Main Line Deli & Luncheonette

We have had fabulous weekend dinners at Mainline Deli in Narberth! Its not fancy — its a little deli — but the food is great! Bolognese, meat balls, eggplant parm, plus they have lots of seafood specials every night as well. Good salad. Prices are incredibly reasonable. Its a BYOB. For an informal and casual dinner, good price, and great food– I don’t know how you can beat this place. You just have to take your own atmosphere — go with friends, or hey — great place to go take a book and eat dinner solo. They even made a vegetarian dish to order on request, and then made an appetizer portion for a smaller appetite. I am hungry — running down there right now for take-​out.

I wish this place was better than it was — it’s not bad, but just disappointing. Nothing we ate here was anything to write home about, in fact, I can’t even remember what I ate — I just remembered that it was mediocre, and then when the check came, I felt like I could have had much better food elsewhere for a lot less money. We’ve been here for brunch and the waittress convinced us to check out dinner on friday — which was also sorely disappointing.
It’s a nice, basic tiny diner with a good comfortable feel to it. But I think the place is a little confused in terms of its food — they try to be more than it can be — if they could just narrow down their menu to some really good, basic menu items, they might be better off.

One of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had! This place is a quaint little café in the heart of Narberth, and when you walk in you feel like you’re stepping back in time. I can’t say anything for the rest of the menu, but man, their breakfast sandwich is a hangover cure in itself.
The one time I actually ate there, the owner was being extremely rude to one of her young employees, so maybe pick up is better. Go home, devour it whole, commence vegging on the couch.

This is a small, one man cooking– one man waitstaff kinda place. The SG and I overwhelmed the place with our 6 kids (we didn’t even have the whole clan) and ourselves for a late breakfast on the Fourth of July. I have had my kids there for lunch a few times– grilled cheese, french fries, that sort of thing but never for breakfast.
And I will say this– the staff worked very hard. I would not say the waitstaff was the most experienced or professional. We got the feeling she hadn’t been waitressing for very long but she worked hard.
There are only a handful of tables and counter seats and the place wasn’t full and we waited quite awhile for our food which was average. After taking our order, the place ran out of pancake mix– not good. Our two little ones wanted pancakes. Ever try explaining to a kid when they can’t have something but they continue to tell you they are going to have it?
Sample conversation:
«Honey, the restaurant has run out of pancakes. Would you like french toast instead?»
«I want pancakes.»
«No honey, they don’t have pancakes. We need to pick something else.»
«Well, I’ll just have pancakes.»
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
And after that fiasco, I believe in the rush to get food out to us, my son’s french toast was sprinkled with pepper and i think possibly garlic. That was weird.
These are mistakes I might expect at a small place. But I would still go back. Because when the staff is polite, works hard, acknowledges issues (the chef even came out of the back to ask how the food was and listened without defense), it’s worth another try. Good customer service can always, to me, make up for lack of something else.