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Categories: Delis, Sandwiches [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown
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This is about the Katz Catering!
I love it!
Katz's comes every day to my work and wow, do they serve great meatloaf with super garlick-ity mashed potatoes!
Holla!
And they have Waffle Wednesdays too that make all of the 9th Floor Smile like it was 1999!!!
I think Katz's itself is great but the catering, forget about it, it is the cat's meow meow now now!
LOVE IT!
And a big shout out the the AMAZING Caterers that are the finest representation of this biz that our office gets the honor to see every day!
Girl : " We have to find out where you asked me to be your gf when you were drunk?"
Boy: " It was our first time in Austin, I swear its on 6th...we ate at a cafe across from it...nachos right?"
Me and Hubby: " Alright guys, lets go bar hop and maybe we can rekindle your romance along the way lol"
It was nacho recognization at a moments glance at Katz as they realized they have the third bypass during their first visit to Austin. In our table of 6 at 1am, we all ordered the same thing (triple bypass) and one person for a turkey sandwich and milkshake.
The food is hands down good and servers are quick. The late night conversations with friends last forever here...so what else can one ask for? The ambiance is good, and it isnt so loud in there,
I will definately be going back!
For shame Katz's, for you have gone down hill. I remember coming to this place as a kid, eating a burger, drinking a milk shake and watching Leslie walk past the windows with his shopping cart full of signs with one reading the government stole my purse. The quality of food at Katz's use to be a lot better but my guess is due to their money issue they have had through out the years that they had to make some cut backs.
Now don't get me wrong, the do have a good cheese stuffed potato and yes the milk shakes are good. Its the quality of the sandwiches and other entrées that have suffered a massive blow. The meat quality seems to be cheap and the bread tastes like it came from a bag that a doughnut shop had thrown out.
The staff at times can be very testy but with it being off west 6th and having the bar crowd stroll in you cant really blame them. Overall, if I am right their next to it and feel like fighting the huge crowd late night to eat then ya I will eat here but its nothing that if someone asks me where do I want to eat I am going to suggest.
My husband and I went to Katz over the summer to grab brunch before leaving Austin. 2 friends joined us. First, the waitress approached our table and just dropped of the set ups and then went to check on the rest of her section before coming back to get our drink orders. It was 100 degrees outside and we had walked there about half a mile. We were obviously in need of water.
Anyway, the food took quite a while for a brunch. I dont mind waiting for food - but not at brunch when the place was not even close to full.
My husbands french toast was barley even close to warm and was totally cold by the time he finished his first slice. The waitress forgot to bring the syrup and he had to wait. He ordered hot tea which the waitress said was earl gray - but it was lavender infused earl gray which was too fragrant for hubby and just plain gross.
I ordered the cheese quesadillas with beans instead of chicken, the cheese tasted like it came from a tube and the beans were of meager proportions and my food was also not hot.
Our two friends did not enjoy their food either.
We had told the waitress at the time we sat down that one of our friends had to catch a flight. We asked for the check when the food arrived yet it still took until after we were finished to get it.
Avoid this place.
"I can't help it, I gotta tell ya, Katz' is geat at all hours of the night!"
My GF and I go here all the time and split a turkey club and spinach artichoke dip.
The bacon is the best around on the turkey club. And the toasted bagel slices that accompany the spinach dip are a great addition that I haven't found anywhere else in Austin. And they have endless pickles too :)
The breakfast tacos are HUGE and will fill you up for a great price as well!
I want to like Katz's. I really want to like them, but the Tavern on the Green Salad I had today just didn't do it for me. "Fresh turkey breast, turkey ham, salami, roast beef, Swiss cheese, tomato and hard-boiled egg on a bed of lettuce."
Okay, what the frig is "turkey ham"? I know they can't have actual ham because they're kosher, but why bother having something that unsuccessfully tries to taste like ham? The "beef bacon" I had on my burger last week tasted like a ham steak. I'm amazed it came that close to ham. It was still lousy tasting, though.
I will have to figure out what took the place of bacon on my potato skins during Visit 1. Was it beef bacon -- which tasted nothing like the beef bacon that was on my burger last week -- or was it turkey bacon?
Have you ever noticed that turkey is like the O- of meat? It can be used for almost any other type of meat, just as O- blood can be given to a person of any blood type. I've seen turkey burgers and turkey hot dogs, which are awful in my opinion, and now I've been the disappointed recipient of turkey ham.
I don't know why I was expecting the turkey breast to be actual turkey breast. Silly me. I should have expected cold cut turkey breast. I had also hoped the swiss would be shredded, but it wasn't. Bummer. The roast beef was good, though.
Waitress Maggie was super nice. I gave them three stars because Maggie was quick and got me out of there fast, and because they had fat-free Ranch dressing.
I easily could've made this salad with simple cold cuts from H-E-B for less than the 9-something dollars Katz's charged me.
Marc Katz was at the bar when I was there. I failed to collect the necessary guts to tell him how little I thought of the Tavern salad. Boo for me.
I'm really tempted to order the Golden Roast Turkey Breast and Dressing to see if it, too, is merely cold cuts.
I will come back later this week to try the crepes. If those fail to please me, I will only ever go to Katz's to have drinks.
FYI: This review is a combination of my three visits to date. I will update for each subsequent… Read more »
I wonder how much nostalgia plays a roll in this. I haven't been here in a couple of years, the last time it happened I was killing time to pick someone up from jail. True story.
Anyway, I've always come away with a good feeling. The potato pancakes are awesome. I like their French Dip sandwich, great jus. Fried pickles are very good and for all you sniveling wretches who say that pickle chips are better I say to hell with you.
If you have a good metabolism AND don't plan on eating anything else for 36 hours, get the cheesecake milkshake. Thank me later.
This place was filthy when i went. Food was mediocre but was hard to eat with trash on the floor and the stink that was in the place. I dont know if i would go back. Well if it was clean maybe.
Had some good times at this place... service can get slow, but over-all a good experience.
I wanted to love this place. I really did. Something to remind me of home -- the original spot on Ludlow and Houston (how-ston). I went expecting to see a deli, not a burger-slinging bar. But i won't strike a star for presentation. Maybe an authentic deli won't do well here, not on 6th St., at least. I went alone because you can go to a deli alone and not feel weird. But it wasn't a deli and I felt weird. I was seated in the bar room at a table between parties of 3 and 4. Awkward. Why wasn't I seated at some quiet nook somewhere so i could enjoy my corned beef special?
As you know by now, i ordered the corned beef special--at least that's what we call corned beef on rye with coleslaw and russian dressing back home. Here, it's called Katz's special, or something along those lines. Here's where I'll break it down for you. The rye was fluffy. Like pound cake, but not as rich. It was airy and sliced too thick. Back home it's sliced no more than a quarter of an inch. Off the top of my head I can't picture a quarter inch, but i know what it looks like when i see it. Rye is also sturdy bread, not fluffy and airy. It tasted like rye but didn't feel like rye. The slaw was good, the dressing, too. The pickle was right on. I was given a plate of fries that had been sitting out --warm and soggy, not crispy. So what's left? the corned beef. Without a doubt, it was the worst corned beef I have ever had in my life. It was tough, chewy, fatty, sliced thick. Tough and chewy doesn't do it justice. I took a bite out of the sandwich and my teeth could not bite through the meat. So half the meat from the sandwich is in my mouth. chew chew chew. I'm getting nowhere. It was like chewing on corned beef flavored leather. I couldn't even finish half the sandwich.
I typically do not like leaving bad reviews for a small business. I don't want to hurt anyone's business. But the owner of Katz's has an obligation to serve edible food. If you can't get good corned beef here, then don't put it on the menu. When people ask: 'It's Katz's and you don't have corned beef?" You say, "trust me. you don't want to eat Texas corned beef." Obviously i'm not a chef, but i thought anyone can prepare corned beef. You buy the cut of meet and you corn it, or whatever you do, yourself, am I wrong? I very well may be. Mr. Katz is doing a disservice to so many different things here. He's misrepresenting a New York landmark. He's serving inedible corned beef (trust me, austinites, if you've never had NY corned beef, don't let Katz's in Austin turn you off.) He's capitalizing on the fame of the original Katz's and Austin Katz's is like going to KFC when you want McDonald's.
went here with the hubby, had the french dip and it was awesome. the french fries were not, but it's obviously not a french fry kind of place. Which raises the question why did I order them.......Anyway, very crowded, waited a while for our food but it was worth it.
Sigh.
I want to like you, Katz's. You're an Austin institution, you have good potato skins, you have cool photography on the walls, and you're open on Christmas and at 2:00AM so we can all collectively put something in our stomachs to soak up that fourth margarita.
But you keep falling short. You USED to be better. You used to have an epic dessert menu that I raved about to my friends, and a few years ago, you swapped it out for a weird pre-purchased set. Things just aren't as good anymore. Your latkes aren't very good, the pot roast sandwich just isn't as good as it sounds, and the Alamo Drafthouse does fried pickles way better. And they're from a movie theatre.
Other obnoxious details: the parking really is horrid, so expect a hike to get here. The food is a bit pricey, especially since it's not that tasty. But I can usually make a meal out of the potato skins (which are good) and the cheesecake milkshake, if I'm feeling especially gluttonous. Oh, and I will never ever forget the time I came here for my 17th birthday with about four friends, and after receiving OK service, paying our bill and leaving, our waitress (so not kidding) ran out after us, in tears, wanting to know what she did wrong. Panicked, I asked her if we forgot to tip. She confirmed that we DID leave a tip, it's just that "it's hard to pay tuition on just 15%." OK, so I tip better now, and she was probably having a bad day, but GOOD LORD. At least the evening was salvaged when a drunk guy in a taxi next to us on 6th proposed marriage.
I really enjoy Katz's Deli. Especially after a concert or a night on the town. The food probably costs more than it's worth, but you can't get it anywhere else in Austin 24-7/365. It's always good, and I even pretend to be Jewish and eat Jew food while I'm there. I like it, and if I'm going there I never worry about the money because I know what I'm getting into already. The Holy Mary (bloody mary) is probably the best in town. You don't need to order food with this, you just eat the stuff that comes with it. Lox and bagels nearly every time for me, but the potato pancakes are incredible as well.
This deli at the west end of 6th street is always a place where I can be sure to get some of the best late night people-watching. I swear I saw a bona fide pimp last time I was here. How did I know he was a pimp you ask? Well even if he wasn't a pimp, his girlfriend was a total prostitute. I saw a stabbing "victim" cheering while shaking his fists at the sky. EMS was there to encourage him through his injury but I don't think he needed much encouragement. Maybe I had something to drink that night too cause I swear I saw some penguins. The penguins spoke Spanish, so it's possible they were at some kind of penguin quincenera.
The people-watching is always free, and if you get a table next to the street you might see some interesting things too. We had a hard time ordering between all the gawking and laughing about the people whom I was surprised were even standing upright, but eventually we ordered. I wouldn't expect any bacon with the breakfast foods here, but I always find a little late night breakfast is easy and quick. Honestly, the menu is so massive and I've eaten here so many times it would be hard for me to tell you how your experience will be with the food.
I find myself waiting months between visits and I'm still not sure why. I am fairly certain it's the price that makes my visits infrequent. The food is usually fine and if it's not, the staff have always attempted to make it right.
I've been coming here since I was a teen. When it's not the wee hours of the morning, I order their Reuben because I love a little sauerkraut and pastrami. The fried pickles are fun to chomp on and with a little iced tea, this tea sipper can still feel like he's got one foot in Texas. In as much as a New York Deli can be an Austin Icon, Katz' deli can be called that. Oh yeah and I gotta tell ya, Katz's never closes.
I come here all the time for spicy fried eggs and milkshakes.
It's a free country.
But it could be a matter of fate that on that wet, dreary Tuesday morning, my usual table was occupied by a teratogenic duo who looked like the couple from Natural Born Killers.
And I wanted to go up to the guy and say,
"Look -- I like the rainfall. I got me some weather-watching skills, and I enjoy using them. I want a view, and I always sit at this table here by the window. So skip back into your fruity-green Mini Cooper and trek with yourself and your deficient female. I'm serious about my brunch -- and your moustache doesn't mean business."
But I didn't do that.
Instead. I sat at the bar, gobbled up those eggs, and poured the second glass of that delicious shake.
After walking out of Opal Divine's, I walked over to Katz's... and straight into Marc Katz!
I didn't realize it was Marc Katz until after I'd asked if they had time to serve me lunch and had explained my walking out of Opal's experience.
Marc sat me himself at a table, told me that I was too pretty to be ignored and then got me a waitress who was so nice and friendly to me the whole visit it was like I was at my mom's house!
I will say that I don't expect "princess treatment" but I do just expect a wait person to wait on me at a restaurant. So this was super nice and really brightened my day!
Great service and food. I enjoyed a very relaxing lunch and will definitely be back. Thank you!
I had never been to Katz's! So today I went there with a coworker for lunch. We were seated right… Read more »
Very tasty sandwiches, just very pricey.
If it's 3AM and you are seeking late night food, I encourage you to seek your sustenance elsewhere. The food here is not very good and as someone who grew up around Jewish Deli's, this is a poor representative of the genre.
I really want Katz's to be good. It just falls terribly short.
Awesome food, great service. The best salted cold cuts in town!
You'll need a to go box.
Took forever for my sandwich to be made, and was ridiculously overpriced. I would suggest steering clear of this place at any hour. I'll be happy to come by and try it again once they get their act together. Sandwich wasn't bad, but fries were definitely sub-par.
For the price they definitely need to have better food/service. I was expecting the food to be more comparable to the original Katz in NYC.
The ruben sandwich never lets me down here. And it's HUGE! I've had the displeasure of trying ruben sandwiches all over the place in non-delis (don't EVER get one at Which Which) and for a quick convenient ruben here in Texas, Katz' s wins. Is it going to hold a candle to a deli up north? No way. I've eaten at a few in Detroit and NYC. But this is a great place for lunch in Austin that has a just a touch of that original deli magic. Don't try to compare, you'll only be disappointed. Texas has too few delis to complain.
By the way, I love the pickles and chips!
Waking up early in the day... I craved nothing more than Jewish soup and a New York style sandwich. Matzo ball soup was nicely salted, though a bit ordinary... and the Reuben had all the flavor characteristics that you'd want: slightly tangy corned beef, sour sauerkraut, light bread, and mild Swiss... so reliable, but nothing beyond the ordinary. Deserving of praise because of the price. $7.50 for the meal. Where else in Austin can you get Jewish food at 7AM for that much?
I need to stop reviewing when I'm so ravenous... it tastes so good, but it destroys my stingy nature of hardly giving high scores. Regardless, the food is not bad, but the NIFTY hours of 24/7 is a mighty fine attribute to have. Do you remember using the word nifty... it's such a nifty word.
Man, where do I start? My friend had the egg salad sandwich, egg salad here being huge rubbery chunks of egg white in a thin soup of mayonnaise. The integrity of the whole thing was shot in two bites once the filling soaked through the untoasted rye. I had a loose definition of eggs benedict - creamed spinach and hollandaise sauce are not the same thing, guys. I don't put thousand island on my pasta when I run out of marinara, and I don't cook for a living. The staff was very pleasant and attentive to us, but I can't say much good about the food.
When I need my Ruben and Matzo ball soup fix, this is where I head.
not really anything else to say about it. new york deli style sandwiches and good soup.
make sure to request pickles and chips when you get there. and as they say, Katz Never Kloses. There's not even a lock on the front door so stagger over here after you've gotten sloshed on 6th.
Honestly this place disappoints. It is not that good. I grew up Manhattan. I've eaten at a lot of local deli's and ate at the original Katz's Deli there.
I decided to take my wife out for a nice workday lunch. First-off there is no parking there. It's a mess. Found a spot 3 blocks away. When we finally got in the restaurant , we were seated quickly, I thought this is odd, being a weekday lunch spot in downtown. This place should be packed, but it was not. Far from it.
The wait staff was really nice and helpful. I ordered the Reuben (Classic NY deli style sandwich) and my wife had the salad. It took FOREVER for the food to come out. How long does it take for a salad and a sandwich? At least 30 minutes and it was not even busy. I kept looking at my watch to see if I have to go add more money to the meter.
The sandwich itself was nothing to write home about. The bread was a bit burnt and hard. The pastrami was tasty but dripping in grease and fat. The salad looked fresh and my wife did not complain.
All in all it was ok. Can't say I'll go back there again. For $30, it overpriced and I expected a lot more, especially when they call / compare themselves to the original Katz's deli.
Oh yea, if you don't know already, Marc Katz is REALLY REALY loud. He was visiting with the table adjacent to us and I could not hear my wife talk to me.
(sandwich plate dropped down in front of me)
"Uh, I don't think this is turkey?"
"Of course that is turkey!"
"No, that kind of looks a lot like ham to me."
"Okay, yeah you're right."
Seriously?! You were just going to lie to me hoping I'd not notice I was eating ham instead of turkey?
Oh PS - Nothing makes me want to skip a meal more than seeing the sink in the ladies room clogged because it is full of vomit.
Over rated 24 hour NY Deli style food with little flavor and way over priced for the tiny portions. It's almost a NY deli, it just needs good recipes and real portions.
The Deli's in NY City are 2/3 the price and twice the portions.
I like the idea of Katz's, but I'm always disappointed in the reality:
It seems overpriced.
The food has never been that tasty to me. OK, but nothing special.
Sometimes you have to wait (why?).
Service is usually OK, but not memorable.
We seem to go every two or three years and then question why we bothered.
I went to Katz's deli last night and ehh, I've seen better. The matzo ball soup smelled and pretty much tasted like wet dog; not very appitizing. Definitely not the hour wait in the car.
This is the ONLY 24-hour business in the entire downtown area (except 7-Eleven). For that, they have my respect.
Also, as many others have said, the fried pickles are fucking orgasmic. Matzo-ball soup is good...and they have free wi-fi.
The overnight waitress, Wanda, is a very nice person. (Tip her well!)
That being said, I will only go there if it's 4-6am and I can't sleep (and if I'm very hungry, and the internet at home is not working). If anything else is open, I would rather go there instead. This is mainly because the prices here are truly ridiculous...but also because it is impossible to order any entree without also getting (or at least paying for) numerous fatty side items...the end result of this is that seemingly innocuous-sounding meals have about a day's worth of calories in them...I find this disgusting .
Another thing- I've never been there when it's busy (which would be brunchtime, presumably dinner, and 10pm-3:30ish am) - I've heard it gets crazy.
I love genuine deli sandwiches and variety on the menu. Katz's is a place that is off by just a little. It is a longstanding Austin restaurant that while it changes its menu, it doesn't change it for the better.
The borscht was really good--cool and full of flavor and a brilliant color of purple-red. However, the salmon and lox fell flat because it was room temperature. The matzo ball soup didn't have a flavorful broth and not enough bits and pieces. I expect what my friends have made me: carrots, celery, and bits of tender chicken. Here it is broth and a big matzo ball, though the matzo ball does have a good texture.
I remember when they just had traditional Jewish deli items. I think that because they are a 24 hour place, they have given in to providing standard late night items, like queso and such. I wish they hadn't done this. Quality always goes down when quantity increases.
I have been late at night and during the day, and it is better at night. During the day it was just too dark and the smell of cleaner was too strong. At night, I am wanting to eat, and I don't care about atmosphere.
I only go here if 1) I want borscht or 2)nothing else is open
If your looking for a true New York style deli, this is as close as you can get without being in The City.
I absolutely love the turkey pastrami Reuben, and the fried pickles are the best in town. They do the long spears instead of the fried pickle chips.
If your scared of meat, or want someplace quite and tidy; this may not be the place for you... But, if you want real New York Soul Food... Try Kat'z.
It's probably better than the street food after a night out downtown, but I would never go here otherwise. I ordered the Matzo ball soup. When it came out the broth was hot but the matzo ball was practically frozen as I discovered when I took a bite. So I send it back. The microwaved it and brought me the exact same bowl of soup back. I know this b/c the matzo ball had the divot missing from where I had taken my earlier bite. Come on! I know this isn't upscale dining but at least give me a fresh matzo ball so it doesn't seem like you nuked it and sent it back out. Frozen food that has been microwaved - I can do that at home for free.
Wow, ok... 92 reviews already done on this place. So I probably can't add much to what's already been said other than I just really love their Brooklyn Patty Melt with 'shrooms and their Rueben with pastrami and kraut. Everything was piping hot and delicious. On a sidenote I was happy to know that I could get a little piece of NYC in TX.
Open 24 hours, I like that, a bit expensive though.
After two soups, I don't have space for anything else. I can't stand the cold beet soup. Who likes cold soup? After matzo ball soup, I finally felt warmed up.
It tried to be New York style or just New York price?
Only one thing I like about this restaurant is they opened to pretty late.
If any or all of the following apply:
1. You're Jewish;
2. You've ever lived in N.Y. (or even the N.Y.-South Florida Annex);
3. You have functioning taste buds;
4. You have a digestive system you'd like to keep in working order
Do not go to Katz's. Ever. It will offend you personally, morally, religiously, gastrically, basically in any way that you can stick an -ly on. This place is a farce of a "deli," even judged by the laxest, "oh, well, what do you expect, it isn't N.Y" standard. The food tastes disgusting, and it's pretty seedy inside (and nice and dark so it's difficult to determine how clean it actually is).
Bagels could be made of rubber galvanized with cat poop, and the cheese they put on the sandwiches is just the unadulterated cat poop (probably the only unadulterated thing in there). I don't know how people choke this stuff down sober--I can't even stand the sight of the place when drunk. Go to either Magnolia location or a Kerbey Lane instead, if you have the capacity to get there.
Short and sweet:
Very expensive..... who pays $12 for a sandwich and chips
Very good.... Oh, I pay $12 for a sandwich, and I will do it again, just not too often.
The food is really good, and the sandwiches are so big it almost makes it worth your money.... almost.
I love thier pastrami, everything I have had has had pastrami and something else, and you get alot of it.
I will go back, and it is nice that it is 24 hours because after drinking for awhile I find that I would pay anything to get good food and not have to eat at Jack in the Box.
I love a good reuben sandwich. It's a powerful and sometimes scary love. And Katz's makes a great reuben. Those two facts alone should merit 5 stars, but the cost of this place is just prohibitively expensive. It's hard to justify shelling out around $12 for any sandwich, even if it makes me feel tingly during and after eating it.
For my money, I'll settle for something slightly less wonderful, if only I can get it more often.
There is such a thing as too much meat.
Did y'all hear bout how they never kloses?
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: University of Texas
Category: Delis
Neighborhood: Bryker Woods
Category: Fast Food
Neighborhood: University of Texas
Category: Fast Food
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Pizza
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