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Categories: Meat Shops, Delis [Edit]
Neighborhood: Rogers ParkJarvis (Red)
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Who says the service is rude? Everybody was really nice to us, including a grandmother/customer. Everybody took their time and smiled as they explained the differences between meats, etc.
The meat is great. The tastiest tongue I've had. What's nice is that, unlike sit-down delis, they don't make monster sandwiches that you can't finish eating and you can't afford. The sandwiches are just the right size.
Yiddishkheit still lives here.
Outstanding sausages and hot dogs. One of the very best places in Chicago to buy Kosher meat.
This is a deli and not a restaurant., so you'll be carrying everything out.
But enjoy! It is awesome!
if you complain about the somewhat-gruff service, you're missing the point. you come here for the best non-italian deli meat in chicago, bar none. the sandwiches are unreasonably low-priced - remember, this is kosher meat we're talking about here, and a pastrami sandwich (on rye bread from tel-aviv kosher bakery) costs $5 less than you'd pay at, say, frances' deli.
besides, if you come here once a week, as i do, the gruff service gets positively chummy.
Just like you remember from your Bubbe's house when you were a kid. The corned beef and pastrami will shame Manny's, Ada's, and The Bagel out of business. Delicious breads, and shelf staples that were in every Jewish mother's pantry. Like has been said, buy your bread and corned beef individually and make your own sandwiches--just buy them both here. The staff is warm and helpful and they look happy to see you when you walk in; whether you've been there once or 100 times.
It's out of the way from most of the city, but oh-so-worth it to make the trip.
Brisket to die for, kishke to make you swoon, kosher sausages to warm you heart, chopped liver like bubbe makes.
You won't be sorry.
When I work my way through the whole selection I will let you know.
Romanian has the best quality kosher cured meats available in my 40 years of experience. Some frozen things are available, and some bakery goods (mostly from Queen Esther if I recall correctly). There are eleventy-seven tzedaka boxes available for your mitzvic satisfaction.
NOTE: Romanian is a deli, not a restaurant. Take a number, buy your stuff, leave. There's no sitting down.
This is, without question, the best kosher butcher in Chicago. They make their own kosher sausages and salamis on the premises, and they're really exceptional. They also make their own corned beef briskets. I get the garlic sausages (which are like kielbasa). They also make their own kishka. My mother tells me that they used to make authentic kishka (if you don't know what that means, then you probably don't want to). This is no longer the case, and the kishka comes in a plastic, removable casing. It's still very good.
Kosher meat is expensive, but there are definitely some deals to be had here. They run weekly specials that are often very good. Also, they have bone-in ribeye steaks for only $7.99 a pound, which is several dollars cheaper than at any other kosher market.
The staff can be a bit abrupt, but Sharon at the cash register is always sunny, chatty and cheerful.
Great meat.
I'm still working on tasting thier entire selection.
This place is not just a Kosher Deli, it is a NATIONAL TREASURE! I grew up in Rogers Park, and my mom shopped here all the time. We did not keep Kosher even though we were Jewish, but the exceptional taste and quality kept us coming back.
My hands down favorite are the hot dogs (6 to a pound) with the onion rolls. These are way above and beyond any other hot dogs I have tasted.
The chopped liver is heaven, and the chopped herrijng is not bad either.
The corned beef is the tastiest!
This is an old world deli, which is very hard to find these days. And you can taste the difference! They make all of their food on premesis (except for the bread, which comes from a Kosher bakery). This is not mass-market garbage with preservatives and fillers. It is 100% pure quality!
The prices are very reasonable when compared with Dominick's or Jewel delis, and the quality blows them away.
The people working here tend to be older, and my one hope is that this place does not close when the original owners retire.
My Christian friends also like this place, but some have made the mistake of asking for pepperoni, bacon or pork chops (all pork products which are not available is Kosher shops).
YUMMM!!!!
Jeff
Does anyone else love chopped liver as I do? If so, you have got to get it from this place.
They were recently written about in the Chicago magazine, but I really found out about it thanks to some other yelpers. Yummy yummy chopped liver! The salami's pretty good, too.
I love all their meat products, especially the pastrami. I also looooooooooooove their kishke. It's the only kishke I have found that approximates the stuff that Kaufman's used to sell, Sarah's Kishke. Of course, Sarah's Kishke was stuffed into a natural casing and Romanian's is in plastic but I guess that's progress, right? Anyhow, it's so much better than that awful Best's Kosher kishke, crumbly, not gluey, and full of that wonderful flavor of beef fat! They also make a pareve kishke that kicks ass! It almost tastes like their regular kishke... maybe they made a mistake in labeling?
I admit I haven't been back here for a few years, when I found that the Highland Park Jewel carried the kishke, hotdogs and salami.
I'm only giving 4 stars because I found service lacking when I did come here, but maybe it's improved since then.
Quality meat is something that's always worth the price, especially when you think--not too hard, let's not get queasy--about the alternatives from major grocery chains that you might subject your gut to. So naturally I wanted to check out Romanian, and was tickled with what I found: excellent corned beef for samiches, quality cuts of meat at not-unreasonable prices, and a genuine, friendly, and refreshingly ethnic atmosphere where even the odd tall shicksa's made welcome. I will probably end up revising this review to five stars as I haul home more meaty fare, but whether you keep kosher or not, you'll find the kind of good stuff you won't regret stocking the fridge with, and the act of visiting is, in itself, a treat.
The meat at this place is wonderful, and I will definitely go back. Beware though when you buy the no-nitrate/no-nitrite hot dogs, as they are INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED within the larger shrink-wrap. There is no indication on the package that they are each covered in plastic, so I ended up heating up the hot dog and eating it with plastic!! Normally hot dogs have a casing, so it wasn't odd to have a little chewiness on the outside, but something just wasn't right. I called the store and they told me you have to remove it before eating. Still not sure how to do that with frozen hot dogs though, but I'll try to slice it off with a knife next time I go to cook one. Very tasty insides, but just don't eat the plastic!!
Their pastrami is great. I mean, amazingly great. Heeb Magazine rated it one of their favorite foods in the country. The only problem is that if you want a sandwich, they give it to you on a little mushy piece of rye. My advice: get a half pound, take it home, and don't feel guilty about putting some swiss cheese on your sandwich.
Some of the best corned beef I have ever had. Sliced then, very, very good taste. Not dry at at all. Very flavorful. I would agree with the other review - buy yourself a 1/2 pound and make your own sandwich (on rye). Or buy a pound and make yourself a sandwich for now and one for later. I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth of the selection and the prices were pretty reasonable. Its also worth noting that they have a parking lot (enter on Clark).
I walked in here with a friend one time. I wasn't really expecting much from this place, but was pretty impressed at the great service she got from the sales people. We were in and out with a bunch of things in very little time. They also had a little section with lots of ethinic/kosher products, which my friend told me were much more reasonably priced than the bigger grocers. And another bonus for this place was that they had their own little parking area as well.
Neighborhood: Rogers Park
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Chicago, IL
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