Trying PASTRAMI QUEEN! Is NYC’s Cheapest Pastrami Worth it?

Out of all the famous pastrami on rye sandwiches in NYC, such as Katz’s Deli, 2nd Ave Deli, and Sarge’s Deli, Pastrami Queen is a name that is frequently mentioned among the best pastrami sandwiches in NYC. Not only is Pastrami Queen touted as one of the best pastrami sandwiches in New York City, it is also one of the most affordable. Pastrami Queen offers half sandwiches, so you can get a pastrami sandwich for just $13!

In the current era of $27 pastrami sandwiches, $13 is quite a bargain, but is Pastrami Queen good or is it just cheap and nothing else? We put Pastrami Queen to the test in this video, seeing if it really is an excellent sandwich or if it’s just affordable and nothing else. I find that in life you often get what you pay for and if you want the cheapest pastrami in New York City that’s one thing, but personally I don’t necessarily mind paying a little more to eat at one of the best Jewish delis in New York City. You might say I prioritize quality over quantity!

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Restaurant Deets:
Pastrami Queen
138 W 72nd St A, New York, NY 10023

Hey guys and welcome to another episode of UA eats I’m UA and I am in the upper wests Side neighborhood of Manhattan around the 72nd Street and Broadway area and uh yeah I’m actually standing right outside the famous Grace papaya we’re definitely going to review Grace papaya for the channel sometime but we’re

Actually not here for hot dogs because down the street from Grace papaya there’s a pastrami place that I get frequently recommended and you know that pastrami is something that we eat a lot on this channel so I know I can’t miss it the place is called pastrami Queen

And it’s a Jewish deli and as its name suggest I presume that it specializes primarily in pastrami I also hear that this place is a little bit more affordable I hear that they kind of have like a half sandwich deal now when you order pastrami yes it’s over stuffed yes

It’s humongous but it’s also like 2628 bucks and and that’s a tough pill to swallow especially since most people don’t need to eat that much food in one sitting but at pastrami Queen they have a half sandwich combo deal so you can get a half sandwich for like 15 bucks

Which is much more affordable so let’s see if this pastrami is great and at the very least it could be one of the better if not best pastrami deals in the city so let’s check it Out it looks like they opened the location of Charles pan Fried Chicken also in the Upper West Side now this is a pretty highly regarded hole in- thewall fried chicken joint in Harlem so going to have to try this sometime but of course we’re not going to try the

Offshoot we’re going to try the original Harlem location so stay tuned for that okay so it is freezing as heck today and you know at first I thought they were closed I thought that was like paper you know blocking all the windows but it turns out that it’s just so cold

That that’s Steam and with how cold it is a homemade matab ball soup really would hit the spot so let’s give this place a Shot okay guys so we’re seated at pastrami Queen now it is a little bit past 10:00 a.m. so they just opened so it’s uh pretty empty but it kind of has like a you know Diner feel SL oldfashioned Jewish deli feel to it the walls too are kind of lined with pictures of

Old-fashioned Jewish delies some that have gone and passed and Yeah you sort of feel like you’re almost in like a Museum eating in here it’s a really really cool atmosphere let’s take a look at the menu real quick so we’re seated at one of these booths so I got a paper

Menu and then I’m going to order now of course this is pastrami Queen so as you can see pastrami is front and center on their menu and it’s even engraved in like a box there you know like a double front and center advertising and I got to say those prices are more than

Reasonable I mean $24.50 for a full sandwich that’s a bit average I presume that’s a full sandwich but a junior sandwich which I presume is a half sandwich 13 bucks honestly that’s a pretty good policy because you know it’s often hard to eat a full pastrami

Sandwich in one sitting I could do it easily back in my college days nowadays I’m you know trying to watch the waistline a little bit so half sandwich for half the price what an idea and then other than that it does seem like this place kind of really specializes mostly

In pastrami and corn beef and you know similar food like roast turkey and things like that cuz there’s not too much else on the menu you know no like burgers or like burritos or things like that just your OG Jewish deli pastrami corn beef that kind of food although of

Course we’re going to get a matal soup because we were convinced by the ad outside chicken in the pot really really interesting maybe we should try that sometime I presume that’s what they’re making in the back I saw them you know stuffing some chickens on like a skewer

Yeah those chickens that might be it roasted half chicken dinner they’re prepping them in advance and you know we can’t go to a Jewish deli without getting an egg cream we got to get one of those and they only have chocolate here which could be showing you know that they’re really traditional because

Chocolate is the original egg cream flavor although personally I’m more of a vanilla guy I feel like the chocolate egg cream sometimes can be too sweet too syrupy kind of like you’re just drinking chocolate milk that’s fizzy the vanilla ones I find to be a little bit more

Unique but we give it a chance why don’t we chocolate egg cream let’s go ahead and order and uh you know get some food actually before we order I just realized that they have a lunch special that looks pretty good it’s $23 for a half sandwich and any soup ah actually on

Second thought the half sandwich is only 13 bucks right so 13 plus 11 for the matab ball soup so 24 bucks right I mean it looks pretty good but I guess you only save a dollar hey uh Penny saved do a Penny earned right so I guess it’s better than

Nothing excellent thank you thank you so much all right so we just ordered and the food came really really fast like maybe within just barely even 3 minutes maybe 2 minutes and we ordered a lot of things we got a piping hot Moz ball soup

We got an egg cream and we got our sandwich now uh I will be honest I kind of read some reviews before I came here and some recent reviews were not super kind to to this place but maybe it was just you know a few bad days because the

Matab ball soup is looking pretty solid I mean the broth is looking pretty clear they also threw in some noodles too some common complaints were that the pastrami sandwich was way too thin some people said that it was like a very thin slice of pastrami not really worth the price

But honestly for a half sandwich this is looking pretty solid if you ask me looks like a very fair portion size to me okay I wish the bread was a little bit bit more seated but you know it’s okay it’s overall looking not bad but this

Chocolate egg cream we got to drink this right away just look at this beautiful foamy head does that just not look like a wonderful egg cream to you this might be the best one we’ve ever received in any of these delies looking pretty good let’s drink this before the head recedes why don’t

We let’s try the egg cream you know what they teach you in school you know what your mama taught you nothing more nutritious in the morning for breakfast than a chocolate egg cream that’s what they say right well I mean people drink chocolate milk in the morning right that’s sort of a breakfast

Thing okay all right I mean let’s face it this definitely isn’t the best thing to drink for breakfast SL brunch but it’s excellent I mean just look this foamy head is you know still here after a few minutes like it really hasn’t receded much so this egg cream was made

With a great amount of carbonation and it was really freshly made and freshly stirred really the skill and the technique and the speed of which they made this really you know made the whole drink you might say like it tastes fizzy it tastes chocolatey it does taste like

A nice refreshing chocolate soda and not like you’re just drinking like a mouthful of chocolate syrup cuz I’ve had some bad egg creams before and you know some egg creams some egg creams are like way too sweet way too syrupy I even had the egg cream that is supposedly the best one at

Was that place called was it called Ray’s candy shop I think in the St Mark’s NYU area but I just found that it was way too sweet it was like gross and syrupy and it literally tasted like I was just drinking syrup from a bottle

But here they got it down they got the ratio down you taste that milky flavor fizzy carbonation just right foamy head not too sweet and look even after you know several minutes of talking the foamy head is still staying intact tells you all you need to know about that in my

Opinion excellent the best egg cream I’ve ever had now let’s turn our attention to the Moab ball soup and it is freezing so this is very welcome oo just look at that clear broth all right you know it’s pretty good but it could use some salt would be ideal if

They had the seasoning down in the recipe itself but you know I guess in this case they leave the power in your hands plus maybe it helps with people who may have hypertension so salt and pepper but not too much and it is time to review the soup a little bit more

Seasoned oh yeah oh yeah that did it just a addad more salt just add your own salt and you got a good thing going this broth is pretty excellent it’s clear you really taste like a Pure Clean chicken flavor presuming that this is made from real

Chicken which I believe it is you know obviously there’s going to be some oil in it but it’s not overly oily you know it’s not overly fatty now of course my only gripe is I wish the portion were a little bit bigger like often times when

You get these mle soups it’s like you’re drinking from like a bird bath but as you can see it is not the biggest portion size this is a lunch special so you know you’re paying for half portions of everything so I am going to presume that their full portion is larger but

Let’s try some of this matah why don’t we and this matah ball is looking pretty fluffy and pretty awesome if you ask me okay let’s try another bite of the mat bow and this one seems to have soaked up a lot of the soup you know the soup is pretty good

But the mat balls are slightly lacking in flavor a little bit like I would say they’re a little bit Bland and uh I know like the seasoning is on the side here like I know you’re expected to do your own seasoning at this restaurant but I feel like with these matah balls even

Though they do soak up the broth I feel like they don’t quite soak up enough salt from the broth like they at least need more salt within the mat balls themselves other than being under season though these M balls are extremely fluffy they’re extremely light and as

You can see by me cutting one in half they kind of like float on top they say they’re sinkers and floaters these are floaters they were light and Airy you really feel like this is a very healthy meal the egg cream of course was not great for breakfast but this Moz ball

Absolutely is what a healthy way to start your day or to end your day or you know meet it in the middle if you’re eating for lunch so I just wish they were a little bit more seasoned it is time for us to review the pastrami sandwich and at least at first glance

The pastrami sandwich is looking pretty solid to me it’s got a nice color I like all the bark on the edges it’s sliced real thin I get the feeling that this pastrami is probably machine sliced not many people hand sliced them like cat’s Deli does if it’s sliced thinly then

That might lend itself to a very delicate and fall in your mouth flavor which is why a lot of sandwich meats are thin sliced in the first place like the Philly cheese steak or the Italian beef sandwich they slice it thinly so that the meat goes further and also so that

It’s more palatable if you’re using like a cheaper cut of beet that’s why they slic them thinly so that you can really chew them and it’s looking real fatty as well I can’t wait guys let’s take a bite first of it on its own before we add mustard cuz a lot

Of good pami sandwiches will stand on their own all right first bite H let’s add some mustard and then try another Bite even though the tube is bright yellow so it looks like it’s yellow mustard it’s actually a pretty nice looking brown mustard on the inside all right let’s see if this makes a difference okay the mustard was not really able to save it that much uh I will say that

Obviously this is still New York so compared to pastrami sandwiches outside of New York this is probably still solid but for New York I would say not one of the better ones I’ve had I was hoping that the added dimension of the mustard would kind of add like another flavor Dimension which would

Offset some things but not so much uh unfortunately the pastrami is quite tough like it’s quite chewy there’s a difference of course between like a pleasant chew you know like a meat where you know it’s chewy and you want to chew it so that you Savor the juices and

Every bite and then there’s also chewy because like you just your teeth just can’t break it apart and I guess chewy versus tough and nobody really likes tough you know and in this case as beautiful as this sandwich may be uh you know the meat is quite tough like it

Kind of doesn’t come apart and it sort of feels like there’s like fibers holding it all together like here let me take a piece here and try to show you as you can see it does come apart when you pull it but you sort of see like there’s

Like some tendons or something that’s kind of like holding it together it comes apart you know with some Force but you really need to apply Force to pull it apart like as you can see here it’s almost like there’s like rubber bands you know coursing throughout this whole

Pastrami see look this one’s even almost hanging on and pulling the the rest of the sandwich with it like just look at how elastic The Strand is can I even break it off we got like a meat rubber band here like for real maybe I should save this

And bring it home in case Tina wants to use it for like a hair band or something now let me talk about what I like I really really do like the bark the spice rub on the bark is quite nice nice spice rub flavor in every Bite it is pleasant and I do really like that when pami sandwiches do that fortunately though I would say what I like kind of stops there like the meat is also even kind of cold like at some delies if you get there early enough when they first open the meat is even

Piping hot here it’s h quite cold and you know it’s not even lukewarm some meat slices are even just cold so the chewy tough nature of the meat plus the cold temperature definitely a let down and the bread is also not the best quality bread I would say like I would

Prefer a more seed dry bread but it does look pretty you know like if you catch the Light properly you know if you’re posting it to Instagram or something it definitely you know looks to part I would say overall pretty mediocre it may be a good price but you

Definitely get what you pay for here I think but I’m going to finish this and I’m going to finish this Moz ball soup which I generally enjoyed and even without the head I am still going to finish drinking this egg cream which this egg cream was fantastic so stay

Tuned for some final thoughts outside all right guys so we just finished eating at pastrami Queen and H I felt like it was only okay I mean the monol soup was decent I thought it was passable the egg cream was fantastic but the sandwich itself you know the place

Is called pastrami Queen so you really go there for the pastrami sandwich not just a deli sandwich you specifically go there for pastrami the pastrami sandwich itself was just not impressive Ive it was way too tough way too chewy now it was a very good price I mean it was only

23 bucks for a sandwich and a matal soup very very good price probably one of the best priced Jewish delies that I’ve been to so far but that being said I mean you kind of get what you pay for I don’t know about you guys I mean as much as I

Would complain about how much pastrami sandwiches are at other Jewish delies I mean 26 bucks is definitely unreasonable in my opinion no matter how good the sandwich is but I still sort of would rather pay a little bit more and get a good product than pay less and get like

A mediocre product that you don’t really feel good about after eating so my advice for you based on the pastrami sandwich itself I think you can skip this place pastrami Queen it’s pretty mediocre and on top of that while the Upper West Side is a pretty nice place a very beautiful peaceful neighborhood

Especially if you’re a tourist it’s probably not worth coming all the way up here just to eat here so at least when it comes to the pastrami I think you can do better but I may be back to pastrami Queen someday not based on the sandwich but

Based on that egg cream I got to say that was the best egg cream I’ve ever had and I’ve had many at this point and I think this one definitely stood out so I might be back someday to you know sit in there relax and sip a chocolate egg

Cream that is uh you know if they’ll let me back in if they ever watch this video but anyways guys what do you guys think of pastrami Queen and what’s your favorite place to get pastrami in New York City or anywhere in the world let me know in the comments because great

Minds eat alike if you like my videos make sure you like And subscribe that way you stay up to date whenever I post another video it’s beautiful out here in New York’s Upper West Side so let’s go for a walk especially since it’s a beautiful day so until next time I’ll see you Later