David Hammond wrote:It may be true that bread/rolls on tables are offered at Jewish-style delis, but I think that practice is somewhat rare at those few Chicago delis that are even close to that model. At Manny's and Bergstein's, for instance, there's no bread/roll offered on the tables. I don't recall seeing anything like that at classic places like Carnegie and Katz's, either, but I could be mistaken.

If you get table service, Katz's absolutely brings you a bowl of full sours and half sours. No free bread, though. Manny's of course throws pickle spears on your plate. Myron & Phil's is no deli, but the best part of the place is the free stuff, and by that I do not intend to damn by faint praise. I'd pay a lot for the black bread, chopped liver and picckles. PS, Ada's, which never gets mentioned anywhere, has free pickles on the table. You know, Ada's isn't great, but it's a Jewish deli on Jewler's Row with a full display of fish and salads up front. And it has booze. I almost never go there, but you could do worse.

JeffB wrote:You know, Ada's isn't great, but it's a Jewish deli on Jewler's Row with a full display of fish and salads up front. And it has booze. I almost never go there, but you could do worse.

Please name a Jewish Deli that serves worse food or has worse service then the vile drek they serve at Ada's. I stopped going there long ago.

You could be right. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. It is a Jewish deli. Has pickles on table. Could do worse in Loop.

There. I fixed it.

I didn't answer your question. Morry's.

JeffB wrote:I didn't answer your question. Morry's.

Home of the BBQ pastrami sandwich.



Morry's Deli
5500 S Cornell Av
Chicago
773-363-3800

JeffB wrote:

David Hammond wrote:It may be true that bread/rolls on tables are offered at Jewish-style delis, but I think that practice is somewhat rare at those few Chicago delis that are even close to that model. At Manny's and Bergstein's, for instance, there's no bread/roll offered on the tables. I don't recall seeing anything like that at classic places like Carnegie and Katz's, either, but I could be mistaken.

If you get table service, Katz's absolutely brings you a bowl of full sours and half sours. No free bread, though.

Yes, didn't think so.

Getting back to Steve's, the subject of this topic...

Their chicken pot pie is our "gold standard", the one with the most meat of any we've had in the Chicago area.

Their knishes are very good too, and somewhat unusual. If you've had them from Kaufmann's, you know that theirs (Kaufmann's) have a lot of crust; they're at least as much crust as filling (potato, meat, etc). By contrast, the ones at Steve's have only a very thin, soft, almost invisible crust, so almost all of the knish is filling. Depending on how you like it, you might prefer one style or the others; we like the ones at Steve's.

Chicken Piccata



The meal during my lunch stop at Steve's Deli this week consisted of chicken picatta and roasted seasonal vegetables, both of which were good-tasting. Portions are large here. Steve's is running a two-for-one type of dinner entrée promotion (wth a coupon obtained from various newspapers), if you find yourself in the neighborhood (and are traveling with the coupon in your wallet).

Dave148 wrote:The Bagel has bread/rolls and (I believe) pickles.

I really like The Bagel's pickles (which are indeed always put on the table there). My favorite kind of pickle is the kind where you can still tell it used to be a cucumber, and that's the kind The Bagel serves. Plenty of garlic and pickling, yet fresh green cucumber taste, too.

We've been trying other items at Steve's, and so far we keep finding more things we like. A lot. Their stuffed cabbage (we got the beef version) is fabulous! It's also HUGE. A piece is about the size of a softball! Oh, and one piece is $7.50; if you buy two, you may as well buy a stuffed cabbage "dinner", which includes not only two pieces, but also two sides. That's a lot of food; don't be surprised if you find that it's too much to eat at one sitting.

Oh yeah, their cole slaw is excellent also, one of the very best in town.

We're signed up for their e-mail specials, and we've gotten some good coupons that way!

If you're driving, they validate if you park in the Ace/CVS lot behind the store.

Extremely mediocre corned beef sandwich at Steve's for lunch. I got the "hot" one--apparently "hot" to them means a mixture of utterly cold slices and some lukewarm, slimy slices. At 8.99 for a far-from-big sandwich with nothing besides pickles served with it, this falls squarely in the rip-off column. I'd rather eat at Morry's, honestly. At least it's cheaper.

$10 for $25 Groupon deal today - http://www.groupon.com/chicago/

Does this place have an actual deli counter where you can get things like pastrami sliced to take home?
I went for the Groupon before reading the reviews, figuring that I'd at least be able to pick up some sausage, maybe some chopped chicken liver to take home. The Groupon seems like a good deal--you end up with over 50% off. I just hope I can find something of value for my money.




Edited to correct my typo. Thanks nxstasy!

There is plenty bad at Steve's... most has been covered. The good:

1) Romanian Kosher medium-to-hard salami available if you don't want to drive way up north

I had an odd experience at Steve's deli today. I had brought back some Western Nova lox from Russ & Daughter's Friday night from NYC (I live in Chicago and work in NYC, but that's another story). I wanted to have some for lunch today, so went to Steve's, which is near me, for a bagel to take home (I go back to NY tomorrow, so just wanted to buy one). Its self-serve, so I used the tongs, put the bagel in one of the bags they provide, and went to the cashier.

An older gentleman (the owner maybe?) who works there had been filling containers with food for a customer but he walked over to ring up the register for the other customer and me. He looked at my bag with the one bagel (admittedly it was a medium size bag but the only size bag there where the bagels are) and without saying a word, stuck his bare hand (hadn't washed it since working the register for a prior customer) down into the bag, scooped up my bagel, and put it in a smaller bag. The bagel was an "everything on it" bagel, and I saw him put the larger bag (complete with bits of garlic, onion, etc. from my bagel) back on the shelf with the other bags.

Can somebody say weird?