Casa Vasca is a Basque restaurant that has been on Elm Road in the Ironbound since 1976 and has outlasted every trend and economic cycle that Newark has passed through. The menu is Spanish and Basque rather than Portuguese — grilled meats, bacalao, chuletón — and the cooking is straightforward and excellent.
The dining room has the settled feeling of a place that has not needed to change, and the portions are the kind that require genuine appetite. The wine list is strong in Spanish and Portuguese labels at sensible prices. It is not cheap by Ironbound standards but it is considerably cheaper than a comparable experience in Manhattan, and the quality is the same. Book ahead on weekends.