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One of my coworkers was in New York the same time as me. She was excited about going to Carnegie Hall; I’ve never been, but I told her the Carnegie Deli is pretty good!
Our first attempt at eating at the Carnegie Deli was on a Thursday afternoon, hoping for an early dinner and a short wait for a table. Alas! There was a queue out the door and down the street, and we were too cold and tired and hungry to wait 45 minutes for a seat. We tried again on Saturday morning and beat the rush…and tucked into a gigantic breakfast.
The first thing we ordered was a plate of pickles, some deliciously crunchy half-sour pickles and some garlicky dill pickles. There weren’t a lot of vegetarian options on the menu, but I was happily satisfied with (and couldn’t finish) the latkes. Latkes are potato pancakes that were flavoured with a bit of onion and served with sour cream and applesauce, very similar to the potato Rösti our mom used to make.
My cousin ordered the Carnegie Famous Reuben, an open-faced pastrami sandwich. I’ve heard of Reubens before, and I know they come with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, but I wasn’t prepared for what was delivered to our table: an enormous pile of food, served on slices of rye bread. Apparently the sandwiches weigh over one pound (or about half a kilogram) – that’s a lot of food!
We also ordered the Woody Allen, a sandwich piled high with a tower of pastrami and corned beef and served with mustard. My cousin’s husband had to ask for extra slices of rye bread in order to tackle all that meat.
The prices might seem steep until you realize the size of the portions: each menu item could easily feed four people!
We were so full afterwards but we couldn’t pass up on the Carnegie Deli cheesecake. For our annual family reunions in Toronto, our aunt would sometimes bring a whole frozen cheesecake all the way from the Carnegie, as her carry-on. So we did what was only logical: we ordered two pieces to go, and we ate them later that morning at the Boathouse in Central Park. The cheesecakes are enormous slabs but are unbelievably creamy and luscious.
Since the latkes themselves were too much for me to finish by myself, I missed out on trying some other menu items, notably the Giant Knish, the Matzah Ball Soup, the Cheese Blintzes, and the Egg Cream. Next time!
Visit Carnegie Deli:
854 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
