Lansdowne, PA 19050
(610) 622-DELI (3354)
Website
Lansdowne is a town that has started attracting Philly people due to the bang for your buck on property, accessibility to the city via public transit, and the wave of new restaurants opening up. Also known as "West West Philly", there has certainly been a resurgence in the area. The Avenue Deli is part of that wave, and I had to make a voyage there to try the esteemed corned beef.
The inside pairs retro diner with modern coffee shop.
They have a packaged to-go cooler with house made pickles, and various salads and baked goods.
See house pickles below.
The specialty here is Italian Jewish fusion, which apparently takes two of America's favorite comfort foods, and covers them with corned beef (no complaints here). Below are the Reuben fries, hand cut potatoes covered in corned beef, kraut, Swiss, and Thousand Island dressing. The idea is great, sort of a Jewish poutine, and was well composed but unfortunately for me the fries were mostly limp.
The flavors were all spot on and the portion was very generous, with sharp Swiss and creamy Thousand Island smothering the corned beef that had settled in below.
The Reuben also featured the house cured corned beef, and the usual suspects of a Reuben. I may have overdone it by getting both Reuben fries AND sandwich, but I have never been a fan of temperance in any form.
The Reuben sandwich was very good. The corned beef was delicious (though I could have used a bit more), and the bread was perfectly toasted. Although not a towering meat vessel, it still had enough calories to leave me more than satisfied. Also, I had eaten a large amount of the fries, so I was pretty well topped off.
The edges of the sandwich tended to be mostly meat free, which was a shame, as the corned beef melted its savory saltiness throughout the middle. Now, I know this is common practice in the sandwich industry: piling the middle high and displaying the thick stack, while skimping around the edges – but I'd like to think that when I'm spending $14 in the 'burbs I'm getting my money's worth.
The Jewish wedding soup, a riff on Matzo ball soup and Italian wedding soup was a huge disappointment. The broth and everything with it was bland. It was like drinking warm water with a large wet carb-ball floating in it. There was no schmaltz that I could detect, and it was as though they had lost the salt. I didn't eat much more than a couple bites.
The potato latkes were a winner, however, and the perfectly crisped shell housed smooth shredded tubers. They were well seasoned and great dipped into the abundance of sauce that came on the "Amazing Egg Sandwich," below.
The egg sandwich featured fried eggs, broccoli rabe, pork sausage, pickled fresno chili cream cheese, and mozzarella on a seeded Italian loaf. The cream cheese/sauce was heavy on this one, which made it hard to eat. Overall it was pretty good, but as you will see below, the sauce kind of took over. It also lubed the inside ingredients up so they slid right out the back/side with each bite, a personal pet peeve.
The pictures below have not been altered in any way, this is how the sandwich came out.
I had some issues with a couple of the things here, including overdressed sandwiches (unusual complaint for me), only serving the outdoor tables with to-go packaging, though we were obviously eating there, terrible soup, and limp fries, but I did love the corned beef, and the DIY homemade attitude. I wouldn't rush back, but I would certainly eat there again if I were in the area and for some reason the Chipotle in Havertown was closed. Just kidding! (not really.)
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