Carnegie Deli - Bethlehem

I was a fan of the original Carnegie Deli in NYC. I visited it on many occasions when in the city and was disappointed to learn that the original had closed earlier this year. I was really pleased to learn that the deli still exists inside the Sands Casino. The menu appeared the same as the NYC original. I had my favorite the open face Reuben sandwich. It was humongous just like the ones in the original deli. It was a huge pile of corned beef on rye bread, topped with sauerkraut, and covered with melted cheese. A dish of thousand island dressing came with it. They even served pickles. The deli gives me reason to consider returning to the Sands Casino.

(2.75 stars) Having just checked in to the Sands Casino Resort, and holding concert tickets for a performance that evening at the Sands Event Center, our objective was simple a light dinner. We approached the Sands location of the Carnegie Deli hesitantly, not because the now closed Manhattan flagship location wasn't very good, but because we haven't found their satellite restaurants to approach the same standard. Lunch had been only a few hours earlier, so we weren't particularly hungry. Browsing the menu outside their door (virtually identical to that of their old Manhattan spot), a Milton's Smorgasbord shared between us seemed ideal. Adding two cans of Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda, we placed our order with Valentina and hoped for the best. I don't know that I've ever ordered anything which didn't involve deli meat at any true deli, but tonight was different. The Milton's Smorgasbord consists of eight halved small dinner rolls, each topped with a scoop of a protein salad (tuna, chicken, shrimp and egg). The ratio of salad to roll doesn't allow the rolls to be picked up for eating; it's either use a knife and fork, or scrape the salad off of the roll. Each of the salads was heavily dosed with mayonnaise, loaded with vegetable fillers and underseasoned. While textures were varied, only the tuna salad would have been identified by taste alone; my wife and I had this discussion while dining, and both agreed. To summarize, none was particularly good, and their small size turned out to be a blessing. Perhaps it is our fault for not going with a tried and true corned beef or pastrami sandwich. The Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda was the highlight of the meal. With a nice tip, the meal averaged just under $20/person.

Nothing great to say about the place but nothing bad either. My wife said her pastrami sandwich was good, not great. I thought my chef's salad was so-so but the addition of some of my wife's pastrami certainly helped. It wasn't great Jewish style deli but it was decent enough especially at a late hour after a show at the Sands Event Center.

Being originally from New York, I was excited to try this Carnegie Deli location. Having eaten at at the original as well as one in Vegas I had high hopes. All I can say is I was sorely disappointed. Sandwich portions and quality not up to the original. It's basically a watered down version of the original which would be fine if the quality wasn't watered down. Even the chocolate torte cheesecake was good, but not great like I remember.

I wish that this outpost of the legendary New York deli had fulfilled its reputation. I wish their food was outrageously delicious. I wish I were hungry enough to try dessert. But mostly, I wish the service lived up to the hype of a legendary NYC owned restaurant chain located within a prominent Vegas owned resort. I don 't want service to be effusive, and I don 't mind big city surliness at all. But I do expect to be attended to when I walk into a restaurant because that 's the whole point. This is my long tale: The hostess seated my party. Several minutes later she came back to our table and said, begrudgingly, I guess I 'll fill in for Scott. What do you want to drink? Who the hell is Scott? I guess we 'll meet him later. Guy at my table ordered a bottle of Budweiser to wash down his corned beef sandwich. The hostess came back with a bottle of Bud LIGHT. Guy, who despises light beer, said, I didn 't order a Light, I ordered a regular Bud. Hostess said, We only have light beers: Amstel Light, Miller Lite and Bud Light. What the you serve gigantic cured meat sandwiches and slices of cheesecake the size of the Empire State Building and you only have LIGHT beer? Were they out of all other beers, or was the menu printed incorrectly no explanation. This is important to note for the future, about three paragraphs later here. So they discussed this predicament briefly and then Guy shrugged and said he would drink the light beer since it was at our table, and who knew when this Scott was going to show up. We placed our food order with the indifferent hostess. She neglected to bring us the delicious little dish of half sour and sour dill pickles that each table is supposed to be served, so we chased down a bus person. That 's why I give this review two stars I love the pickles. Yeah, they 're very similar to the jar of Batampte in my fridge, but, still... Then we spotted the beer cooler...a full shelf of Budweiser bottles. Points deducted! The corned beef was passable rather dry, actually, disappointing. The knish was as big as my face. And I 've never had a knish with applesauce or sour cream that 's what you 'd have with a latke. You put mustard on a knish. Luckily, there was mustard on the table. *Whew* We finally got to meet Scott the waiter after we finished our meal. At that point, who cares, really? Let 's get outta here. But we waited 15 minutes for him to show up so we could request our check. Then had to wait another 10 for him to process the credit card. You know, if I were the Sands I 'd be pissed. Time is money that they weren 't getting from us while we were waiting in the restaurant. Get on that. This area of Pennsylvania is very forgiving of poor restaurant service, to a fault. I know the Carnegie Deli just opened. I know people may still be in training. But this isn 't a mom and pop sandwich shop where we 'd often forgive a little grand opening confusion. The whole experience has been touted as world class and it falls waaay short of that. The restaurant was about two thirds full with no waiting line. What would have helped is not just the lame excuse of it 's been really busy but preceding that excuse with at least an apology for making us wait. Maybe bring another little dish of pickles. We left a crappy tip. Sorry Scott. I usually over tip. It 's not your fault, I blame the management. I might like to return for hot pastrami and an egg cream, but I 'm not confident that would be fun.