Christopher K.
SerpAPI
The owners of Rye Delicatessen must have a wry sense of humor; besides for the bar offerings, this restaurant has the "deli" formula totally backwards. First of all, a deli should have good food, and although the cleanliness and presentation of the restaurant and kitchen was above average, the food was bland, underwhelming, and exorbitantly expensive; $15 for a mediocre sandwich and a soda, give me a break! Secondly, if you are going here expecting a traditional deli experience, you may be sadly disappointed, as the flavor of the food and the recipes used in its preparation offer anything but the traditional delicatessen flavor: everything is more sweet than salty;the meat is cooked decently but under-spiced; the sandwiches are served with three measly slices of atrocious sweet pickles (where's my kosher dill spear? you may ask); the knish is sad at best :-( I don't know quite what else to say. If you are looking for a good happy hour, Rye's beer and wine specials are more than reasonable, but if you drink you'd probably end up across the street at Liquor Lyle's anyways, and if you are, like I was, looking for a real deli, you'd be better off going to Caffrey's or Brothers'. Sadly, Rye is not the real thing, had I stayed any longer, I wouldn't have been surprised if they announced that the special would be smoked lutefisk; that's how nontraditional this place is, clearly having compromised or confounded "deli" with Minnesota-appeal to too far of an extent. It's hard to tell if this business will succeed, but if it does without changing the prices or the food, it will not do so by the patronage of true deli fans! To recapitulate: big, expensive, disappointment!