Artie’s Delicatessen

After a fun-filled Saturday afternoon at the Natural History Museum, Chris, David, and I headed to Artie’s Delicatessen for a quick bite to eat. We initially planned on eating at Cafe Lalo, but when we arrived, construction workers informed us that it had been closed for renovations since October and wouldn’t be opening for another week. Boo! Chris remembered going to Artie’s a while back and we were really hungry, so we decided to step in for a bite.

We were immediately seated and complimentary cole slaw and pickled vegetables were placed on our table so we’d have something to nibble on while deciding what to order:

Cole slaw:

Pickled vegetables:

In general, I’m not a fan of cole slaw (unless it’s on a pulled pork sandwich) and the cole slaw at Artie’s had too much mayonnaise and not enough taste. There were a variety of pickled vegetables, including red peppers, cucumbers (made into half sour pickles), and roma tomatoes. The half sours tasted like they had a lot of celery salt or some other interesting spice in it (I wasn’t a fan) but it was free, so can you really complain?

Chris ordered the cheeseburger (pretty standard for a deli):

Chris and I have had our fair share of burgers in the city (I’ll be posting a review about a new place we love) and I was surprised that the burger from Artie’s is actually cooked semi-decently for a diner. The bun was chewy but not to the point of being overwhelmed with burger grease but the meat tasted like it was a frozen patty. The fries weren’t good (I didn’t even finish them!)

I ordered the Pastrami:

I’m not a big fan of foods that are saturated with salt (seriously, who is) and this pastrami was just too freaking salty. Chris thought it’s better than Carnegie’s or Katz’s, which is saying a lot, right? I didn’t like the pastrami at either place (although I like the matzo ball soup from Carnegie’s).

David ordered the chopped liver sandwich:

It’s my first experience with chopped liver and it was surprisingly sweet with a creamy texture. A little over the top for me, but David liked it.

After we paid for our meal, we walked by the deli counter and bought a Cel-ray soda from Dr. Brown’s. It’s made with celery but extremely sweet and actually has more sugar than two cokes (that’s a LOT of sugar!). Artie’s is a cute deli that caters to a lot of families on the UWS, but there are so many to choose from in the city that I don’t think I’ll be back.