new york on rye

New York on Rye is a new deli shop that opened up in Miramar. New York on Rye originally started as just a food truck and has now expanded into their own space in addition to the food truck. They opened up just a few weeks ago in a spot that has been quite a few different iterations of deli’s (Top Bun, The Gourmet Bagger, Bombastic Sandwiches). Maybe this one will finally stick?

Minion, Matt and I visited New York on Rye when they had been open for just two days. This is our first visit and they were still really ironing things out then since they were out of a lot of different breads and additions for some of their sandwiches.

[pastrami with cheese / half sandwich – $5.95]

The regular old pastrami sandwich doesn’t normally come with cheese but I was asked if I wanted it and decided to get it. I didn’t realize it because I didn’t read the menu carefully but this sandwich came to me cold, with sad unmelted cheese. I also can’t stand rye bread so I asked for it on sourdough.

The pastrami itself is outstanding here. I haven’t had a lot of pastrami in my life but I really enjoyed New York on Rye’s pastrami. It’s very thin, not too salty, and has a wonderful flavor. I can do without the cheese in the future but I think I’d rather have grilled or toasted bread. The pastrami sandwich also comes with an IPA beer mustard. I like to describe this mustard as “OMG BURNING” since that’s what I say when I eat it. It’s very strong, almost like when I accidentally eat wasabi. It feels like a punch in the throat and I had to scrape off as much of the mustard as I could just so I could eat the sandwich. But the pastrami! Oh man. The pastrami makes it worth it. 

[1/2 cup potato salad / $1]

On our first visit I asked the owner what they put in their potato salad to ensure there was not a lick of pickle or relish in it. Lucky for me there was neither and I ordered it. It has little tiny pieces of celery in it and I really enjoyed it the first time I had it. It needed a touch of salt but otherwise had a nice balance of flavor. On a more recent visit, the potato salad was inedible with an overload of vinegar in it that really washed out any other flavor in the potato salad. So… inconsistent on the potato salad so far. 

[corned beef sandwich / whole sandwich – $8.95]

I think this was Matty Matt’s corned beef sandwich. He seemed to like it even with that evil rye bread. 

[reuben / whole sandwich – $10.95]

Minion got a reuben that first time around – you can see it looks like it just barely touched the grill with that very light toasting on top. On our last visit, the bread was properly grilled and had a nice golden color on top. Improvement! 

[cup of macaroni salad / $2]

This is what a cup size of the salads look like it. I haven’t tried this. Matty Matt seems to like it while Minion doesn’t seem to like it. I can’t say either way. Macaroni salad is not my favorite side dish so I’m not inclined to order it.

[brisket dip / $10.95]

On our second visit, Minion got the Brisket Dip and informed me that it was very good and that I should order it sometime. It looks quite yummy! I’m saving that for a future visit. It comes with mushrooms and onions so I can see me ordering this in the near future. 

[pretzel and mustard sampler / $6.95]

I wanted to try “other stuff” on the second visit and decided to try out the pretzels with their mustard sampler. The mustard sampler came with maple sage mustard (on top) which I loved the most. It was a touch sweet and the sage gave it a nice earthy flavor that I really enjoyed. Also, it caused NO burning sensations so I loved it even more. I believe the other two is a spicy brown mustard (on the lower right) and I think grainy ale mustard for the last one? I mostly stuck with that sweet one so I don’t really even remember if I liked the other two. 

The pretzel itself was a little on the tough side. It tasted like the bread was overworked/over kneaded as it was hard to bite through but it tasted well enough with the mustards. 

[matzo ball chicken soup / cup – $4.50 + $1 for matzo ball]

You’ll have to trust me that there was chicken bits in here as they all fell to the bottom. There wasn’t a ton of chicken and just a few other veggies but the chicken broth was amazingly flavorful. The matzo was also very nice – firm and tasty. They have the matzo in a separate container so it doesn’t just sit in the broth all day, helping it to keep firm which I liked.

[potato latkes / single – $4.25]

I’m a potato monster (according to Minion who calls Allison & I both potato monsters – because hellooooo potatoes are DELICIOUS) so I had to try this one out – a latke! I’m not crazy about the price of $4.25 for a single latke but I can say it was incredibly good. The outside crust is perfect and it tastes like you’re eating a hash brown crunchy cake. The inside is soft and tender (and cooked all the way through) while the outside as this perfect crust and crust. I prefer to eat mine with sour cream rather than applesauce. 

[pretzel pastrami dip / $10.95]

On our most recent visit I decided to get the Pretzel Pastrami Dip. I don’t know why I got a whole sandwich instead of a half since this is quite a hefty sandwich! I also asked for it with the maple sage mustard instead of the OMG BURNING mustard (aka IPA beer mustard).

Well… guess what. I got the burning mustard instead! I guess someone in the kitchen didn’t read my custom order. Siiiiiigh. The dipping sauce helped out a lot there though since the dip helped to take away more of the strong mustard. The pastrami was wonderful once again though the bread was not my favorite. It didn’t taste like pretzel to me at all but rather just a really chewy, on the hard side roll. 

[chocolate chip cookie]

Okay. Now here’s the scoop on dessert as well. First visit: we all got these tiny chocolate chip cookies that were crunchy and delightful. Second visit: no cookies. Third visit: no cookies, but I had the rest of my pastrami dip sandwich wrapped and got an extra pretzel and a cookie that time. What’s the secret then? Maybe you have to order it to go to get the tiny, tasty cookies?

[chocolate almond macaroons / $3]

On second visit, they had a sign for chocolate brownies and these cookies. Minion got the brownie (which was dry and weird and no don’t get it) and I got these cookies. 

Um… these cookies. Yeah… they were really hard to bite into and tasted like someone dropped a whole bottle of almond extract into the dough. It was unpleasant to say they least. 

They also offer a cheesecake which maybe I’ll try though now I’m not sure since the other desserts are kinda meh. Except for tiny cookies! Try to get the tiny cookies. Tiny cookies are yum! 

That’s the scoop on this place so far. Still very much working on some kinks and getting some consistency in but I have high hopes for them. They seem to have a loyal truck following as well which will hopefully help them stay in this spot. Pastrami and tiny cookies forever! 

New York on Rye
7128 Miramar Rd Ste 1
San Diego, CA 92121
858-689-2600