The Big Apple - Katz's Delicatessen

I've always wondered what the big deal is about New York Delis. People in New York are always boasting about how they have the best delis in the country. I mean, a deli is a deli, there's meat, bread, cheese and you make a sandwich, how much better can it possibly be?

My boyfriend and I are particularly into hot pastrami sandwiches and we've been to a few in Southern California that we really like: The Hat and Johnny's Pastrami are both very tasty, and next time we will check out Langer's Delicatessen when we're down there, which hopefully will be later this year. We have also recently went to Miller's East Coast Delicatessen in San Francisco, which has gotten more than a few actual New Yorkers' stamp of approval. From what I read, it's a notch down compared to delis in NYC, but by far it was the best deli that I've ever been to at that time. Maybe there are some truth to what New Yorkers are saying, maybe they are not just a bunch of deli snobs after all, and a trip to Katz's Delicatessen confirmed that.


I thought it was kind of funny that just a month ago I mentioned the deli scene in "When Harry met Sally" in a previous post and now I actually gone to the exact same deli where the movie scene was filmed. Once we stepped out of the taxi, we bolted into the deli, partially cause of excitement, but mainly because there was a thunderstorm outside. The place was full of people and we were all given a ticket that looks like a raffle ticket with a bunch of numbers on the back. No one told us what the ticket was for, but at the corner of my eye I saw something that says if we loose the ticket, it's a minimum $50.00 fine, and fortunately I saw that cause my boyfriend and his friend were about to throw their tickets away, and we would've owed them $100.00.

The meal came with complimentary pickles and tomatoes. I especially enjoyed the barely cured pickles which were not too sour and was still very crisp and refreshing. My boyfriend ordered the pastrami sandwich, his friend got the corn beef, and I ordered the Matzo ball soup with a half pastrami sandwich. The sandwiches were a bit on the expensive side, it was approx. $15.00 for the pastrami and corn beef, and $14.00 for my half sandwich and Matzo ball soup.

The menu stated that theirs are the "largest and best sandwich" we'll ever have, so the two guys were expecting a monster sandwich, and was puzzled when this landed in front of them.

This hardly looked like the biggest sandwich they'll ever had, in fact, it looks like they'll be able to finish the whole thing and have room to spare for dessert, but Katz's has proved them wrong! The sandwich was filled with mountain high of thick, juicy, tender, well seasoned meat, which was quite impossible to eat as the pastrami just kept on falling out, but once you get a good grip and get in the rhythm of it, you just can't put it down till your tummy was about to explode.

Here is my half sandwich and Matzo ball soup.

The Matzo ball was the size of a baseball and was really light and fluffy, better than the one in San Francisco, however the broth was a little on the bland side.

In the end, my boyfriend and I were defeated; he was only able to eat 3/4 of his sandwich and I was only able to finish up half of my soup, but I did manage to eat up all of the meat in my sandwich since it was so good. The only person who actually managed to (barely) finish his sandwich at our table was our friend, Alex. How he is able to stay so skinny is beyond me.

I have never had a sandwich like this and Katz's is definitely on our go back list. I will have what Sally's having over and over again, even if she is faking it. ^_^