Kenny & Zuke's Deli
1038 SW Stark St
Portland, OR 97205 (503) 222-3354
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Breakfast, Lunch
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
52 Reviews for Kenny & Zuke's Deli
Well, if you're looking for quantity, Kenny & Zukes is where you want to go to. The sandwiches are massive, with about 3/4 lb of meat on them! I ordered the corned beef hash.... excited to finally be somewhere that made there own & didn't dump that grissle outta the can onto a flat top to heat it through, & then onto your plate! Anywho, again...... way too big of a portion! Your order comes with 2 eggs any style & rye toast. (I ordered my eggs over medium, & they were way overdone, but I didn't eat them anyway). Also, if you're going to heap a whole lotta food on there, don't skimp on the corned beef! I mean really, there was more than enough on my husband's Reuben, meanwhile, I am fishing through the sea of potatoes (although tasty) that were over-powering the meat. This would probably be a kick-ass spot after a great night out!
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Came here during happy hour. Here's what I liked:
1) The zillions of types of root beer available, and the recommendation offered by our server when I asked him to pick a good one.
2) The happy-hour prices (a smaller portion that I could still only eat half of)
3) The buttery-textured, melt-in-your-mouth pastrami (I'm not a huge fan of meat by any stretch but I didn't feel right coming here without ordering it). It was fatty, it looked like a heart attack, but it was absolutely delicious. For those who might be put off by its looks, try it anyway. The densely crusted rye it's served on is great too.
4) The dill/ranch house sauce that comes with the fries
5) The ample seating and the huge sunny windows
Skip the potato/onion knish though, it was served lukewarm (is it supposed to be maybe?) and bland.
Can't say I know anything about the "authenticity" that more than one review has noted with dismay, this is just good food.
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I would love to say that I am writing this review from the bank lobby, while waiting to co-sign on a home equity line of credit to help pay for the $12.75 reuben my friend just ate.... but fortunately for me, he had just enough student loans left to cover it.
Kenny & Zuke's represents a nice slice of east-coast deli here in Portland. Loud, open, full of great classics like home made pastrami, egg cream sodas, knishes, etc. Cel-ray soda? Where else can you get that in town? Seriously! It's got those Manhattan sized prices though, so watch out.
The pastrami here is good. Real good. Not sure if it justifies $12.75 for a reuben, though. Caprial's in Selwood has an amazing (and bigger) reuben for 10. Kornblatt's on 23'd, the original overpriced NY deli of Portland, even costs less (as far as I remember, I stopped going there a while ago to avoid going broke). I am sure I will be back some day for some more of that delicious pastrami. In fact, I know which day it will be... the day I win Powerball. Until then, I will go elsewhere for just-about-as-good stuff for a more fair lunch price.
That said, the selections here are quite good. The potato salad is amazing. The caesar salad was a bit lacking (and overloaded with croutons), but it did the trick, and it only cost $8. The pickle sampler was tasty, with pickled green tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, okra, and one asparagus spear.
Listen folks, you have good food, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. You're also located in Portland, and not even in"Le Perle" (that's french for "Snooty McTooty VonOverpriced"). It's not necessary to lord your awesome pastrami over us.
Place is packed at lunch.
Good beer selection.
Many, many NY/East Coast deli selections, and huge sammiches. Don't let the size fool you. You pay for it. If this is your thing, you'll be stoked to take out a second loan or two to grab a not-so-quick lunch. If you miss your east coast deli from back home, save up for a few weeks and come down. You won't be too disappointed.
I guess I can break it down to this:
The food is good, real good, but at these prices, not impressive. In this range, I can get a LOT of really amazing food. At some level, price becomes a factor, unless the quality tracks closely. K&Z's has overstepped that threshold for me. If the sandwiches were about $3 to $4 less, I would be raving. That's a huge margin.
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They are no longer open late-nights. Minus one star for betrayal!
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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11/28/2007
I ventured in to K&Z's because it was shiny & new and I was hungry and in the neighborhood. While I… Read more »
I had read SO many reviews of this place and walk or drive by to see that it is almost always packed full of diners on any given day. I figured I would try it out with my boyfriend on a sunny weekday afternoon to see what all the fuss was about. I first noticed that the prices were somewhat high for most of the sandwiches. However, I was impressed by the selection of sodas...cream sodas, fruit sodas, etc. (although the it is $2.25 for a simple soda like Coke). I ordered matzo ball soup, as it is rare to find a restaurant that serves on of my favorite soups. I very quickly discovered that it was bland and virtually flavorless. My boyfriend ordered the pastrami cheese fries and was overwhelmed with how big the plate was. Overall, the food was pricey and not worth writing home about.
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I ordered a Ruben with a Russian potato salad and to be honest. I have had much much better. The Ruben is a simple sandwich and I will in-turn keep this review simple.
The Ruben size wasn't amazing, but that wasn't my problem (the Carnegie and Canter's sandwiches are too big). The problem came down to the essentials of a good Ruben, the meat, the bread, and sides. The pastrami that was served was incredibly greasy and fatty. I do prefer a sliced meat but even in it's different form I found it to be way too fatty. The bread wasn't impressive and neither was the salad and it wasn't cheap.
I will keep searching for the best Ruben in Portland, until then the best Ruben is probably the one you can make yourself (to be honest they aren't that hard of sandwich to make anyway).
Kay
You get credit for having killer potato salad. You know. It, um, tasted like potatoes. Hints of Dijon. Whatevs. Your Russian dressing wins.
But my sandwich? I call fucking shenanigans on your interpretation of pastrami. Fatty. Inedible. Messy. Nonsense.
Service was rad, though. Quick. Friendly. We got seated right away. The vibe in the place is good. Even when it's crazy busy, it doesn't feel stressed.
I'll give it another try at some point. Next time I won't bring family members from out of town. I don't think my grandpa dug his lunch. Embarrassing.
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If Led Zeppelin wrote a song about Kenny and Zuke's it would be called "Whole Lotta Meat". I ordered a reuben and I'm pretty sure there was a sandwich on my plate, maybe hiding somewhere under that huge pile of meat? Some people might consider this a good thing. Me, not so much.
However, I was still experiencing a Powell's afterglow, so the meaty mishap was overshadowed by the damn good potato salad and the friendly, efficient service. Plus, something about the atmosphere...bright and crisp and capable. I'd recommend splitting your plate, as the price tag is steep and it's a very generous portion.
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My feeling is that the people who rave about the meats here have never had pastrami before. They promoted it not as a NY deli but a Jewish deli.
I have written before that it could pass as Jewish deli food if the person making the food was Jewish but was an awful cook. The pastrami is ridiculously thick and sloppy and tastes of alderwood. As someone else wrote, the whole thing seems to be soaked in butter or some solvent. Matzoh ball soup was green and the matzoh balls were leaden.
On 1st visit they let us sit for 30 minutes before we left. Second visit we sat at the counter: 20 minutes to take our order and another 30 to deliver the food. In NY, it is a tradition for the deli waiters to be incredibly nasty but this is not a NY deli as they said. Then the waitress recommended that I not order a knish because many people complained that the insides weren't hot enough and they were too high falutin' to use a microwave. I've eaten knishes before microwaves were invented so i'm not clear why they can't heat them. Then, if you want blintzes for example, they are limited to certain days of the week and certain hours of the day. Too quirky for my tastes. Main memories are
unpleasant food, slow, rude service.
In addition, they won't give you half pastrami, half corned beef like every other deli in the world. They are just so special!
The service definitely has some strange timing stylie bits to it, but everyone was certainly pleasant and helpful to an out of towner. The bagel with cream cheese and lox plate, complete with capers, pickled onions and sliced tomatoes, was perfectly lovely, lush and worth every penny.
Extra star for the Wall of Mustard.
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I've only eaten here one time, but that one time I got a cheeseburger and it was the best goddamn cheeseburger I've ever had in my life. They've got a pretty interesting menu, everything I saw on people's plates looked good, but I went the safe route and reaped the benefits.
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What the hell is all the hype about? Have you people never eaten a real reuben or a real bagel?
The reuben was pretty disgusting. The corned beef was sliced about a third to a half of an inch thick and was very chewy with large pieces of gristle attached. Isn't it supposed to be nice and thin? Kraut flavorless and unremarkable. The fries tasted like McDonald's - you know, that "have they ever changed their fryer oil" taste. The pickle strangely managed to have zero pickley flavor whatsoever - it just tasted like a cucumber.
Mushroom barley soup was totally bland. Boring as can be.
The gravlax bagel was yummy, but $12 for a freakin' bagel? Seriously? I can get the exact same thing on a better bagel for $7 at Kettleman.
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Seriously delicious food. This is the real deal; poppy hamentashen, rugelach, thick sliced pastrami, crispy french fries. Went with friends for happy hour; you have to ask for the happy hour menu, otherwise you get the regular menu and don't know there is a happy hour from 4-6pm. We ordered everything on the HH menu except the pastrami topped burger. Everything we ordered was delicious and was perfect split between 4 people, each trying bites of each dish. The pints on tap are $2.50. Our waiter was fantastic, came to the table multiple times and got us everything we needed. Mr. Cassette Tape tattooed on your arm waiter guy, you were fantastic!
They are now open Mondays. Monday HH was practically empty, a great time to go.
4 beers, wine, and all but one item off the HH menu, and two hamentashen and two rugelach for dessert, came to less than 60 bucks and all four of us were well fed. I definitely recommend Kenny and Zukes.
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OK for brunch...
But, something is missing, I'm not sure what.. but something.
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They have great deli sandwiches but was disappointed in the chicken noodle soup. They had noodles with broth and called it chicken noodle.. not sure what happened to the chicken. Deli sandwiches were gigantic and its a great place to people watch.
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Ima break it down Yeeps. I LOVE pastrami. Kenny and Zukes claim to have the best damned pastrami this side of the Pastramissippi. But I gotta tell ya...it's good, but it's good in the sorta way where like...you go to a car dealership and you tell them you want a Mazda 3 with A/C, Power Windows and a decent stereo....they come back and tell you, "well, we got a Dodge Ram with roll up windows and a cassette deck...and V10...who wants a pussy ass 4-Cylinder anyways!"
I DO.
So I order a hot pastrami, with swiss (no provolone available), on rye with mustard. I get this HUGE, FRICKIN, FLIPPIN, MUTHAEFFIN, HUGE ass sammich that is ungodly big with enormous chunks, yes, chunks, not stringy meat, CHUNKY....pastrami. NOT what I signed up for.
There are signs touting how awesome their pastrami is. How it's aged for this long and roasted for that long...but honestly, I could give an ishnit about all that. IS IT GOOD. Well, yes and no. It's good in the way that cold roast beef from a home cooked sammich is good. It's good how cold turkey on a plain mayo and turkey sammich is good after thanksgiving. But when I want pastrami..I want a HEAPING pile of stringy, fatty pastrami smashed between two flimsy slices of rye bread with some damn provolone and mustard ON RYE...thaz it. This was like a sammich on steroids...all muscle, no bolz.
Now mind you, it was tasty, not too bad at all really. But I desperately wished I'd gone to my old standby....Kornblatts on 21st. That's what I think of when I think hot pastrami...this felt like....I guess like someone asking me to watch Rambo when I really wanted to watch Amelie. ;)
But they serve Dr. Browns Cel-Ray. So...RESPEK.
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that sandwich (classic reuben) was fierce. i think it disgusted my vegan friends to see me dripping in meat-juice and tearing at hunks of pastrami to divorce them from the side of pig that they were still attached to
potato salad: better than average
and they have fucking cel-ray! anywhere you can buy a celery flavored soda (i know! i hate celery! but this is awesome and unsweet!) is a-ok with me.
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The reference for meat selection and cut, larger sandwiches, smaller soups, awesome deli preparation, fast, clean, nice open area with entire window walls, cute hostess with shoulder-long-wavy-darker hair ;)
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We flew in from San Francisco quite late, so we picked this place because they're open until 3 AM and their food pictures on their site look really good. We shared the chopped liver plate which came with bagel chips, pickle spears, sweet and raw onions, and capers. It was really good, and this is coming from a liver hater. The chopped liver mixture only had a tiny bit of that irony taste. I had a tongue and pastrami combo sandwich with potato salad, and my boyfriend had pastrami on rye.
I wasn't too impressed with their pastrami. I actually liked the tongue better. I don't know if they gave us the "leftover latenight scraps" or that's just how they do it, but the slices were all chopped/broken apart. I could tell that some of them were refried or reheated because some pieces were overcooked and dry. If you've eaten at Katz's or Carnegie Deli in New York, Kenny and Zuke's pastrami will disappoint you.
Oh, and service was slow at 11ish PM. How long does it take to slice off some pastrami and put 'em in between bread? Seriously.
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When it is very late at night and you've been partying like a maniac, there are very few places in town that serve something approaching real food. The usual locations are all greasy spoons and dice bars, Kenny & Zuke's is a culinary wonderland in comparison. The late night menu is quite pared down from their usual fare, but you will find something to help sop up all the alcohol that was very likely hand made earlier in they day and probably not from a can. Both the grilled cheese and the steak & eggs have become the main stay recovery comfort food before finally heading home to crash for the evening. My only real complaint is that while they appear to have a massively diverse soda menu, they never have my first choice in stock when I want to order it. Of course, this may have more to do with it being 2:30am than I want to admit.
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Fantastic sandwiches. The pastrami reuben was huge, fresh, and satisfying. The coleslaw on the side was not bad either. They have a huge menu with all sorts of great sandwiches, bagels, and other tasty deli items.
The service was fast and friendly....food also comes out pretty quick. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed.
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Good stuff. Took my wife there for her birthday as she likes the corned beef piled high and we weren't disappointed.
Rather than the cheaper thin sliced pastrami from the grocery store this was hand smoked thick slabs of it, tender and terrific. I had the double decker with pastrami and egg salad. It was a LOT of food. My wife had her corned beef and was just as happy.
1 star knocked off for slower service than I would've expected with the number of servers they had, but once our order was taken the food came relatively quickly. I'll try the take out counter next! Also some of the morning stuff looked really good too.
Very spacious with lots of tables, but there are sometimes still lines out the door. Kid friendly with high chairs and such. I likes me the cured meats so I anticipate this being a favorite.
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I expect a lot more from a $13 reuben and a $3.50 plate of fries. I've had my share of reuben's and it was a good one - nothing too out of the ordinary though. The pastrami was cooked well, the cheese was good, the bread was good, but common, $13 for that? Home made coleslaw only gets you so far. I mean, there was 2 slices of pastrami in my sandwich...I'm sorry, that's not deli style - take a trip to NY and find out what real deli sandwiches look like.
Don't get me wrong, the food is not bad but there's just not a whole lot of value in what you get. Am I missing something here?
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We really liked Kenny & Zuke's! Our adorable waiter with the black and white striped shirt was just the coolest. He had tons of suggestions and couldn't have been any friendlier!
I ordered a grilled cheese with Swiss cheese on rye, per our waiter's suggestion. It came with potato salad and a pickle. Everything was so fantastic. I was initially so dubious, I am not a fan of rye but the waiter swore I would love it and I did. Hurray for delicious grilled cheese. The Swiss was a perfect match to the rye and the rye was lighter than I have had before, just like our waiter promised. Good call. The portions were pretty big, especially for the money. They had a big salad on the menu that I was thinking about, I guess I will get that next time! I also tried the potato latkes which were good but just a bit too crispy for my liking. They were good though, I just prefer then less crispy.
Paul got the Reuben, lean, and he liked it but didn't love it by any means. He said it was a different cut of meat than he normally gets on a Reuben, much leaner than normal, and a thicker cut. I don't think Paul is in a hurry to go back there for the Reuben but he didn't hate it.
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Satisfying and good eating for hangover. I usually head here after a good night of party. There aren't many good deli places like this near the Pearl or the Northwest area. The service is really friendly. The food is delicious of course. Though a bit expensive. Supposely they have one of the best pastrami in town. Hot and tasty! I usually get their breakfast stuff like scrambled eggs, latkes, whole wheat toast with jam, and soup. I also love their shirt design, silk screened with a knife or bread cleaver. They also open really late, so you can get pastrami as late as 11pm.
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Yum! and so cute too!
Kenny and Zukes is so great and they have about 5-8 vegetarian options for those of us none-tongue fans (ok, they have other meats available as well).
Plus, who knew that latkes were so good. I can't believe that me, the self-proclaimed lover of all things potato, hadn't tried these before. Wonderful!
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Sooper friendly service, and pornographic portions of meat. If I could have measured the pastrami by the inch...I'd say it was more than I could take, umm, in a bite.
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Kenny and Zuke's, you let me down. You let me down HARD.
I put K & Z's on my weekend list of things to do. I was prepared to be wowed. I had studied the menu in advance, so when our waiter came to the table, I asked (as did my dining partner) the All Important Question: is the smoked salmon wet, like lox, or dry? And the guy said, "It's dry".
Let me tell you, it is not dry. It is wet and flabby. VERY flabby. And wet.
Wet and flabby is not what I want for breakfast, but I'm always scared of making a scene and I just eat what's put in front of me. On this occasion, what was put in front of me was burnt rye toast with wet and flabby salmon.
No shrinking violet, my dining partner is charmingly assertive. The waiter was summoned, flabby lox was pointed out, new breakfast was ordered...and it took 40 minutes to produce. Not ok, Kenny. And Zuke, whoever you are, your latkes are too done on the outside and not enough on the inside.
You get your third star based on the sheer yumminess of the house-made applesauce and because I heard that your line cooks all quit last week. I'll be back to try the pastrami, because I'm sure there is no lox in pastrami. But I think you've lost my dining partner for good.
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Ok, immediate disclaimer: the conditions on which I visited Kenny and Zuke's were NOT optimal. It was freezing. I was underdressed. It was 2:15 am on a Saturday. I was drunk. I had just left Boxxes after a night of booty shaking/bathroom stall confessions/general groping of friends, co-workers and complete strangers with my fabulously gay friends. It was really time for me to go home, but you guys know....that late night, "I've had too much to drink but I am HUNGRY" feeling hit.
With that being said, I was pretty disappointed. I really really wanted to like it here, but I just wasn't happy. Granted, we only ordered a few things, but none of it was very good. When I pay $10.25 for a sandwich, it had better be good. The bread was waaaay too greasy/oily. I know it's a grilled sandwich, but it tasted like it had been soaking in butter for a long time. The filling was the most dissapointing. There was very little pastrami, and hardly any sauerkraut! Based on the pictures I've seen on here and on their website, I'm really confused. Those appear to be really generous portions, but our sandwich sucked. The fries were just okay. Another person we were with ordered a veggie omelette, and again, the fillings were disappointing. It was just kind of a flat, lifeless omelette. Boo! I'm probably going to end up here again though, I really want to give them another chance. This time I'll go during the day when I'm sober, and not dreaming about my warm bed =)
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Mmmmmmmmmm Mmmmmmmmmmm!
Is there anything better for a slight hangover...slight, yeah right....than a good grilled cheese sammy from a deli? I think not! (you may think otherwise and that's okay, you are allowed, but for this review I'm doin the thinkin, got it? good!)
So, where was I? Oh yes, royally hungover after bar hopping all over Portland with you crazy yelpers and due to get on a plane in an hour. On another note, is there anything worse than flying hungover. Ugh, no fun. But back to K&Z's...
As soon as we walked in, the tantalizing aroma of pastrami and pickle excellence permeated the room. Even in my somewhat nauseous state, I knew we were in a good spot. We placed our orders and then started chatting with the kind folks that work here. All super sweet and interesting to talk to and definitely workin their asses off to make this place great! (So far so good!)
I loved the fact that they had a wall of mustard for sale, because really, is there any condiment better than your good friend Mustard? I think not, which is why I have my entire fridge door full of mustard from around the world. I also loved that they had Reed's Ginger Brew and the Raspberry one at that! That's a hard one to come by, so props to you for having one of my favorite beverages! :)
Finally there's the "Body by Pastrami" shirts, but I've got one better for you and I only want 1% of the profits...
"Booty by Pastrami"
Put that on the booty area of some girl sweats and you are so set! I will be your first customer too! :)
Keep up the great work!
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Oh, the tattoos, pastrami, and latkes. And those teeshirts with the cleavers on them? I want one.
This will go down in history as the best breakfast. Ever.
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My 1st visit yesterday @ noon. I sat at the counter, thus got a great view of how they work in the kitchen. The place was soon packed, so they had a lot to do. In spite of the crowd, service was prompt and friendly and my order was served in a timely manner. I did the half pastrami on rye with a cup of mushroom barley soup. Best pastrami I've had in many years - moist and flavorful. The soup was wonderful as well. Add a draught Terminal Gravity IPA and I was happy. I'll be back.
I've been back a few times since my initial review, most recently for Fried Chicken (which is now on their regular menu rather than just a weekly special). Followers of the Talk section might recall my efforts there a couple of months ago to find delectable fried chicken in P-Town. K&L accomplishes that easily. The chicken was moist and flavorful. The coating was crisp and tasty. It would have been 5* but... it was a bit greasy. Probably could have been drained for a minute or so on a rack or something absorbent and it might have achieved the vaunted 5* award. The 4* chicken still leaves me with a 5* impression of K&Z.
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MY KENNY AND ZUKE'S STREAM O CONCIOUSNESS
(a.k.a. FOOD PORN)
fresh bagels made the way all bagels are meant to be made.
they have come to the end of the line and have reached their bagel destiny.
my mouth waits
craving delicious cream cheesey fantastic-ness.
with shallots? sure.
with olives? you bet.
plain? why the hell not.
Nova lox that look as pretty as they taste.
I wait patiently
(tapping my hand on my wallet and resisting the urge to throw myself against the glass case holding my future meal)
the smell of freshly cut smokey meats hits me hard
and i close my eyes and breath it in slowly
do i want a sandwich?
they make a smoked turkey sandwich that makes me want to cry.
rye bread
mustard
LOTS and LOTS of shredded fresh turkey
with Russian dressing
lettuce
tomato
Or the famous Pot Roast sandwich
open-faced
covered in just enough onion gravy to make your breath funk-a-licous, but also make you think
this is DAMN WORTH IT.
Pastrami mommy
you are too much for me
i will bite you from time to time
but you are overwhelming, my dear.
though, i will gladly sink my teeth into your eggs benny
anytime you want.
my sweet and salty jewish deli.
you are the real deal.
you are the cream in my stumptown coffee.
and most importantly
you had me at knish.
oh baby yeah.
;)
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This is the closest we've come to decent pastrami in Portland in years. But why can't they slice it right? It's served in chunks, not slices, but has good flavor. It's not quite as smoky as their Hawthorne version of a year or two ago. I'm eager to sample other parts of the menu, but it's the pastrami I've been hankering for.
Service is a tad slow and very inexperienced. It's constantly crowded and the very young wait staff seem overwhelmed. I hope this is a still a breaking-in period.
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"$12.95 for a sandwich??? Are you kidding me???"
Was what I was thinking as I was ordering a double decker pastrami, turkey, and corned beef sandwich. Then, as I was handed my take-out box, I realized why it was almost thirteen dollars. These people had made me a five pound sandwich!!! It was ridiculous. So pound for pound this sandwich was the cheapest thing I've bought in a long time.
Let's ignore everything else about this restaurant for a while and focus on the pastrami - yummmmmmm. It was smoky and salty and flavorful and almost tasted a bit like smoked salmon. Seriously amazing.
The turkey was just turkey, and the corned beef tasted kind of like bad TX brisket, but I still liked it cause I like all brisket.
And, because I didn't think a double decker sandwich was enough for lunch, I ordered a pecan square which I wolfed down and was loathe to share with anyone. That pecan square has got to be one of the best things I've eaten in the past year, and if you read my reviews you'll see I've eaten a lot in the past year. I'm buying a dozen pecan squares and eating them in one sitting so I get sick of them and they do not haunt my dreams!
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This is a great deli, kind of Portland meets mid-town Manhattan. The pastrami was very good and I enjoyed the potato salad. This is great for Portland and some of the better pastrami I have had any where. So it gets five stars but this is not a New York pastrami sandwich.
First off the bread- this is fresh, thickly sliced and very doughy. New York rye is not as thick and tends to have a different texture.
The pastrami here is hand sliced, so it is thicker giving the sandwich a meatier consistency. In NYC they tend to use a meat slicer for thinner and more tender cuts.
They did not put lettuce, tomato or any other condiments on the sandwich, or I would have walked out on them. The service was good, typical busy restaurant at lunch but I like the counter service and the wait staff was very nice.
So not New York, but still five stars.
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Pretty damn good. I was a little ambivalent considering some of the not-so-positive reviews I'd seen here and some other places, but I guess there's one in every crowd, because I couldn't really find anything to complain about. We were there on a Sunday night (when K&Z's and the Indian place on Morrison seemed to be the only places open - and the Indian place was PACKED - an aside to downtown Portland restaurants - people want to eat on Sunday too!), and when we got there (around 7:30, I think) the place was about half full, but by the time we left, it was much closer to capacity. Anyway, the service was friendly and prompt, the pastrami was delicious (if the slightest bit dry), the potato salad was nice and vinegary - like I said, nothing really to complain about. I will take my elderly Jewish parents here when they come to town and I think they will love it.
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Any place that makes pastrami hash gets 5 stars from me
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You know what they say, "a true test of a deli is how good their roasted turkey sandwich is...or their Reuben". - Well, thats what I say. Everyone needs a standard order like trying out phad thai in different thai restaurants. I just happen to prefer a good roasted turkey sandwich. To my shameful delight, my turkey sandwich was amazing....The place is nice, deli and to go orders on one end (bagels, fresh meats, chicken pot pie to go!), casual fun dining with an open kitchen on the other. I sat down on my way to Powells and was expecting a typical order but was brought gourmet. The turkey sandwich arrived on soft rosemary bread and loaded with goodness. I was even impressed by the mustard (which is a big deal because I'm not a mustard fan by any means) and how well it complimented my sandwich. Bonus points for serving water in your own quart size glass bottles. Why other restaurants don't