Mort’s Delicatessen

What an awesome find. Great service. Fish and chips a wonderful bargain. Prime Rib Sandwich rocks

Where do I begin my dissertation in disappointment? I’ll start with the one bright spot that was the chicken noodle matzo ball soup that was tasty and satisfying for the price. After that it was largely downhill, especially in terms of portions, taste, and most of all pricing. A simple half of a corned beef sandwich was $ 8.99. It was dry meat between bread. The slices of bread were thicker than the middle layer of dry corned beef. They should be embarrassed to charge that for what they served. Served with a handful of homemade potato chips and you have the makings of a pretty obvious wallet rape and that was about the cheapest half sandwich on the menu. There were some «special» sandwiches (like a Reuben) that were in the $ 15 – 17 range. Unless the sandwich is being assembled by a celebrity, that is simply not justifiable. To top that off, there is so much fine print on the menu to nickel and dime you as a consumer that I was offended before even taking my first bite. For instance, upon charging you a large amount for a whole sandwich, to get fries instead of chips will run you $ 2, to split it with your dining partner will cost you $ 2.79, to sub potato salad for chips will cost $ 2, etc. it is conceivable that your single sandwich could end up well north of $ 20 by the time they are finished with sticking all of the options to you. When it came time to pay, the tab was $ 30 for 2 people having a simple lunch. I had to check to be sure that the sign actually said deli when I left just because I felt like I was leaving a prison where I had just dropped the soap in the shower. Lastly, if you are going to charge that much for lunch it had better be good. The corned beef was ok. I’ve had better and this was nothing special. The Chicago Dogs were a fail (see photo). They came with mayo, no fluorescent green relish, no tomato. I’m pretty sure if you tried to serve that in Chicago you would hear the ice forming in hell. At least the wieners had a good beefy taste and a reasonable snap to them but they were grilled, not soaked in dirty water the way a good street dog should be. The service was friendly but not over the top. I’m amazed that people continue to patronize his place and I will go again to make sure I still agree with this assessment but I’m in no hurry to drain my wallet again anytime soon.

Service was great, place was nice. Stopped in for a late lunch. Place is pretty pricey for sandwiches, but they are loaded. I had the French dip, meat was too chewy, I couldn’t eat it. Boyfriend had one of their signature sandwiches, could only finish half. Not sure we will go back anytime soon, wasn’t worth the money.

So, I went to Mort’s with a few buddies last weekend. We were seated, looked over the menu for at least 10 – 15 min before the waitress came. When the waitress came, she casually said she’ll be right with us and walked away without even formally greeting us. We still have yet to be brought water or bread/​pickles. My friends and I debated for at least 5 min whether or not we should just leave and go somewhere else. Waitress still has yet to come back. Still no water, nothing. We then finally left, must have been 15 – 20 min sitting there with no greeting, drink/​food order taken, nothing. Unbelievably terrible service. Pathetic! Mort’s has staff who don’t care and lack passion, and most likely has poor management.

Felt very rushed bill came before i was able to finish half of my sandwich. Was not asked about dessert which i ordered. Could not sit where we wanted to food bland just not a Customer oriented day for some reason.

Great prompt service. Good Food. Polite Staff. They have REAL Carnegie Deli cheesecake ~ order a slice $ 8 or a mini cheesecake pie $ 10. They have a market at the entrance of the restaurant. The sandwiches are huge portions. Cabbage rolls are wonderful. Parking is convenient. Clean. Good Deli. Fair Prices.

Having just relocated to MN I was so happy to have stumbled onto this place. It is a bit pricey but the food is perfection. The man I dealt with (Matt I think) was friendly and offered some terrific info about the area. Will definitely be back! NY bagels! And black and whites from Brooklyn! Yep I’ll be back!

Overly salty food, over priced, yet still standard for a Jewish deli, so till I find a better one, it’s a treat.

The service was actually great. quick and efficient. the food was profoundly meh. stringy, chewy, tasteless pastrami. the bread is way too fluffy and light to support a pastrami sandwich — they should use normal rye. chips are good. the water was cold.

A great place to eat. To me it is really more of a restaurant than a deli. But that can be a good thing. I think it is the kind of restaurant that a lot of the big chains try to be but do not come close to Mort’s. Yes the portions are BIG. It has to be the best Rueben I have ever had. (And I eat a lot of Rubens!). The corned beef was mild and lean, but given the quantity in the sandwich that is what it has to be. I too would have liked a bit of thousand island on the side and given the enormous pile of meat I would have liked a bit more cheese. But I really can not complain – it was a great Rueben. Next time I know to ask.
We also had matzo ball soup and it was excellent. Again amongst the best ever. The egg salad however was a bit bland and they were out of a few things on the menu including chopped liver and some of the breads. The potato chips were homemade, but not to order like some restaurants do. The fries were nothing special. Go for the chips. We did cheese cake and carrot cake to go. They were again top notch, but perhaps a bit rich. The carrot cake was actually a layer cake with at least four layers of frosting. And again a BIG sized piece. I think I ate it over three sittings.
Others here have compared it to or contrasted it with Cecil’s, which I have to admit I have eaten at over 100 times in the past 30+ years. When you order food there, at the counter or at a table, you are most likely ordering from a family member. Cecil’s is a deli with a great Highland neighborhood restaurant behind. Mort’s is a restaurant with a small deli. (For example, where is the hamentashen?) The Deli area here is about a third of the size of the deli counter of most higher end grocery stores in the area. I am sure the meats are great. And there is a variety of bread. They also sell their chips by the bag. But almost everyone was quickly passing through to get to the restaurant. Very unlike Cecil’s where there are more deli customers looking for take out.
The service was adequate, the time to prepare our meals was amazingly quick and it is obviously a popular family destination. This is a place to come and get great sandwiches and deli style food in a comfortable, clean pleasant surroundings. You could call it a «Midwestern deli style restaurant.» But again that is a complement not a put down. Next time I am in Golden Valley I intend to eat here again.

The food was ok, nothing to write home about. I do think they over salt a bit, I don’t mind salt for the most part but salt was a major player.
Overall the food is ok. Service was poor, hence the 3 stars.

Some of the best sliced meat I’ve had since being in the big city that never sleeps. I had the Rueben. It was done very nicely stacked high with meat. I’d suggest extra thousand island on the side — but this may simply be a personal preference. Chips or fries are a side option. Both are good.
Service was nice. Prolly a little spendy, but not way out of line. Looking at the cakes on the way out left an impression.

I tried Morts for the first time yesterday and wasn’t too impressed honestly. The food portions that were so big that I read about were not what I received. I order the mobster which is a specialty sandwich and I will admit the sandwich itself was good but not outstanding by any means nor worth the $ 16 that it cost. A friend of mine ordered the island sandwich which was a bit larger than mine. All in all I was kind of let down with Morts.

Mort’s is a great slice of home for an East Coaster living in Minnesota. It’s what we’d call REAL DELI. It reminds me of a smaller Carnegie Deli in a lot of ways. It’s got the wood tables and nice vibe. It’s got huge sandwiches and good desserts. To be fair, the sandwiches aren’t as big as the truck-​sized ones at the real Carnegie Deli. But they are really big by Minnesota standards.
So far in our few visits, we’ve tried the corned beef, which was flavorful but a little dry. We also had a hot brown, which is a delightful thing to find on a menu in general and is a good representation of the traditional hot brown. (Get a HALF sandwich, it is WAYYY plenty.) I’ve also had the lox bagel sandwich (OK but probably would not order again). We also ordered the fried dumpling appetizer once, which are kind of deli versions of potstickers. A little greasy, but very tasty. And then there’s the cheesecake — heads up friends, I have confirmed, Mort’s flies in REAL Carnegie Deli cheesecake. If you order it to go, it comes in a box as big as my head. And it is heavenly. It’s like $ 8, but the slice is definitely enough to split three or four ways. With strawberry sauce or not. So so good.
In all I would say that it’s good deli but not amazing. If you want the feel of an East Cost deli, I would say this hits it right on the head. Foodwise, I love Cecil’s in St. Paul and am not sure the food here is any better. But they do have that damn cheesecake.
Service could be better, which is part of the reason for the three-​star rating. We honestly have never been to Mort’s when it was packed, yet we still have received mediocre service. Waitresses are inattentive a lot of the time, and we have had difficulty finding our waitress on multiple occasions. This last time, our waitress said she would give us a few minutes and then did not come back to take our order for almost 15 minutes. Since there are people who run food from the kitchen, I don’t know why the service here is not better, but it should be.

Enormous portions are all you need to know about this place.
I ate lunch there recently with a friend arriving at noon on a Friday. While the large parking lot was full, it was not hard to get a table. The menu features all that one would expect from a Jewish deli crossed with a chain. There are about 10 kinds of bread one can choose including three kinds of eye, challah, sour dough and even bagels.
Sandwiches come with crispy home made potato chips or for a slight up charge you can get potato salad. There are also a number of specialty sandwiches, full entrees and salads.
TIP: Sandwiches come in full or half sizes. You only save about $ 2 going to a half even a half is more than enough for a big eater.
I ordered the half size brown derby sandwich which was a large piece of toast covered with about 8 thick slabs (like ¼ inch thick each) of turkey covered with a creamy cheese sauce and topped with a thick slice of bacon. While the turkey was very tasty the cheese sauce was a bit much for me and even the half size was an overwhelming portion (note to restaurant-​maybe consider quarter sizes?). I don’t think I’d get it next time as it is a pretty heavy meal.
If you want huge portions and have a bunch of people to feed, try Morts and just share something.

The food here is quite tasty. Have tried a few things on the menu, but have to say the Reuben is my favorite. The place always seems busy, but usually not much of a wait for a table even during the lunch rush.
Drawbacks: servers are not very attentive and the prices are a bit high, especially on the sandwiches were the standard side is kettle chips.

Great potato knish and matzo ball’s are light and fluffy. The other big bonus is that in the freezer case they stock Carnegie Deli cheesecake!

Food/​Drink: Was here for lunch with a buddy. Something about it being a good place for a Reuben or Pastrami or something in that classification of sandwiches. The menu wanted to remind me of some old school deli I’d been to in MN, but it just didn’t do it for me. I went with the Reuben and it was more bread then meat and a little dry. Could have used some extra sauce or something. My gut says I should have gone with something else, maybe even skipped to dessert. Yes please to the chocolate cake, twice on Sundays. Even the borscht was pretty decent.
Ambiance: Similar to the menu, it didn’t really hit the old school notes I was expecting. If you’re old and you know it, clap your hands, but this place didn’t show any joy. Just felt like people on the grind, eating lunch and headed back to the office. Don’t worry, there’s some TVs to catch up on the latest.
Service: No, we didn’t know what we wanted immediately. Yes we wanted pickles. Yes, we ended up being in the high maintenance column, but c’mon now does that mean you skip by us for the remainder of the meal even when we tried flagging you down for the bill (had to ask someone else).
Overall: If you’re in the area and looking for a quick lunch, drop by. Don’t set your expectations too high on the majority of the menu, Stick to the soups and desserts and you’ll be happy. If you go for a sandwich you’re playing roulette and may be left wanting more.

Not sure if it was a curse or a blessing to eat in a Delicatessen two days in a row; but, that was the fate that was bestowed upon me. Yesterday, I had Cecil’s and its glory. Today, out of the blue, people I work with suggested Mort’s. I told them I just had Cecil’s yesterday and despite efforts trying to go somewhere else, I succumbed to it. Frankly, the thought of eating another Reuben wasn’t all that bad in my head. Plus, I could totally compare the two.
Facility wise, Mort’s is newer and modern. It lacks the neighborhood fixture type look that exudes legacy of the namesake (that Cecil’s has). However, it’s comfortable and clean. Yet, it really didn’t have that much character. It just looks like any other restaurants.
Food wise, I also gave it to Cecil’s for taste. Mort’s was pretty damn delicious too and I wouldn’t mind eating their sandwiches time and time again. Cecil’s felt it was made at home by a Jewish family. Mort’s felt more commercial. Their serving sizes were humongous though. They definitely won on size. I had the St. Petersburg Reuben today as I wanted some pastrami for a change. I only ordered a half sandwich and it looked like it could feed me and another person. My coworker had the Kentucky Hot Brown and it looked like they melted a whole wheel of parmesan to get that mornay looking cheese sauce. It looked absolutely insane. The Mort’s Reuben looked as good as my Reuben except it had some very pink slices of corned beef.
The Matza Ball — I also had to give it to Cecil’s. It just tasted better at Cecil’s. It wasn’t bad by any means, but Cecil’s broth and the ball were superior. The homemade chips were fantastic! I am not a potato chip person, but I liked it.
Service — my least favorite part. Our waitress wasn’t good. We sat for good 10 minutes without being greeted at all while she was circling us several times servicing other guests. Mind you, it wasn’t busy and the restaurant was half empty as it was late for lunch. She could have just said hey. Be with you soon. We had to ask who would be our server and finally someone pointing at her and took our drink order. She then came to our table without any sense of urgency at all with our drink as she auctioned it off as her first word to us. «Diet?» Uhh last time I checked, your first word should be «Hi!» or in this case. «Sorry». After the drink auction, she quickly said if we were ready to order in a flat tone like she didn’t really want to be there. My coworker asked for a plate of pickle and he described these pickles when he asked, which were some round dark colored pickles I guess they served while people waited. She said yes, but she never brought it. He asked again and she brought us some spears of regular pickles. We didn’t ask again and just accepted what she brought. In the middle of the meal, since she didn’t check on us, I had to raise my hand to get her attention. She looked right at me and unless she’s blind, she would have seen me. But her reaction was she went to another table at the other end of the dining room, and she circled to the table behind us. I was hoping. My turn now? She was passing us again while she checked on the other tables. Again, I had to call her and asked for what I needed. Weird! It seemed she wasn’t good or she was pissed off at us even before we sat. Dunno.
In summary, it is not a bad place for crazy big delicious sandwiches. Just hope that you didn’t get this lady as your server. She really made me not wanting to come back. I would have scored them higher but the service was terrible. She made the name «Mort» fits her as she sure acted like she was a zombie walking around serving people food. Wake up, Morticia. Halloween’s over, drop the act!

Generous portions of meat on the sandwiches. I had Mort’s Reuben and enjoyed it a lot. Might go with just the regular reuben next time to compare. Half size is the better bet for the sandwiches unless you’re either super hungry or wanting to take a portion home with you once you’ve filled yourself up.
The chips were an awesome surprise. They are homemade and probably the best homemade chips I’ve ever had in a restaurant.
A little on the pricey side for a Deli but definitely a good find. We’ll be back!

First time at Mort’s. Stopped in for lunch. Very nice atmosphere. Our server seemed very preoccupied and hardly looked at us while taking our order. The restaurant was busy so maybe she was just overwhelmed. I had the soup of the day which was a potato soup. The soup was warm, but not hot and tasted very oniony. I was disappointed. My friend had half of a turkey sandwich which was covered in cheese sauce. Wouldn’t it be better to taste the turkey?
We shared a piece of cheese cake for dessert and it was the best!!!
We didn’t share a meal but there are notes in the menu that it costs $ 2.79 to split a plate. Really?