New York Marina Deli

Critic's Review

I was craving some pastrami, so I thought I'd see how this place was doing. They don't have a menu online and they don't have online ordering, so I had to order and wait.

Zero customers at 2:30. The entire plaza was dead empty. I order a pastrami on rye with deli mustard to go. You just kind of yell at the guy in the deli area. They close at 3, so if there was a server they were gone by now.

NY Marina Deli Inside

You don't pay until you get the food, which means more waiting. They still have the pinpad behind the counter so you have to wait for the dude to punch in a bunch of numbers. Then he made a mistake and had to do it again. Note to myself: Check your CC bill carefully this month.

NY Marina Deli Inside

Straight home and open up the box. Half a pickle and a thimble of cole slaw; not exactly the Katz Deli Experience.

NY Marina Deli Pastrami on Rye ($10.50)

A pretty good stack with cheap supermarket bread.

NY Marina Deli Pastrami Sandwich

The "stack" doesn't extend throughout the sandwich.

NY Marina Pastrami Open

Still not a bad amount of meat. The problem is that it isn't great pastrami. It wasn't even luke warm so it's not clear it ever was hot, and the sandwich was very "meh".

A mediocre sandwich can be saved by the extras, but that's not the case here. I hesitate to call the pickle a pickle; imagine you soaked a cucumber in vinegar for 10 minutes. That's what we have here.

Bad Cole Slaw and Cucumber Spear

And the cole slaw is too sweet, too creamy; the kind of stuff you get in a tub at the supermarket. Or at a bad picnic in the 70s.

Conclusion

I've never really cared for this place, and if anything it's worse than before. They still haven't figured out that paying as you leave is a pain; no line today but nobody wants to wait on line to pay while a counterperson fiddles with a pinpad.

There are Delis like this in New York, but they're not the ones you go to. People that rave about this place have never been to a real NY Deli.

Review 4/4/16

NY Marina Deli (formerly H&E Deli)

About a month ago, I heard from a guy who said he was helping the new owner here with his online marketing. He expressed concern that the old listing for H&E Deli would confuse people; I assured him that I knew how to handle such things once the new place opened. So I expected to hear from him, but never did. Yesterday I checked and saw that they had opened, still with a coming soon website and no menu anywhere to be found. With the Yankees opening game at 1pm on Monday I planned to go to breakfast late morning. Of course it snowed in NY, cancelling the game. But I went to check out the deli regardless.

The first thing to know is that this place is under new ownership; the old time deli people from the original H&E deli are gone. Harry passed away and Eileen wasn't able to make a go of it without him.

On a gloomy but warm morning, I found a surprisingly crowded parking lot. Pre-lunch, I'm not sure where everyone was. A smattering of people having lunch at 11:45 at BurgerFi. I walked into the deli and there were 2 occupied tables. Nobody said anything to me, despite a guy at the register right by the door. I sat down and started to fiddle with my phone. After a couple of minutes I surmised that there was no table service. I went up to the register and the

guy told me I needed to order at the counter.

I wanted to get something "deli", so I ordered eggs with the deli hash; I asked if it was corned beef and got an affirmative response. Over-easy, rye toast. They don't ask for my name or give me any paperwork, so I just go and sit down.

The first impression was a bad one; the dreaded National Deli Mustard.

National Deli Mustard on the Table

It's hard to have credibility as a "New York Deli" when you're serving Miami mustard. The place is about the way it was before.

NY Marina Deli Interior

There's a lot of yelling behind the counter. They were calling out food as it was ready; one guy got a cheesesteak and asked for A1 for it. Delis get all types. What was astonishing is that they actually had A1.

I expected them to call out my order, but the cook seems to run the food out as it's ready.

NY Marina Deli 2 eggs with Hash

Disposable plates and utensils are always an nice touch. Memories of The Beach Grille. I usually expect hash to have the potatoes and meat mixed together, but this was just chopped up meat. It didn't really taste like corned beef; I suspect it was a mixture of ends from different meats. That's fine, but don't tell me it's corned beef hash.

NY Marina Deli

My litmus test is Mary's Kitchen Corned Beef Hash, which is better than this. The order dude asked if I wanted butter on my bread, but this tasted more like margarine. Or maybe one of these butter-like substances.

NY Marina Deli Toast with "butter"

Only about half of the potatoes were edible, as many of them had a thick, hard crust; and some were just burned. I wasn't going to eat all of them anyway, I suppose.

NY Marina Deli Potatoes

While I was eating an older couple sat down at a table next to me and were totally confused on what do to. They sat for a while before figuring out that they had to order at the counter.

So nobody had brought me a check, so I just went up to the register. "Yes?" the register dude said. "I didn't get a check", I replied. "Oh, you just tell us what you had". I told him I had 2 eggs and deli hash and a coffee. It came to $12.61, which seemed a bit high; I thought the eggs were 8.95, but maybe the hash was 9.95. And of course I had no idea how much the coffee was.

NY Marina Deli Register

It seems he charged me 9.95 and 1.95 for the coffee. The menu says $8.95. Charging people the wrong amount is what happens when you have no checks.

Conclusion

They've only been open a few days, but this place is a disaster. They act as if we're supposed to know how their operation works, even though there's no way to know how it works. Plastic plates and utensils and styrofoam cups. No service. A real high-end experience. Mustard from Miami.

At least you save on the tip.

Marina bill