Best pastrami in NYC?

Guess where I am? 

that queue... all day, every day.

I'm at none other than the famed Katz's deli, which is known to have queues at any time of the day. However, I don't think they are anywhere comparable to the queues of Hong Kong's Ichiran... yes my home city is some crazy queue-loving place. 

Anyway, my belief is that one cannot have truly "eaten" NYC without visiting a proper deli... and since I've heard too much about this place it was only righteous that I paid a visit to Katz's.

If you're not in the States don't get too excited - they only ship nationwide ;)

Frankfurter (kosher) ($3.45)

Really good. Normally you wouldn't think to order a hot dog in a deli but these are really really good. Soft fresh bun, very good natural all-beef hot dog, mustard and excellent tomato-onion topping... At this price it was definitely a steal.

Matzo ball soup ($5.95)

 Quite nice, but I didn't think much of it - guess this isn't really my kind of soup. 

What people should try as a first-time customer here (be warned, come with 2 hungry others): 3 Meat Platter ($30.25)

Rye, platter of different deli meats

 That stack of rye bread is refillable, not that you need/should but the option is there. It's actually very decent bread and obviously fresh as the turnovers here are quite high. The fastest way to ruin your reputation as a sandwich shop is to serve stale bread; and Katz's is far from stale.

Corned beef, brisket, pastrami

 They warn you that this feeds 3 tourists. I was with two hungry locals, and it was still hard to finish... 

Brisket + rye bread + mustard = heaven

Pickles

 I liked the cucumbers most, followed by the green tomatoes and gherkins... Palate cleanser between sandwiches.

My favorite was the pastrami hands down, followed by the corned beef and lastly the brisket; though all three meats were extremely moist and tender. Reason? The brick-red pastrami had great flavours of smoke, spices and pepper. The corned beef at Katz's is the un-smoked version of their pastrami: beef belly cured in brine and spices and steam-cooked. Depending on the individual though, either methods of preparation makes for a bloody good sandwich. The brisket was not bad, I just found it to be a little unexciting and plain compared to the pastrami and corned beef.

The three of us were very happily stuffed after this meal and as I looked around, as were the many customers of Katz's. Their food really does live up to their reputation.

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: About US$16 pp 

Katz's Delicatessen
205 East Houston Street,
New York City 10002
New York, 
United States
T: +1 212 254 2246