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Benjie's Deli

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stvchin
stvchin
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
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Benjie's Deli

  • March 22, 2007
  • Rated 3 of 5 by stvchin from Tustin, California
Benjie's Deli

Benjie's Delicatessen is a New York deli style restaurant open since 1967 and still going strong. Benjie's is located on Tustin Avenue, just north of 17th Street in the city of Santa Ana. It's at the tip of a triangular lot where Old Tustin Ave splits from Tustin Ave.

At first glance, Benjie's looks like an unassuming low-key family restaurant. Upon entering, there is a deli counter in the lobby. The deli counter sells the traditional New York style deli meats, sausages, cheeses, and desserts. Next to the deli counter is a door to a separate bar area, called the Bamboo Bar. Leading towards the dining area is counter dining with the accompanying round stools. The dining area itself is filled with cozy booths.

The decor in the dining area is very modest, with several photos of New York scenes, including the World Trade Center, Times Square, and other famous scenes. The crowd in Benjies is mainly made up of families and an older crowd.

Our waitress was prompt and friendly. She brought our a little dish of pickles then took our drink orders. The menu features a whole bevy of breakfast items (until 11am) and a very large selection of traditional New York style deli items, such as sandwiches, melts, burgers, salads, smoked fish, traditional American dinner entrées, as well as appetizers and noshes. Benjie's caters too.

I love pastrami, and Benjie's has a lot of different pastrami sandwiches. They have the Benjie, which is pastrami topped with coleslaw and Russian dressing on rye, there's a huge triple decker pastrami sandwich, regular pastrami sandwich, hot dipped pastrami sandwich, and a pastrami burger. I settled on the traditional pastrami sandwich and fries. I had a choice of rye, sourdough, wheat, pumpernickel, egg, white bread, onion, or Kaiser roll. I opted for the traditional rye bread on my pastrami. My friend ordered the matzo ball soup.

About 10-12 minutes later, our entrées arrived. My friend's matzo ball soup came with a slice of fresh rye bread and butter. She loved her matzo ball soup, which has a big matzo ball in the middle, with bits of chicken and carrots in the soup. My pastrami sandwich was overflowing with pastrami. The rye bread was fresh and very soft. The pastrami was very tasty and not too fat.

Benjies has cheesecake, blintzes, cheesecake, brownies, cookies, baklava, strudel, eclairs, and other sweet desserts. But we were way too stuffed after our meal for dessert.

Our total bill before tip was $19 for a sandwich, matzo ball soup, and two drinks. Not bad for very good deli food.

While the atmosphere at Benjie's isn't as lively as other restaurants, they've met and exceeded my palette. They seem to have a steady and loyal stream of customers who enjoy good New York style deli.

From journal Dining Around Orange County

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