Murphy’s Deli

Questionable quality of food. Stale bread — pita crumbles and fall apart. Awful service. The pictures on the menu look nothing like the food prepared. Wrong ingredients also. I complained, and they stand, look at you and laugh in your face and speak in Spanish. How rude! Called owner, spoke to him, he did not even offer an apology. Very bad place.

So the good news is they have gluten free bread. The bad news is that it’s not good.
I ordered the pesto chicken panini on the GF bread. The chicken breast strips were of the variety of questionable too-​tender chicken. There was very little flavor. The tomatoes were flavorless and almost white in color. The pesto was also not very flavorful. Basically all components of the sandwich were sub-​par. So yeah, not a fan of this place even though service was very friendly.

Delicious!!! I ordered the veggie wrap and it exceeded my expectation. Cookies are amazing! Little disappointed with the hummus but maybe it’s just personal preference. Try it :)

Saddest excuse for a breakfast burrito of all time. Between 2 girls we finished like 5 menu items from here and were still basically starving. Also, dasani??? Ugh

Ok so I would like to start off by saying that the staff here is super sweet and cute. That being said, I honestly don’t know how this place stays in business especially with so much competition downtown.
I have gone in on several occasions (due to a 3-​punch groupon), where they have been out of lettuce and tuna. Which kind of limits my options as a vegetarian. I ordered the grilled veggie bowl, which came out cold, in an almost empty to-​go box, with no grilled veggies. The falafal here is hard.
Basically what I have found is that it is a deli, so it is best to stick to what a deli does best: sandwiches. The tuna melt is pretty good, but I don’t see why someone would come here over subway which is across the street.
The tapioca in the bubble tea was hard as rocks and not very many. More like a smoothie not bubble tea.
The other big problem besides the food is the organization. They don’t have a good service line in place so someone will start making your food and then not check you at so you will be waiting and waiting at the register until someone else finishes making someone else’s food and can come ring you out. Very weird system.
I don’t see myself ever coming back here.

All things considered (speed, affordability, taste) Murphy’s is hard to beat on this stretch of Congress. I can be in and out in 5 — 10 minutes even at 12:30 on a Monday. Everything I’ve gotten there has been very satisfying. Nothing fancy, but consistently good.

This is a good place if you want to grab a quick lunch. I missed the lunch rush going at 2pm, though, so not sure how quick it is during the lunch rush. Customer service was friendly.
Turkey avocado wrap was pretty good albeit kind of messy. I don’t recommend the pearl drinks. The papaya flavor I got tasted artificial and actually kind of tastes like that orange Trident flavor. Lol. If you want some quality pearl drinks (among other yummy desserts and drinks), go to the Bambu that just opened up on North Lamar in Chinatown Plaza.

Bubble tea was very mushy. I don’t think they sell much of it since they barely knew what the flavors they offered were. I wouldn’t suggest ordering that.

This place is a block down from my work so I’ve been here a few times for various lunch engagements. Price wise its ok for downtown lunch.
I’ve tried the chicken cordon blue and the french dip and I’ll say the french dip is marginally better. A sandwich can only be so good when you see them nuke the meat in the microwave right as you order it, or see them nuke a premade container of au jus but all I know is the bread tastes pretty good and the meat and juice still taste dandy, so its A-​OK for me. They sell boba too, which I’m curious about but not yet daring enough to try. Time will tell…

Good, consistent, cheap. Very friendly service. Great variety too.

Told the (non-​English-​speaking) girl I wanted two sandwiches, not toasted. She toasted them. She asked something else, i think about cream cheese, but couldn’t understand her Chinese… I just said no. .I told the other girl who got the bread out of the toaster that I didn’t want them toasted. She continued to make the sandwiches. Told the guy at the register what happened. He didn’t care either. I was polite, and will survive eating toasted sandwiches. But they don’t give a crap about service. They just want your money. Go elsewhere.

I’m giving it four stars to make up for some of the terrible reviews. It’s not that bad people. It’s a standard run of the mill sandwich place that makes decent sandwiches. Is it going to blow your mind? No. But you know what, neither will Subway, Scholtzkys, Quizno’s, and all those other places. This place is just as good in my opinion, if not better (at least than Quizno’s, I hate that place). And guess what, although it’s a chain, it’s an owner operated franchise, and the people who own it are locals that are just trying to make a living. They tried to expand their menu to include sushi, which I actually liked. But then the corporate office told them they couldn’t do it, so alas, I can’t get my sushi fix here anymore.
The sandwich I normally get here is the french dip. Pretty good au jus with a horseradish mayo. Can’t really go wrong with that one.
Also, the service is great, I don’t know what everyone is talking about. The owner is usually there either running the cash register or making sandwiches. They are super hard working and kind Korean immigrants… they’re not going to be all chatty and asking you about how your weekend was (well at least not with me yet)…but just give this place a chance and don’t get turned off by the negative reviews.

Their sandwiches are delicious! Everything is fresh and made to order. Cool location and decent prices. :)

This place is awful. I have been here three times since I work in the building and about every year I think ‘this can’t possibly be as bad as I remember it.’ Then I try something else off the menu and my expectations for how awful it’s going to be are shattered yet again. Their Muffelleta’s are dry, tasteless, and unhealthy. Their breakfast tacos are unfit to serve starving POWs. Their staff have been apathetic pricks consistently every visit.
If you want breakfast tacos go to the Hideout across the street, they sell Torchy’s breakfast tacos in the morning.
If you want a sandwich go up to Little City in between 8^th and 9^th on Congress. Fantastic sandwiches and great salsa.
If want to spend too much on a crappy sandwich, served by folks who hate life go to Murphy’s Deli… I won’t be.

It’s like subway only you get less food.
It’s not even better quality ingredients.
Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere like whole foods or something.
6+ bucks for a meh sandwich sucks.
They don’t even have cool chips! just your standard Frito-​lay.
:P

This is one of the few chain’s I’ll visit, and I’ll tell you why.
This is the ONLY Murphy’s location that has the homemade salsa that is out of this world. I believe the folks that work there make it (hence, homemade) and it’s got an excellent vinegary hot sauce flavor that perfectly compliments the bacon/​egg/​cheese breakfast tacos they serve — and toast!
One of my favorite breakfast taco spots.

They make their own chicken salad everyday and it’s very, very good. And since I’m from New Orleans, I really like the fact that they serve a muffaletta. The prices are reasonable, it’s a quick in and out, and folks have been nice.
After reading other reviews, it seems maybe the manager took a look and made some changes. The drinks are a little pricey, but really… they’re generally overpriced everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong… I looooove Which Wich, but I don’t want to spend 15 minutes standing around getting a sandwich at lunch. In that amount of time, a waiter could be serving me food on a plate.
But really… their chicken salad is very, very good.

So after almost a year of working a block away, yet avoiding eating at Murphy’s on Chris M.‘s suggestion, I was walking back to work from the gym one day wishing there was a decently priced, healthy option around.
I passed by Murphy’s and noticed they had hummus and pita, so I went in to get a visual — not bad! For about $ 2, you can get hummus and pita, or a greek salad with cucumber, onions, tomatoes, calamata olives and feta, or black bean salad, or chick pea salad… Their soups, however, may or may not be any better than the generic store-​brand canned variety. That’s my only complaint.
Murphy’s fits the bill. Nothing here is necessarily «the best I’ve ever had», but it’s super close to work, easy on the pocketbook, has a great selection of healthy options, and tasty enough. They serve breakfast and lunch, with an emphasis on Mediterranean deli items and muffaletta sandwiches.
Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks, Chris. :o) But I’ll still be your Which Wich buddy any day of the week.

This place is way better than the reviews indicate. The staff was extremely friendly, everything was quick, and the muffaleta sandwich was huge, like half of a frisbee. Also, their menu had quite a few variations, pitas, specialty sandwiches, etc.
Also, it’s not as if Austin is packed with excellent deli options. As far as I can tell, Hog Island is about as good as it gets. Everything else is the same SYSCO delivered products, cheap meat, shredded iceberg lettuce, and generic bulk ingredients. Do you honestly think Thundercloud delivers a down-​home sandwich? You’re shitting yourself…

I have worked about 47 feet from Murphy’s Deli on Congress for the past 3 years and I have actually been to Murphy’s only 3 times. Why? Because those were 3 of the worst lunches I’ve ever had. The staff is rude, the food is bland and generally they’re a very light on the meat. The price is reasonable, but I am rating this a 1 star eatery, so keep that in mind.
You’d be crazy to think this is better than Schlotskchsky’s, but it probably is cheaper than Quizno’s. If you need a sandwhich downtown, walk to Which Wich or Apple Annies or Little City, please god go anywhere but Murphy’s Deli.