Mendy’s Rock

There are better Jewish delis (kosher and non-​kosher) scattered throughout the 5 boroughs. Just because it’s kosher doesn’t mean it’s good eats. That being said, I’ve been to several Mendy’s throughout the city and surprisingly I have never had a satisfactory meal. Here are some of my findings:
* Chicken soup (with or without matzo) — It was winter, snowing, and I was getting sick. I walked into Mendy’s wanting soup. I assumed it would be good, I mean what could possibly go wrong with chicken soup, right? This soup was very, very, very salty and had absolutely no chicken flavor. The broth color resembles urine, and I suspect they’re using artificial color. And, oddly enough, it’s greasy! How does one make a chicken soup completely devoid of flavor (other than the salt) AND greasy? At least the matzoh balls were edible.
* Pastrami sandwich (on rye with mustard) — I admit, it’s hard to go wrong with pastrami, but Mendy’s manages to slice it too thin and too greasy — they don’t slice to order — and it ends up being tough, greasy and stringy, not tender. The rye bread (not seeded) was OK, and it’s only purpose was to soak up the globs of grease from the pastrami. The best part of the sandwich was the deli mustard (spicy and sour).
* Turkey sandwich (on rye with lettuce, tomatoes, onion and Russian dressing) — It was a fair approximation of a kosher deli turkey sandwich, except for that the turkey was not roasted fresh. They used a «Boars-​Head» type turkey breast — completely unacceptable and inedible.
* Brisket sandwich (on rye with mustard) — I’ve eaten steamed cardboard that was better. No flavor whatsoever. Tough, stringy, leathery.
* Chopped liver — I’ve had better and I have worse. Since it was in the the non-​memorable category, I’ll give it the benefit of a doubt and state it was just OK.
* Salad — I admit, I should have seen this coming. As a rule one does not wander into a place known for sandwiches and ask for a salad, but there was a line of customers getting salad. So I figured it would probably be OK. The salad was absolute crap: it poorly prepared with very little lettuce, way too many onions (and I love onions), and meat (roast beef) that looked like it had been leftover from WWII. To make matters worse, the idiot behind the counter completely screwed up my order: I asked for balsamic vinaigrette, he gave me balsamic vinegar.
Avoid Mendy’s at all costs.

Ordered a burger, mashed potatoes, and cole-​slaw. The burger was hard and bland and the cole-​slaw had almost no flavor. Worst of all, when they told me to come and ick it up, the food was already cold.

A friend and I stopped in for a very quick grab-​and-​go lunch here and it was fine.
Décor: There is not much to this place. In fact, it’s downright TINY. I really didn’t get a good look around because I blinked…
Bathroom: Um… probably not.
Staff: The cashiers were nice and quick with constructing our hot dogs.
Food: We each had a hot dog and a bag of chips (both of which were good). I have walked by here many times and seen the hot dogs rotating in the window (and they always look so good!) so I was eager to finally give them a try. They pretty much lived up to expectation.
Value: Given the competition (street carts) this place is a bit on the pricey side…
While I enjoyed our lunch, it was mainly due to the company and that fact that we sat outside on a nice day, the food was neither here nor there and I don’t’ know that I’d return again.

Are Cockroaches Glatt Kosher?
Enough said — Over priced, not that great, saw one of the largest NYC cockroaches to date. PASS.

cockroach in the goulash!

It’s a solid staple place. All of their deli meats are phenomenal… my faves pastrami, corned beef, tongue, and hard salami. Their chicken liver is delicious as well. Sadly their matzo ball soup is tasteless and bland compared to others I’ve had this from. I like to switch it up and instead of just the usual rye, I get their pastrami piled high in one of their yummy square knishes!
The one odd thing I found about this place is that they serve their tongue cold unless you ask for it to be heated. But delivery is pretty good and they are very good at paying attention to special instructions on every order.

No, just no.
Their Matzo ball soup was the only thing worth getting since it had some good flavor.
Their «assorted dessert» on seamless for $ 5.95 or so was a strong sugary but weird tasting roll-​up cake with rasberry filling.
Their potato and zucchinni pies were dry, without taste and looked like they were sitting out for days and just foiled up.
ALSO, it took an hour and a half to get my food where it said it would take 20 – 30 minutes in the estimate on seamless.
BAD experience and will continue to just order or go to Ben’s in midtown.

If you’re used to traditional Jewish food, don’t eat here. Matzo ball soup overwhelmingly garlicky, never tasted garlic in my soup before but overall it was still good.
I ordered a kasha knish, which should be a dough shell filled with kasha, no brainer. Mendy’s has kasha on the outer crust and filled with potato. I brought it back to say I got the wrong knish but they told me it’s right. It’s a kasha and potato knish. I said, that’s a new one. The cashier and the manager just looked at me. Kasha isn’t expensive. For $ 3.50 you should get the filling you request. If I wanted potato, I would have ordered it. Too many Jewish delis to patronize them again.

I was at Mendy’s a week ago and try to go here whenever I am in NYC. I love Mendy’s. While I certainly respect my fellow Unilocalers and their opinions, I have been here several times and I am never disappointed. The food is fresh and delicious. I usually get the pastrami sandwich. It is huge and so tasty. In a world where kosher restaurants are becoming harder and harder to find, it makes me feel better that Places like Mendy’s still exist.

Substandard food at astronomical prices. $ 12.00 for a run-​of-​the-​mill turkey sandwich on rye bread? Never again.

I like the food, a bit pricey at times, i go there so much so they know me and all my ordering habits. People are nice there. It is a small hole in the wall but good for the area.

Mendy’s I just can’t quit you!!! Yes, you are overpriced. Yes, your physical location looks shoddy (which is why I order online — ignorance is bliss). Yes, your delivery takes forever and the sandwich bread has gotten soggy by the time I finally take my first bite. And yes, half the time you forget my free pickle and mini cole slaw sides even though I make a note to please include them.
But man, your matzo ball soup is so good that it can rival my mother’s (I have yet to try any other soup there because I can’t break with the matzo ball soup). And the sandwich options are vast and delectable (corned beef? brisket? pastrami? tuna? the embarrassment of choices!). I want to hate you, but I keep coming back for more.

This place is solid, but beware of the slow check out line at the register if you’re pressed for time on a lunch break.
I ordered the ½ soup, ½ sammich combo. They ran out of small soup cups, but filled a large one to the brim for no extra charge! I dig the generosity. The mushroom barley was creamy and hot with a touch of spice, delicious.
Since it was my last day in the city, of course I ordered a pastrami on rye with mustard and Russian dressing. It was good, but didn’t blow me away. The meat was a bit fatty, but it was still tasty.
Make sure you ask for a garlicky kosher pickle, or they’re give you the super green boring one instead.
By the time I got my food to the register I was drooling over it and dying to sit down and eat. In front of me was a very finicky girl paying for like five separate meals individually and a man putting in a catering order for some future date. I swear to G-​d I was in a Seinfeld episode, or worse, I expected Larry David to walk over and complicate things further.
I doubt I would return simply because there are too many other kosher delis to try instead.

You wanna believe pastrami is pastrami and you can’t screw it up but somehow this place has managed to find very bland pastrami with a bologna-​like texture and charge you around ten dollars for it.
Then again it is Purim and it could be some mean prank on the customers. Also the hamentashen was a tasty chaser to an otherwise saddening sandwich.

This place didn’t quite live up to my expectations. After always hearing about how great it was from other people and of course the countless Seinfeld references, I thought it was going to be more than just a normal deli. It isn’t.
I had a pastrami sandwich, and it was amongst the most dismal and bland pastrami sandwiches I’ve ever had. The saving grace of this place was that my wife ordered Shawarma (some Israeli specialty meat) in a pita with humus. It was beyond delicious.
So with one sandwich being terrible and another being amazing, this place gets a 3
Oh, and at this location, the guy behind the counter, pretty sure he was the owner or manager, was kind of a jerk. Very short tempered with us when we were asking what they had. I’d understand that if it was busy, but it wasn’t. We were the only people in the damn place. Pretty sure he’s just a genuine ass.

The place is really small and can probably only fit 5 – 6 people comfortably at the table.
The sandwiches are only okay… I had a roast beef sandwich and it was a bit on the dry side, but not terrible. I had a groupon to the place and that is probably the only reason why I went.
There was Dr. Brown’s celery soda. That was quite interesting.

This is one of my go-​tos on seamless, when at work.
The pastrami and corned beef sandwiches are tasty. The soups are hearty. The meat is kosher. The soda is Doc Brown’s. So, the deli is a staple for me.
Plus, it’s a good place to get my meat fix as a zabihah/​kosher eater, without having to get desi, arab, or persian.
I’m never blown away, but I’m never let down. It’s especially good when you are hungry, and don’t want to take a risk. Not a great place when you’re feeling adventurous or looking for inspiration.
Lately, I’ve noticed the lunch soup & sandwich sandwich has less and less meat. What’s up with that?

Would not go back here.
Gave it $ 2 since it was edible — barely. Low quality bread became instantly soggy and fell apart even though I ate the sandwich seconds after it was made. Very small portion size, as they were very stingy with the meat. I expect more from a $ 11 Corned beef reuben at a deli. Meat was not particularly tasty and I love corned beef. The only reason I could see anyone going here is if they kept strict kosher and were absolutely starving. Otherwise, there are much better options whether or not you keep kosher.

So I went to Mendy’s earlier today and had a hotdog, which was pretty good, albeit a bit expensive.
I had always known Mendy’s from Seinfeld and despite having grown up in New York City, had never actually eaten there.
While I am not sure that this Mendy’s is representative of the chain as a whole, I found the experience enjoyable enough (again, keeping in mind that I was sitting in the Councourse at Rockerfeller Center in mind) that I have decided that I will visit on of their other locations in the near future. I think i’m going to get the corned beef and turkey combo.

Hey — it’s endorsed by the Seinfeld cast, it must be good! If you like deli, they have all the classic sandwiches (pastrami, salami, roast beef, turkey, etc.) and they’re fine, kosher sandwiches. The pricing is good; they have a soup and half-​a-​sandwich deal for under $ 10.
They have only 8 – 10 seats (which are all uncomfortable), so it’s mostly takeout, but I usually like to sit and enjoy the soup while it’s hot. And it’s fun to eat in the GE building at Rockefeller Center — I’m in real estate and every time I walk in there, the building astounds me. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.