Critic's Review
There's a shortage of new places that I care about; a new Deli is worth a look.
First things first; this is a chain restaurant. It's not a family restaurant run by a nice, old Jewish couple who just want to feed their neighbors. I've been to the TooJay's in Plantation and I didn't like anything about it.
I got here just after 2p and the parking lot was close to full;I was wondering if the place was packed.
There's no door in the back so it's a pretty good walk from the back of the lot. They're specials by the front door didn't seem too special to me. Cherries were the topping of the day. I didn't think that would affect me at all.
You enter into the bakers, where you can buy cakes, cookies or a quart of potato salad. Nobody waiting so that was promising.
The restaurant was fairly empty; I guess those cars are mostly employees. I was seated in a bad seat with booths open, but I didn't complain today. As long as there was nobody else nearby it was fine.
It could have been worse; they have 2 terrible booths right in the hallway under the big sign; who would want to eat there with servers bolting in and out.
I ordered iced tea with extra lemon and this is what I got.
Not too generous with the lemon. I kind of expected this. I wanted to try the pastrami so I ordered the "Choose Too", which is essentially their soup and sandwich offering. Half a pastrami and a cup of Matzo Ball Soup. This is what New Yorkers order in a Deli.
One of the first things I do when I eat in a deli is look at the mustard. I was horrified to see that TooJays has their own mustard. I like to know that I'm getting good mustard; this would be a crapshoot.
The music doesn't fit the atmosphere; the average age here was mid-60s, the dark wood is reminiscent of the 70s, and they're playing Jason DeRulo and Owl City on the sound system. "Flashdance" did come on, but it didn't seem to cater to the older crowd in any way I could think of.
I'm sitting at an empty table; in a real Jewish Deli the pickles are on the table before you order. The cup of soup came out on its own; as if this was a 2 course mean.
The vegetables looked a few days old, but not a bad soup. Basically chicken soup with a dumpling.
My server came by and asked something about the soup and I quipped that she could bring out the pickles; she actually brought out half a pickle. I figured she'd bring out the cole slaw and pickle that comes with the sandwich. Ok.
I figured she wasn't going to bring out the sandwich until I finished the soup. Note to Servers:
Ask the customer if they want the food to come out together.
So I pushed the soup dish to the edge of the table to make it clear I was done, and magically the sandwich came out.
Half a pickle and a spoonful of cole slaw. This is NOT a NY Deli.
My server asked if everything was OK and I asked if they had any other brands of mustard; she said "I'll get you what we have". Not what I was hoping for.
The TooJay's mustard wasn't bad, so it would have to do. The sandwich looked like a decent stack.
The cole slaw however wasn't actually cole slaw. Cole slaw has a dressing; some seasoning. This was cabbage. Imagine if you cut up a bunch of cabbage and put it in the fridge overnight. This is what you get. Wet cabbage with no taste at all. It wasn't even worth trying to fix; it was practically raw.
The pastrami didn't really taste like pastrami. It could have been black forest ham or some sort of smoked ham. I pulled some out to take a closer look.
This was Deli pastrami; the kind you get in Winn Dixie that comes in a plastic bag. Pretty disappointing stuff. Decent bread.
Conclusion
TooJay's is a chain restaurant that is a South Florida version of a NY Deli; which means that it's nothing close to an actual Deli. The servers aren't Deli savvy (my server told me she's never been to any of the Delis up in Boca), they don't have good quality food, and there's nobody here that really cares if you love your food. You could almost see the disappointment on other customer's faces.
