A friend recommended Carnegie’s before my first and only trip so far to New York, and after finally finding the deli we were not disappointed. We had spent the morning attempting to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade amongst the vast crowds, and ice skating in Central Park, a must if you are visiting New York during the winter months.

There was a disappointingly long queue outside when we arrived at Carnegies but as we joined we were relieved at how quickly it was moving. The ridiculously large gateaux’s in the deli window were inviting as we swiftly moved to the front of the queue. As we waited to be seated we attempted to name the celebrities who covered almost the entire wall space in their framed, signed photographs. 

Our waitress, who had worked at the deli for some 30 plus years, was a real character. When I asked why there were all these celebrity photographs on the walls, she confirmed that they had all at some point eaten at the deli, and she had personally met the majority of them.

We were seated on a long canteen style table, and it wasn’t long before we engaged in conversation with the couple next to us. The Woody Allen sandwich, consisting of hot pastrami, corn beef, mustard & pickle, was legendary in these parts. We duly obliged and ordered one between the two of us based on its enormous reputation! The sandwich certainly lived up to said reputation. The top layers of meat had to be pulled off the sandwich to be eaten first. This was necessary in order to be able to physically consume it. The warm meat was amazingly tender and seasoned well, with the mustard and pickle finishing it off nicely.

At a price of $15, it was more than I would normally pay for a sandwich, but this was no ordinary sandwich. It was more than worth the money and I will definitely be back to Carnegie’s on my next visit to New York (New York Trip, November 2014)