Chomp! — Restaurant in Toms River

Today I went to Chomp! (formerly Joe Joe's) in Toms River. It was their first day. I usually wait but I have been craving an Italian Hot Dog for awhile and didn't feel like traveling over an hour to get an authentic one.

Chomp! is the real deal. I expected it to be good as the owner Ralph Mannarino promised to make it like Joe Joe's with fresh pizza bread from Calandra's bakery and Best's hot dogs. Joe the previous owner was there helping out before the opening.

The dogs are natural casing and 8 to a lb. Besides an Italian Hot Dog you can get a regular dog dirty water style or deep fried. I got mine deep fried. This dog fries up well and is also good in water; similary to Jerry's in Elizabeth. To me it is preferable to a smaller Sabrett.

The Italian Hot Dog I would put in the upper echelon along with Tommy's, Jimmy Buffs, and Big Blues. It is much better than what it looks like in the picture. Italian Hot Dogs are hard to photograph and I'm not good with pictures. The potatoes were good and plentiful. There were more but I ate some. The one thing the new owner changed was the potatoes which are cut in slices rather than chunks. The peppers were nice and soft and there were lots of them. Both red and green. The bread was fresh and the dogs are the best for this sandwich.

Every ingredient was as good as it could be. Everything was deep fried and made to order. You have to wait as each sandwich is made fresh. Ralph doesn't like having ingredients sitting around in oil.

Chomp! serves breakfast, burgers, salads and sandwiches. I haven't had them yet but they look good. And the fries are fresh cut, not the cheap frozen fries from Sysco. I like that Ralph drives all the way to Newark to get his hot dogs as Best Provisions doesn't deliver to this area anymore.

I'm glad to have access to a top notch Italian Hot Dog in my area. And not just Italian style but regular as well. Chomp is another small business that deserves support. And I hope they do well for selfish reasons. Now I don't have to drive to Union or Essex Counties to get my...

While running errands after having Breakfast this morning with Kit, travelled past the old Jo Joe's Dog's and saw that a new place has apparently opened.

After completing most of the errands and unloading the yard and garden purchases, we drove out to CHOMP!

In keeping with eating lower carbs, we both ordered our sandwiches sans rolls.

Kit, chose the Roasted Turkey sandwich with lettuce, bacon, avocado, American cheese and mayo on the side.

My choice was the Sausage, Peppers, Onions with melted Mozzarella Cheese.

Both sandwiches were delicious.

Since it's my weekend off after my 2 12 hour shifts in Medic Unit #1202 tomorrow and Friday.

We'll invite Sarah and Caitlin to join us for Breakfast in Saturday or Sunday.

Friendly people here and a nice little Small Business...

Severely overhyped, which is really unfortunate. My fiancé's burger bun was stale, and despite asking for medium she got well done.

My usual mark of a good food spot is how they make their grilled cheese, which thankfully they do serve on the menu. Not so thankfully, the grilled cheese was most definitely not "grilled" the way you'd hope. The sandwich was soggy and floppy, and the bacon slightly undercooked.

That's not even to mention the sad and floppy "French fries" which are just poorly done and mislabeled potato wedges, and barely even that. My fiance got the sweet potato fries and those were also soggy and floppy.

At least they aren't selling out of date cans of coke, as they were easily the best thing we...