Thursday, March 11, 2010

New York Deli in Columbia

One sandwich doesn't make for a comprehensive review, but one sandwich has made me a fan of the the New York Deli in Columbia.

The New York Deli opened last year on Snowden River Parkway, and I discovered last week that they're making their own corned beef on site.  Harold's in Edison, NJ ruined most corned beef for me because its spectacular meat make most commercial beef taste like cardboard.  The New York Deli isn't Harold's, but it's hot corned beef sandwich plays in a similar league.

Go hot sandwich with the soft marbled rye.  You'll get a full sandwich with thin-sliced corned beef.  Lean corned beef, but with a meaty flavor and the brittle texture separates corned beef made by experts from those made by industry.  The rye bread is soft and thick.  Not my normal preference, which only reinforced the quality because I thought it really improved the sandwich.  Good mustard.  Good pickle.  Overall, it's my favorite straight deli sandwich tn Howard County.  (I have eaten many sandwiches that never reached the blog because there is no fun in smacking down a place for serving average food.)

I loved the New York Deli atmosphere.  Because it's on the south-bound side of Snowden, I stopped there knowing that I wanted to visit Pars Market before going home to eat.  I told the woman at the counter that I wanted a hot sandwich, but I had to do an errand before I ate.  She said told me to change my plans.  No sugar coating.  No prevarication.  She said I was going to love the hot sandwich so I should endure some U-turns on Snowden and get the sandwich right before I went home.  So New York attitude.  So right on the money.

Next time, I'm going for the reuben, although I'll eat it there.  You can't even wait 10 minutes when the sandwich is hot, filled with sauerkraut and greased with Russian dressing.

New York Deli also got a rave from elgringoviejo on Chowhound.  Elgringoviejo is one of the best Howard County voices on Chowhound.  He knows his stuff and writes with an experienced, practical voice.  He liked the sausage sub.  New York Deli delivers, which would be nice for anyone who works nearby.


New York Deli
9359 Snowden River Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045
410-290-3773


NEAR:  New York Deli is in one of the shopping centers between Oakland Mills Parkway and Broken Land Parkway.  You can only access from the southbound lanes of Snowden.  New York Deli is in the first shopping center in that section -- the one with House of India, not the one with Akbar and Pho Dat Trahn.

NY Deli on Urbanspoon

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Makes my mouth water.

Leeann said...

I agree. Sounds awfully good to me!

Anonymous said...

I thought the corned beef sandwhich that I had there a few months ago was decent, perfectly acceptable, except that the corned beef was way too lean and dry. The best corned beef (no, not found around here) has a certain fat level, and I was disappointed with theirs given the home made pdigree.

FoodBooty said...

I had the Ruben there about two weeks ago and I loved it! Their antipasti salad was chock full of stuff and huge!

HowChow said...

Anonymous makes a good point. The NY Deli sandwich is really lean. I have to admit even a little dry. Normally -- for example at Harold's -- I ask for lean because regular corned beef can be too fatty. But I would ask for the fattier end of NY Deli's beef in search of that balance.

sherringham said...

How does NY Deli compare to the Charter Deli right by HCC? Anyone know?

FoodBooty said...

Sherringham - I've had the corned beef at both NY Deli and Charter and NY Deli I think is far superior. Charter has good sandwiches but I just don't get the "authentic" feel from any of them. Charter is almost a sandwich I can make at home.

Milton Friendly said...

Tried a Rueben this afternoon. I carried it out and didn't eat it for 20 minutes. Still very hot. Excellent corned beef. Yes, lean, but not dry. Sliced very thin. Bread is good, but got soggy during the wait. Potato salad was OK, at least they didn't dump pickle juice in it. Too much dressing in the cole slaw. Will definitely go back.

TC said...

When is this place ever open? I went on a Friday evening around 7pm and again on Saturday around the same time and they were closed both days. What's the deal?

HowChow said...

TC - It's a breakfast and lunch place. I don't think it is open for dinner. Better for people who work in Columbia than people who commute from there. That's one of the reasons why it took me months to stop there.

Kay Weeks said...

I look forward to trying this Deli.
Friends who live in the Olney area actually recommended it to me. One barrier to overcome is my adherence to the South Beach diet. So probably no corned beef, Pastrami, or rye, but maybe some wonderful egg mix over some slaw?

Your review was great!

Nigel said...

Just stopped in at NY Deli...and tried their hot corned beef sandwich, deeeeeeelicious!! I beg to disagree with some of the prior posts with respect to their corned beef being lean and dry...I found it lean (which I prefer) but not in the least bit dry!!

I will be back again...and I am taking aim at the Reuben!!

CruzinGal said...

Terrible customer service and delivery! The food is o.k. but DO NOT order for delivery if you have a work schedule to keep. I ordered 1 hour ahead of time and was told that delivery would not be a problem even after I had said that I could come and pick it up and had agreede to a 1/2 hour window.. Food finally arrived 1 hour late and after I had placed four calls and each time I was told that it was on it's way. The hot food arrived cold. Have you every had cold french fries with gravy (Whick was supposed to be on the side.) on them? Cold corned beef when it was supposed to be hot?

I was on the phone with someone from this place when the driver finally arrived and even though they were an hour late no apology was offered. No discount was offered. Not even the driver apologized.

There are too many good places for lunch in Columbia to put up with a place like this.

Anonymous said...

Did this place change management?