Katz's Delicatessen

Katz's Delicatessen at 205 E Houston Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side has served Jewish deli food in New York City since 1888, making it one of the oldest and most famous delicatessens in the United States. The cuisine is classic Eastern European Jewish deli fare, and the kitchen's reputation rests on brined, spiced and steamed pastrami and corned beef that are hand-carved to order at the cutting counters rather than sliced in advance. The pastrami on rye is the emblematic dish, piled high between slices of rye bread with mustard, and it has become a required stop for many first-time visitors to New York. Corned beef sandwiches, matzo ball soup, knockwurst, latkes and pickles round out the menu, and a sandwich is large enough that many diners split one. The dining room is a large, high-ceilinged hall with long communal-style tables, bare-bones decor, photographs of visiting celebrities on the walls and a constant din of orders being called out. Service is unusual: on entry each guest receives a paper ticket that records every item purchased, and the ticket is handed back at the exit to settle the bill, so it should be kept safe because a lost ticket carries a penalty charge. Visitors order at the counter, ask the carver for a taste of the meat, tip the carver, and then find a table or wait for table service in the sit-down section. The dress code is entirely casual. Beverages are simple, centred on egg creams, cream soda, Dr. Brown's sodas and beer. Katz's does not take reservations for ordinary meals, so the practical challenge is queue management rather than booking: lines are longest at weekend lunch and on weekend late nights, while weekday mid-afternoon tends to be calmer. Prices sit in the mid-range for New York, with a signature sandwich costing roughly twenty-five dollars or more. The deli is a short walk from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and other neighbourhood sights, and it is often paired with a wider exploration of the area's Jewish immigrant history in New York State's largest city.