Krug's Tavern — Restaurant in Newark

I tried Krug's for lunch with several of my coworkers. The place is nice and clean on the inside. They have several tables in the back of the establishment for seating, and they have a few smaller tables across from the bar at the front of the establishment.

Knowing they have won the best burger in NJ title, we all tried the burgers. First of all, they are MASSIVE. A burger with no sides is probably going to be enough to fill up the average diner. I got my burger with Bacon, Cheddar, and blue cheese, cooked medium. The burger was obviously made from high quality fresh chopmeat. You can see how they cook on the griddle when you walk in, behind the bar.

The burger is the softest, most tender, and most juicy burger I have ever had. It was truly an experience. Luckily the simple lightly sesame seeded kaiser buns are also large and can hold the burger. It is a bit of a challenge to keep it together while eating though! It's to be expected with such juicy high quality beef. I'm curious what their blend is.

The cheddar was placed on the top and bottom of the bun, and was slightly melted on. The burger was piled with a small mountain of blue cheese crumbles. All the more for me to combine some of the excess blue cheese and enjoy with my fries.

The burger was a perfect medium. They are very juicy so watch out and keep it over the plate. Krug's has obviously earned their reputation as a top burger restaurant, and they are absolutely in the top 3 of burger places in NJ for me after this visit.

We also ordered wings. They make good bar wings that are deep fried with a very, very light breading on them. The BBQ is rich, sweet, tangy, and has a little bit of spicyness to it. Their Buffalo is a very good standard hot sauce/butter combo. The garlic scampi was very savory and tasty as well, with no spicyness. We were all impressed with the wing flavors.

The waitstaff was friendly. I also believe the cook came out and chatted with us for a bit and he was a nice friendly guy. Service was good and didn't take as long as I thought it would given the size of the burgers.

If you're looking for some good burgers and wings, Krug's must be at or near the top of your list! I highly...

Good food and drinks, friendly service, and welcoming atmosphere

We were told that we had to go to Krug’s for the best burger. We went with the bacon cheeseburger and the burger with pastrami, with a side of onion rings to share. Since the menu said it takes half an hour to make a burger, we got chicken fingers and French fries to start.

Chicken fingers & French fries: good, nothing extra special. The fries were steak fries and not the best. Came with a honey mustard sauce that was heavy on the mustard.

Bacon cheeseburger (medium): so good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but thick and juicy and perfectly cooked. A ton of bacon, which is never bad.

Burger with pastrami: the pastrami was fried, I think? It was almost like bacon, and it was great. It’s a really unique burger and delicious.

Onion rings: we ordered them because of a review that said they were the best someone had ever had. They were…good. You could bite and not have the whole onion pull out, but you had to bite down hard.

Peanut butter old fashioned: delicious. Wonderful. Magical. They didn’t have cherries, but it didn’t matter. It was the exact perfect amount of liquor to make everything about the day and night better.

Service: everyone was busy but also Incredibly nice and helpful. They weren’t necessarily around when you needed them, but if you asked for something, they were always happy to help.

Atmosphere: it seems like a neighborhood institutions kind of place, and if I lived nearby, I would want to hang out here all the time to make friendly with the regulars and listen to...

Krug's is one of those places that you wished was in your neighborhood, and harkens back to a time when a Krug's would've been in your neighborhood maybe fifty-sixty years ago. Times change, but I'm grateful that this joint is still around.

On the last trip in, I had a Dogfish 60 Minute and ordered a burger with pastrami, and started with the boneless buffalo chicken. The chicken was tasty AF, with a sauce you'd probably take home if you could. The burger is massive at 3/4 of a pound, and the pastrami gives it that little something extra you don't ordinarily get. For what I paid for the burger you can get far less at any number of other taverns trying to get $18 for 1/3 of a pound with no pastrami.

The service is on point, without being intrusive, and everything just runs efficiently. The music level is absolutely perfect, not so loud that you can't take to your friends, but not so quiet you couldn't sing along a little. It's a tavern and it's a nice one at that, not going for pretense or the latest styles, because it doesn't need it. A tavern should be timeless while showing its tenure, and Krug's manages it well. Before the remodel, I would've put McGovern's in the same category for style and atmosphere.

Krug's is worth the drive back to your old neighborhood to have a nice night out. Parking in Ironbound is its usual challenge and locals don't sweat it (because we know how to parallel park)....