Rye Delicatessen & Bar

What a polarizing place! People seem to love or hate Rye. Put me in the camp of thinking it's pretty good. My wife and I went to Rye last night for the first time. It's surprising that it was the first time for us since it's walking distance from our condo. We had the poutine as an appetizer, she had a Rachael and I had the Knish pot pie. Clearly I hadn't read the reviews well enough because I didn't realize it was counter service only. I was okay with that; just surprised. We liked the food; we thought the dishes had good, distinctive, pronounced flavors. The poutine was a foreign concept to us, but it was excellent comfort food. The pot pie I had was a bit peppery and I liked it. The place was doing a pretty good business so I'm hopeful they will survive as a business. We are by no means connoisseurs of Jewish deli's, but we can certainly recommend this restaurant.

First of all this concept is exactly what Minneapolis needed! Blend of Jewish Delicatessen with full bar service. The bar was nice: Schmaltz Brewery selection and micro focused drafts, interesting wine selection with some fair, and some overpriced and silly "By The Glass" selections. Prairie Vodka is always nice to see (and Kosher as well). The food was the big disappointment. The Poutine was great fries, with far too little cheese and cheap gravy made from powder. Overall, not Poutine. The Corned Beef was sad and dry (biggest disappointment). The Knish was far from fresh, I have had better Knishes on almost any street corner in New York. I have hopes I can erase this review and write a glowing one about their food in the future, I will return...but not for a couple of months.

<unfortunately, Rye has closed> After hearing quite a few people rave about "Rye", I vowed to visit. I decided this even though I'm on a diet and watching every calorie; I don't eat out often any more. But this decision was made after waking up far too early on a Saturday morning and deciding I needed comfort food for breakfast. I saw, online, that they opened on Saturday morning for breakfast at 7am, so I drove on down and sat in the parking lot reading "Game of Thrones" until their doors opened. Inside, the place is a fantastic, modern-luxe bar atmosphere. It is not a deli; not in the way you envision a delicatessen, at any rate. But all the flavors of a deli are there. All the wonderful smells, too. In the kitchen, I could see loaves of bread being prepared. For my breakfast, I had the Lox Benedict and, boy, was that a great way to start my day. I had it with a side of fruit. And, true to their high-quality standards, they were still making some elements in the kitchen, such as the hollandaise for the Benedict. They asked if I would mind waiting, just like any professional and solid establishment should, and -of course- I did not mind one bit. To know that they made their sauces from scratch, that I was the first customer of the day at the break of dawn, meant that I was assured high quality. I was not disappointed. Sure, the seats are hard-wood and that's not the best for my back but, wow, everything else was excellent! I'm definitely going back!

Had dinner with friends at Rye last night, and was very pleased! Great food, and excellent, attentive (but not intrusive) table service. I had the knife and fork Reuben, and we shared an order of fresh cut sea salt fries, even the ketchup is scratch made! We'll definitely be back to explore the meats some more!

Meh. This place seemed a lot more promising than it turned out to be. My husband and I shared the poutine to start. Not much cheese and the gravy tasted like it came from a packet. The fries were nothing to write home about either. Our sandwiches were just okay and the coleslaw was boring. The service was good, but I don't think we'll be back. Nothing more than overpriced diner food here. If you want awesome meat and scrumptious sides, go to Brasa in Nordeast!

I have been looking for a decent black and white cookie ever since I've moved here! I grew up in NY and have sorely missed a lot of the food I left behind. Minnesotans despite their best efforts can't get authentic Jewish food right. The bialys and bagels are made in house and the cheesecake is what cheesecake is supposed to taste like. This place had a rough start but is a true uptown gem. One of the best happy hours in the Twin Cities.

I really wanted to love this place since it’s so close to home, but I was disappointed. Their menu and beer is very overpriced in my opinion. I had the Reuben since it sounded like their specialty. It was ok, far from the best I ever had though. Had hardly any dressing on it and for $13.50 I felt ripped off. Cole slaw was bland and small. Just sat out on the counter in a huge tray. I sat at the bar, seen a few fruit flies swarming around the liquor bottles. Didn’t even want to eat anymore after seeing that but wasn’t going to let my $13.50 sandwich go to waste. Place was overstaffed, people standing everywhere trying to look busy, bartender texting on her phone. Granted they weren’t busy and I really didn’t care but at least go back to the kitchen out of site to check your phone. Restrooms were nice. Skip this place and go down the street to The Lowry for a much better experience.

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!