Star Tavern

Star Tavern used to be my favorite pizza in New Jersey, which is a pretty dramatic statement, but deserved. Unfortunately in the last few years, there has been a dip in the quality and overall experience, and it's just not the same perfect bar pie I remember.

My noble chum and I stopped by here for a very early dinner (technically lunner, I guess - it was 3:30pm.) this past Monday. That absolutely could have been part of the problem here; a devil's advocate might argue that coming during a decidedly "off" time didn't guarantee the best staff/product, though my counter to that would be that the restaurant was open for business and should have provided its best possible level of food and service regardless. Your mileage may vary. Anyway. Even though it was pretty obvious why, it was very exciting to procure an actual parking spot right next to their restaurant in the lot; I'm not sure I've ever had anything other than street parking half a block down from this place (which isn't ideal since this neighborhood isn't the best), so it was a promising start to the adventure at least.

I'm sure not everyone is going to agree on this, but I miss the authentic divey vibe Star Tavern used to have. It wasn't over-the-top grimy, but it was unique and felt more homey. Sometime in the past five years or so (I could be a little off on the timing), they did a massive interior overhaul and the personality just disappeared - it's weirdly gentrified now with a lot of sterile colors and paneling. I'll absolutely acknowledge though that I don't know if there's a legit back story that required the significant changes. Notwithstanding, it feels like an unforced error.

At my recommendation, we split a plain pie ($15ish) and my chum requested mozzy sticks. The pie is still good, but not great. The most significant issue I encountered is that it's not as crispy as it used to be. By definition, the crust/dough is going to be extremely thin, so if it's floppy it's much tougher to eat, especially when the cheese is on the watery side. And don't get me wrong - I think for this type of pie that's exactly how the toppings should be. I'm not sure what the best pizza in New Jersey is now, but this one for me is out of the running. A shame.

The mozzy sticks were surprisingly good, though we were both reasonably confident that they were just standard freezer apps. That suggests to me that they were heated up perfectly, and I thought the accompanying marinara sauce was excellent and reminded me of Pizza Hut (which I had to clarify for my dining companion WAS a compliment in this instance). A second order was accidentally procured and promptly consumed. I DO think it helped that the serving size wasn't egregious - it was six or seven sticks per plate. Coupled with a thin bar pie, I was able to walk out of there still feeling moderately frisky.

The service was uneven. Our waiter was very nice, but also inattentive in spurts. We'd be looking for him to, say, order another app, and see him 20 feet away intently staring at his phone. That actually also happened when we walked in - there were two bartenders manning the front who we had trouble hailing down to confirm seating because they were both focused on their phones and not the customers. It wasn't a busy time so I can understand that to an extent, but the minute you have patrons roaming around, that should be the priority.

You might have better luck coming at a busier time when the staff is more on their toes, but the chances of longer wait times understandably increase as well. This is still a recommendation, but I don't know that at this point I'd go too far out of my way to frequent it.