tacoria, Montclair

If it's Mexican food you're after, consider this fast-casual restaurant, launched by three Rutgers University grads, first in New Brunswick, and three months ago on Bloomfield Avenue. It works like Chipotle. Choose your dish — taco, burrito, salad, etc.,  and then choose a protein: pork marinated in spices, grilled chicken, fried avocado. The food is made fresh in-house daily. One taco costs $3; three $8.  

Go: 367 Bloomfield Ave., Montclair; 973-893-5220, eattacoria.com.

Kimchi Smoke, Westwood and Montclair

If you haven't yet had Kimchi Smoke's chonut, super-tender brisket, heavenly smoked kimchi, rich melted cheese and crispy bacon stuffed into a sweet glazed doughnut bun ($15), honestly we don't know what to say, except: What in the world are you waiting for? You now have two locations from which to stuff yourself silly with pitmaster Robert Austin Cho's hard-to-forget Southern Korean barbecue eats. The brisket is smoked for 12 hours and about as tender as a broken heart (price fluctuates according to the market).

The fries are smothered in cheddar cheese, pulled pork, special BBQ sauce and smoked kimchi ($12). The hot dogs (there are two) in the K Town Dog are buried under a mound of smoked kimchi chili, cheese and scallions ($8). 

Go: 301 Center Ave., Westwood; (201) 497-6333; 345 Bloomfield Ave., Montclair; 973-744-3900, kimchismoke.com. 

Bobby's Burger Palace, Paramus

No one has to convince us that Bobby Flay can cook. So when the Food Network celebrity chef and cookbook author launched a fast-casual burger joint in Paramus, we didn't hesitate to rush over.  Neither did our fellow North Jersey food lovers; this BBP is among Flay's busiest (there are 17 thus far). What's on the menu: burgers, duh, such as the crunchburger with American cheese and potato chips ($6.95); the brunch with fried egg and bacon ($8.75); and the New Mexico with queso sauce and roasted green chilies ($8.75). Don't leave without getting a side of buttermilk onion rings ($3.95). 

Go:  610 Bergen Town Center, Paramus; 201-368-7001, bobbysburgerpalace.com.

Slamwich Scratch Kitchen, Madison

"Scratch" in this popular sandwich shop's name is there for a reason. Nearly everything in this diner-look-alike spot is made from scratch — from the house bread to the cured pastrami to the pickles, ketchup and potato chips. And the ingredients stuffed between the fresh-baked sea salt round rolls and the handmade white bread are all locally sourced — from the smoked corn in the slow-roasted Berkshire pork "slammy" (their term for sandwich) to the crispy radishes in the ahi tuna slammy.  Among your sandwich choices:  the Snuffalafelgus (the sammys all have playful names), chickpea falafel with avocado spread ($11.50);  the dank flank. black-peppered flank steak with heirloom tomato edamame salsa and wasabi aioli ($13.50); and perhaps the shop's most popular sandwich, the dirty jerz duck, duck confit sloppy joe ($14.50). Samwich's website declares that its sandwiches are "made by hand, with love."  Bet that love, thanks to its awesome sandwiches, is requited.

Go: 143 Main St., Madison; 973-520-8957 slamwichscratchkitchen.com. 

And a few more: 

Reilly's Rib Cage, 49 W. Church Street, Bergenfield; 201-771-7200; reillysribcage.com. Get to Reilly's early; the father-and-son team behind this joint frequently sells out its BBQ grub. We clearly are not Reilly's only fans. On the menu: Goffle Farm smoked chicken (one-quarter $6); The Defibrillator, smoked pulled pork sporting maple bourbon mustard, whiskey sour pickles and onions, topped with pepper jack cheese and two bacon wrapped brisket jalapeño poppers ($14);  The McGregor, on a Balthazar kouign amann pastry smoked short ribs and house-cured candied bacon ($12); and jalapeno cheddar cornbread ($2).

Shake Shack, 479 Route 17 South, Paramus  201-241-2381, shakeshack.com.  This was New Jersey's first Shack. Today there's a Shack in Garden State Plaza and another in Bridgewater. New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer has a Midas touch when it comes to restaurants — high end (Gramercy Tavern, The Modern), pizza places (Marta), BBQ (Blue Smoke), and of course fast-casual Shake Shack. The burgers use all natural Angus beef ($4.29), the crispy chicken breast sandwich all-natural cage-free meat ($6.29); and the dogs all-natural Vienna beef ($3.25). Get a shake ($5.29), no matter what.