White Mana Diner
Diner · Jersey City
470 Tonnelle Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07307
Highlights
Iconic diner serving famous slider burgers since 1939
Iconic diner serving famous slider burgers since 1939
"White Mana—not to be confused with White Manna (see below)—has been smashing tiny sliders into oblivion since 1939. Behind the counter at the cash-only Jersey City institution, the cashier informs guests of the most popular meal deal: three sliders, fries, and a drink for $10. Another man tends the grill, adding cheese and diced onions to each of your three patties before sliding them over, across the counter. Less like a burger, more like a soft and squishy, burger-flavored grilled cheese, inhaling three of these is easy." - bryan kim, molly fitzpatrick, willa moore, will hartman
"Work your way through the tangle of highway underpasses and overpasses to find this docked flying saucer that was once a kiosk at the 1939 World’s Fair. The counter inside is as circular as the exterior. It’s where you’ll sit as you watch the skilled grillmaster cooking scores of burgers at the same time, arms going like an octopus. The order here is a cheeseburger, along with hot dogs, fries, onion rings, and slender sandwiches, including Taylor ham (a.k.a. pork roll). This was recently featured in the Bob Dylan flick, A Complete Unknown as a Chinese restaurant; it is owned by a onetime manager of Mike Tyson, Mario Costa, who also owns Lakeside Lounge across the street. The stretch of Manhattan Avenue is called “Mario Costa Way.” — MM" - Melissa McCart
"There’s a professional sumo camp in Chiba, Japan, and we imagine that a standard order in its cafeteria might be four burgers with a side of cheese fries. It’s also a typical order at White Mana in Jersey City. That's because the very thin smash burgers at this classic diner, which originally opened at the 1939 World’s Fair, are only a little bigger than sliders, and about as filling. They're $1.30 each, so four of them with a side of cheese fries will cost you less than $10. You can order at the takeaway window from 8am-6pm daily." - matt tervooren
"A burger and fries from White Mana Diner in The Heights is a rite of passage for anyone within 20 miles of Jersey City. Built for the 1939 World’s Fair, it’s cash-only and primarily for quick counter service. Come with a twenty-dollar bill and leave with two heaping plastic bags of food, which—in addition to a burger or chicken sandwich and fries—should include onion rings and a shake. Basically, everything you could crave at a Mets game without the stadium prices." - matt tervooren, nisha vedi pawar, kendal nicole lambert
"The term smash burger may have been popularized in 2007 by Denver’s Smashburger chain, but the concept has been around far longer, dating back nearly a century ago when burgers were thin, cooked to a well-done temperature, and flattened with a spatula during the cooking process. White Mana started life as a kiosk at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows and was later transplanted to a nest of highways at the foot of Jersey City Heights. The burgers are ultra-thin and taste as if they’ve bathed in the grease of the millions of patties that came before them." - Luke Fortney, Robert Sietsema
