Restaurants in Suffern

Sushi Maru’s chefs prepare a menu of maki rolls and traditional Korean hotpots in an eatery reminiscent of a Tokyo sushi bar. Delicate porcelain figurines enliven the BYOB restaurant, which otherwise dons a decidedly romantic vibe by combining dark wood accents, glowing paper lanterns, and a friendly staff well-versed in the entire Tom Jones catalog. Table and sushi-bar seating both offer comfortable perches from which to enjoy more than two dozen regular and specialty rolls, with choices that range from traditional california and spicy-tuna options to contemporary updates such as a caribbean roll topped with baked lobster salad.

The secret that has brought the Centrella family its restaurant success is an easy one to remember: keep things simple. In 1958, Vincenzo and Barbara Centrella left Naples for New York and opened Presto's as a way to introduce their community to the fresh, simple, stripped-down cooking style of their Italian ancestors. Today, the couple's son John and his childhood friends carry out the family mission and welcome patrons to Presto's with a menu heavily populated by the eatery's two namesakes—including a baked-ziti pizza, which marries the two dishes in a state-sanctioned ceremony involving a flaky pie, saucy penne, and two kinds of cheese.

Marly and Matt, who contributed their initials to M & M Pizza Bistro, use a range of fresh ingredients, as evidenced by a large selection of daily specials based purely on the morning’s market finds. The eatery’s tables populate daily with tender gnocchi, ravioli, and tortellini in thick bolognese or creamy alfredo as well pizza draped in roasted red peppers, goat cheese, meatballs, and other toppings. Wine-infused marsala and piccata dishes steam beside fresh bruschetta and garlic knots. At the counter, guests ask the cashier about fillings for a calzone or confuse it with Cal Ripken’s treehouse, The Cal Zone.

The dough halo hovers in the air, free-for a split second-from gravity's machinations. This airborne moment is short-lived, and the circlet plummets back into the hands of the New York Pizza Company chef, who repeats the up-and-down cycle until he deems the dough ready to be festooned with toppings. Masters of the well-made pie, New York Pizza Company's chefs pride themselves in their hand-tossed dough and the fresh toppings-such as ricotta, roma tomatoes, and barbecue chicken-that dapple their surfaces. Once a pizza has been assembled, the chefs slip it into the kitchen's brick oven where off-duty suns imbue it with a golden, toasty patina. Along with their signature pies, the chefs also whip up hot and cold subs, calzones, pastas, and soups.

Two longtime residents, nurse Audrey Hochroth and her husband, contractor Sal Barone, grew weary of traversing the bridge to Manhattan whenever they wanted a good steak. So in 2009, they opened Augie’s Prime Cut—a local place their neighbors could go for delicious steak-house fare, such as slow-roasted prime rib, dry-aged porterhouse steaks cut by hand, and fresh lobster plucked from the tank, without driving to the city or kidnapping a steak-house chef. Audrey recently told the Examiner News that so many customers flock to Augie’s Prime Cut on the weekends that they had to open a new 18-table area upstairs—Augie's Loft—to avoid turning people away.

While growing up in Italy, chefs and owners Al and Gino became accustomed to large family gatherings that featured hearty platters of homemade pasta. It was in that environment that the duo learned its way around the kitchen and how to mix sauces with a motorboat engine. After moving to the States, they opened a small pizzeria in 1975 to let their new community experience the authentic dishes they had known their whole lives. Since then, the duo has remodeled their kitchen and expanded the space by building a solarium dining room to accommodate a larger crowd looking to sample their menu of more than 100 options. Today, Al and Gino still craft dishes such as lasagna and chicken scarpariello by hand, which can be paired with a cappuccino or wine.