Whew.

The big surprise of my year in food wasn't that I sampled all the things that I did, but that I survived.

Let's see — 400+ eateries for work alone, including a serious summer on the Munchmobile; separate searches for New Jersey's best tacos, bakeries, hotdogs and mall food, plus South Jersey's best slices; acting as a judge at ten food competitions, including the Screaming Mi Mis, the Cooked & Uncorked Firefighter Cook-off and the Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival.

Oh, and one mad dash around MetLife Stadium in February sampling/rating food at the Super Bowl. As far as the game, I saw the opening kickoff and little else; the rest of the time I was eating.

The maddest dash of all was my 50-Wawas-in-24-hours mission in honor of the convenience store chain's 50th anniversary. Boy, did I eat – and drink a lot of coffee — that day.

In all the years I've been doing best-of lists, this was the toughest. Not just because I ate a lot but because much of it was darn good. Food-wise, it may have been the best Munchmobile summer ever; we covered everything from Taylor ham/pork roll, subs/hoagies, wings and slices to food trucks, diners, boardwalk food and the Ironbound.

I'm not a frank fanatic like weiner wunderkind John Fox, but I enjoyed our two-man, 92-stop springtime search for the state's best dogs. My favorite food on earth may be doughnuts, and I had plenty of good ones during my recent NJ's best bakeries mission.

About the last place you'd expect to find good food is at a mall, but there was plenty to recommend in my 50-stop Jersey mall food showdown.

After all this, it's a wonder I didn't gain 30 pounds, or go straight into food therapy.

But no more remembrances of dishes and restaurants past. It's time to get down to the noshing nitty-gritty. Here are my top 20 restaurants of 2014. When you're done, check out my top 25 dishes.

Usually at this time of year, I'm running down a Florida beach trying to work off the pounds and calories. Not this year; I'll just have to take a nice long nap. At some point.

TOP RESTAURANTS OF 2014



Baguette Delite, 381 Old Post Road, Edison; (732) 626-5542. Unprepossessing cafe off Route 1 with excellent banh mi, the traditional Vietnamese sandwiches. There are a handful of tables, and no atmosphere to speak of, just super sandwiches. Try the lemongrass beef, or BBQ pork, with one of their refreshing smoothies.



Baker's Treat, 42 Route 12, Flemington; (908) 782-3458. Everything I tried at this bakery/cafe was first-rate: the mocha decadence bar; chocolate ganache brownie, macaroons and more. It is operated by Ability2Work, a nonprofit that trains and employs the developmentally disabled. And it's right across the highway from the Liberty Village Premium Outlet.





The BBQ pork banh mi at Baguette Delite, Edison (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Boulevard Clams, 2006 Long Beach Blvd., Surf City: (609) 494-9494. If you want to get "hot and dirty,'' there's only one place to go – this small, pleasantly divey seafood joint on LBI where the spiced "hot and dirty'' crabs are a must. Also recommended: clams on the half shell; the oyster po boy, and the whole belly fried clams.



Deluxe Italian Bakery, 680 East Clements Bridge Road, Runnemede; (856) 939-5000. The monstrous, marvelous cream-fillled doughnuts are reason alone to visit this 65-year-old bakery. Good fitting one in your mouth; they're that huge. Elephant ears don't get much love as a bakery item (with that name, no wonder), but here they are impossibly light and supremely flaky. The other doughnuts sampled are all first-rate.

Hoagitos, 3rd Avenue and Boardwalk, Asbury Park; (732) 361-545. I've done some of my best eating in shipping containers, and the refurbished structures on the Asbury boardwalk are home to some of the city's best food. What are hoagitos? Mini-subs with maxi flavor. And high-end ingredients like sopressata, pork tenderloin and American kobe.

La Costenita, 50 Amwell Rd, Hillsborough, (908) 874-0091. Mexican restaurants corner the market on colorful kitsch, but La Costenita is in a world of its own, with vibrant, folksy-themed chairs and tables. And good food from Oaxaca, owner Alicia Arango's native state. Must-tries: the sopes, chilies rellenos, and the pit pork. Cooking is done on a grill right in front of you; you feel as if you're at somebody's house.

It's easy to find La Esperanza in Lindenwold - just look for the bright pink house with the Corona and Modelo signs (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

La Esperanza Mexicano Restaurante & Bar, 40 E. Gibbsboro Road, Lindenwold; (856) 782-7114. When you reach the pink house off the White Horse Pike – pretty sure there aren't others in the neighborhood — pull in. La Esperanza finished second in our Jersey's best tacos mission. The carne asada tacos featured hefty, tender pieces of meat.



LaLa's Puerto Rican Kitchen, 3854 Route 9 south, Old Bridge: (201) 223-5252 LaLa is Lisa Cartagena, who acquired the nickname because she would always sing "lalala'' as a kid. Forget food truck; the food is restaurant quality; popular dishes include the pernil (roast pork); arroz con gandules (rice and pigeon peas) and alcapurrias (beef-filled fritters). You'll also find a former butcher/male stripper behind the counter; that's Frank Mojica, Cartagena's husband.

Marley's Gotham Grill, 169 Main St., Hackettstown; (908) 852-2446. I'm picky about my wings, and I'm not necessarily going to get worked up about a place that offers 100-pus varieties. But Marley's does, and what separates them from the pack is that the wings are tasty, creative, plump and juicy; no sad, scrawny sports bar wings here. Popular ones include the Bang Bang (sweet Thai and sriracha sauce) and the garlic parmesan.

Maurizio's Pizzeria & Italian Grille, 4215 Black Horse Pike (Route 40), Hamilton; (609) 645-0028. The best slices on my South Jersey best-pizza mission were found here. Great selection of slices, with a quality you rarely find at strip mall pizzerias. The margherita alone is worth the trip from Atlantic City or wherever you're coming form.

The Monk Room, 20 Green St. Newark; (973) 368-2771. Forget the less-than-glamorous surroundings; this lively, cozy brick-walled restaurant is located next door to a bail bondsman. The pizza is top-notch — try the 14 1/2, with San Marzano tomatoes, homemade ricotta, fresh mozzarella, hot sopressata, Calabrian chiles and oregano. The tuna sandwich, not on the winter menu, is terrific; wait for it to return in the spring.

Mr. Pi's II, 57 Mountain Blvd., Warren; (908) 754-4666. He is the entertainer, and makes great sushi besides. Many remember the ebullient Pie Fan Yang from Mr. Pi in Metuchen; he now spends his time at the Warren restaurant, and the show, and artistry, continue. We had one specially-made roll with salmon, jalapeño and mango, and the terrific Tender Tuna Sashimi Roll — tuna wrapped over more tuna. Wow.

Mustache Bill's Diner, 8th and Broadway, Barnegat Light; (609) 494-0155. Bill Smith is the owner, and he's had that mustache since high school. You can always find him in the kitchen, with a paper towel bandana or something similarly goofy. Breakfast? Try one of his puffy, eggy omelets. Lunch? A burger or seafood platter is always a good choice. They just closed for the winter, and will re-open in February.

Pholicious, Quaker Bridge Mall, Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road, Lawrence; (609) 716-6268. Will mall food wonders never cease? I did a double take when I spotted Pholicious on the Quaker Bridge Mall store directory. The traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup is done proud here; they'll even add Thai basil if you ask them

Taqueria Downtown, 236 Grove St., Jersey City; (201) 333-3220. There's no web site or Facebook page, and it's located below street level, but TD is a secret no longer. Kitschy, colorful interior, a 60/70s soundtrack and tasty, sometimes unconventional, tacos. A fun, festive place with excellent food.

Tommy's Italian Sausage & Hot Dogs, 900 Second Ave., Elizabeth; (908) 351-9831. Sidewalk hot dog stand in Elizabeth's Peterstown section and a shrine to that cholesterol-crazed Jersey creation known as the Italian hot dog. Tommy Parrinello is the chatty, likeable owner, and his potatoes are so good you may forgo the hot dog, pizza bread, peppers and onions and just order them by the cup, like many regulars do.

Viet Bistro, Cumberland Mall, 3849 S. Delsea Drive, Vineland; (856) 825-5001. The best dish on my 50-restaurant mall food mission was the spicy lemongrass with chicken here. Nearly as good: the Vietnamese wings. Both proof that mall food doesn't have to be drab, dreary and dull.

Villalobos, 6 S. Fullerton Ave., Montclair; (973) 337-6667. This stylish restaurant — think south of the border chic meets first class airport lounge — finished at the top of my best-taco-restaurants in New Jersey list. For variety and creativity, the tacos were unequalled — an octopus taco with radish and avocado; a pastor de pollo taco, with chicken, pineapple, cilantro and onion; and my favorite, the carnitas, with cola-braised pork belly, corn and cotija cheese.

Vonda McPherson, owner of Vonda's Kitchen in Newark (Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

Visentini Brothers, 256 Union St., Lodi; (973) 777-1427. Old-school Italian deli; pick out your roll from in back and tell the guys behind the counter what you want on it. There's a whole aisle of pastas, plus sauces, olives, etc. I wish there was a place like this within 50 miles of my house.

Vonda's Kitchen, 183-85 Kinney St., Newark; (973) 732-4532. Vonda McPherson's first restaurant was a spare, humble soul food joint located to a bail bondsman — her father — in downtown Elizabeth. Now she runs Vonda's, a gleaming, spacious restaurant on the ground floor of senior residences in Newark. I love the beef short ribs here, and the fried catfish box. Breakfast is served all day. Her newest venture: Duke's Southern Table in downtown Newark, in the space formerly occupied by Scully's.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and on Instagram.