I’m visiting NYC this week and I’d like to try a good, authentic deli for lunch, probably on Monday. My schedule makes it most convenient to go to a deli in the northern end of Upper West Side. I don’t mind hitting a touristy deli but I’d rather go to one that the locals go to. Any suggestions?
There’s Artie’s on 83rd and Broadway
Barney Greengrass on Amsterdam between 86th and 87th
Zabar’s, a food market, on 80th on Broadway also has a cafe
http://www.zabars.com/cafe-department/CAFE_DEPARTMENT,default,pg.html
There’s also Fine and Shapiro on 72nd between Amsterdam and Columbus. No website, unfortunately.
Not sure of any others on the Upper West Side
You might try Tom’s on 112th and Amsterdam. Typical diner food but if you take a look at it, you’ll recognize the exterior from somewhere.
Hope that helps. Have a nice time.
If you’re in the neighborhood, definitely go to Zabar’s (Broadway & 80th). It’s a lot more than just a deli. It’s one of the things I miss most about NYC.
Oh man, especially on a Sunday morning when the whole neighborhood is there, and the fresh croissants have just been brought out . . .
What do you mean by a deli? I’ve found it has a special meaning, and a special menu, to New Yorkers that it doesn’t have elsewhere. Tom’s, for example, at which I’ve eaten hundreds of meals, is definitely not a NYC deli.
I know it’s not a deli hence “typical diner food.”
Most places the word means “cold takeout counter” - cold cuts, salads, etc. In NYC “deli” also means a kind of cuisine, a codename for traditionally Jewish food. (Many essentially Jewish things go by codenames, eg: “Catskill” comedy.)
So please list the thousand or so other restaurants in Manhattan, or the hundreds or so on the Upper West Side, that serve typical diner food. There’s very little on Tom’s menu that you can’t get in any other diner in America–why would someone come to NYC to eat in a diner?
I’ve found that quite a few people from out of town like to eat at Tom’s if they’re looking for a quick bite someplace particularly if they’re on the Upper West Side which is where the OP said he was going.
-
Because the exterior was used throughout Seinfeld’s entire run whenever Jerrry and friends went to eat at “Monk’s”
-
Because it’s the restaurant mentioned by Suzanne Vega in “Tom’s Diner.”
But yeah “typical diner food” does not equal “deli”
Hope that helps.
It’s “Borscht Belt comedy” for the summer resorts in the Catskills where Jewish people would go for vacation.
But codenames? Come on. :rolleyes:
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Hey, I got the idea from Calvin Trillin, whose (Jewish) family in Kansas City used to patronize an outfit called the New York Delicatessen. He explained that “New York” was code for “Jewish”, and widely understood as such, in the days when anti-Semitism was more above ground than it is now.
If I was really craving N.Y. deli food, I’d rearrange my schedule to make a subway stop at Houston* St. in lower Manhattan to visit this place. There’s also a joint called Katz’s nearby that has earned somewhat of a reputation.
*That’s “How-ston” in case you get lost and need to ask for directions. 
Yeah, there’s still a lot of spots in that area that fit the bill of “deli,” and in Brooklyn too, but if all you want is tuna-on-white, stick to the upper west side. What do you want?
Jump on the West Side IRT and go downtown a few stops to Seventh Avenue in the west 50s, and head for the Stage or the Carnegie. It’s not that far out of your way.
Katz’s would be the best, but that’s on the Lower East Side.
The Second Avenue Deli would be the best, except that it no longer exists. 
And don’t even try equating “diner” with “deli.”
Oh my, the Carnegie Deli–only been there once but man alive was that a sandwich! The thing was so friggin’ huge I asked for two more pieces of rye bread, made a whole second sandwich that I had wrapped up and got totally stuffed on the other half. Being goyische I asked for cheese on my sammich and it arrived on a second plate, heh. The bowls of pickles on the tables were mindnumbingly nommy and I wished I had a jar to bring some home with me. The second half of the sammich came along on the plane with me and I asked the stewardess to warm it up a touch in the microwave, which sent a wave of deliciously garlicky scent all through the plane. Eating it was a lot like streaking through the tiger cage at the zoo wearing a meat diaper…
Thanks for the suggestions all. I’ve written some of them down.
Good question. My goal is to experience NYC culture and that includes delis. New Yorkers will have to tell me what that means.
The Second Avenue Deli reopened a year ago, on East 33rd Street near Third Avenue. From most reports, its food is nearly as good as it used to be.
Seconding Artie’s, tho, as being a very decent deli on the Upper West Side. (There is an excellent bagel place close to Artie’s the name of which, unfortunately, escapes me–and no I don’t mean H&H Bagels, where Kramer worked in one episode, across the street)
When I stayed in NYC all those years ago (more than 25), I used to go to the Stars Deli, on Lexington near 52nd, if I remember correctly. Quaint place, always packed, excellent smoked meat and pastrami, with loads of framed signed pictures of celebrities, past and present.
Does it still exist?
Tom’s is on 112th and Broadway. I know because I live across the street.
I’ve never eaten there, but I hear the food is not very good.
love
yams!!