Kenny & Zuke’s Deli Bar

Great deli awesome sandwiches, Nate is a great waiter very attentive and helpful. Will be a stop next time I am in Portland. Great root beers choices also.

Yum! Came for lunch. Had the very tasty french dip. Definitely coming in for bagels and lox for breakfast sometime. but the piece de resistance was the chocolate pudding. So rich and creamy, it lasted me for days.

Just dropped by. The door was wide open at 7:45pm. Sit down at the counter and the wimpy cook (not a chef) points to the greeter, (as in Walmart) told me they closed in 15 minutes and could no longer seat people! Fine… close the door, don’t be such a bitch about it and post the correct hours! I think they are struggling to survive and the staff is the reason why!

Came here for the pastrami sandwich, which we heard from come locals was excellent.
Well, they were right. These guys make their own pastrami — which is the only way to do it. It is tender and juicy and made for an awesome sandwich.
The key to good pastrami is to NOT follow the «lean meat» Nazi’s that are ruining everything. Pastrami needs to be VERY fatty. Like a pork belly, you render most of the fat in the cooking process. What is left, melts on the grill and soaks into the meat and the bun. If your pastrami sandwich doesn’t drip when you eat it — its crap.
So, well done Kenny and Zuke!!!
One star off for a small ding on the sandwich. These guys «hand carve» their pastrami. This is okay, but not ideal. The problem is, as stated above, pastrami needs to be fatty in order to be good. So, when you «hand carve» it, you can get chunks of inedible fat.
The way to overcome this is to slice it on a meat slicer. You should be able to read a newspaper through it. Then, when you throw it on the grill, the super thin fat instantly melts into the rest of the meat. Then it soaks into the bread was well. Then, if you don’t know how to «hunch» a sandwich properly, the juice will run down your arms.
These guys got the pastrami sandwich 90% right. I haven’t had anything even close to that since i was in New York city.

After two days of paddling dragon boats a good sandwich is just what I needed. Great service.

They have great sandwiches and breakfast dishes Their corn beef hash was scrumptious along with our other meals. Low key always busy and their is nothing that doesn’t taste great.
Enjoy — Bön A Petit
Ronn just Ronn
The hole in the wall food guy
Live from PortlandTh

This is hard, I really wanted to like this place for the second time around!
I’ll start by saying a SMALL (5) group from work ordered lunch that we picked up. Our first issue is that a $ 9.58 AUTOMATIC gratuity was added. I can understand adding gratuities, however for 5 orders its unheard of. It’s also absolutely not acceptable to not inform the customer of the charge (and we ordered by telephone, so there are absolutely no acceptable excuses).
So, to the food. The food has good flavor, which is the only reason it gets more than 1 star. The Rachel was good ($ 11, + $ 2 to sub slaw for the chips), the Cubano was delicious, and there were no complaints about the fancy hot-​dog with fries.
Here’s where the issues start: One of our items arrived without the main ingredient tuna (it was a Tuna BLT). We called to point this out, as we only wanted to get what was paid for or to pay for what we got. The person had such a poor attitude about it, never once apologizing, only offering for us to come back and exchange the item, or to refund the cost of the item, though she claimed that we were not even charged for it (which of course wasn’t true).
During the call, one of my coworkers opened his box to look at his $ 10 burger (see picture, you can decide for yourself). The thing was SLIDER sized! Strike two.
Then we ask about the automatic gratuity, and she explains that it was new. So of course we tell her that we weren’t even warned, and had we been told it wouldn’t have been nearly as big of a deal. Again, no apology. Strike three.
This restaurant has been taken off of our «Lunch Roulette Wednesday» list. We will not be back.
Customer service goes a long way, and this place has the wrong kind. The phone conversation finally ended with a refund for the Tuna BLT and the auto gratuity. Too little, too late, the place is dead to us.

Oh why, oh why, did I not read Unilocal first before stopping here for brunch?!
The lure of the outdoor patio as we were riding bicycles on lovely N Williams over came us, we decided to be spontaneous, we saw an opening and a bike rack.
I ordered a lox and egg bagel sandwich and a smear of chive cream cheese. I did not receive my lox and when I said my order was missing lox, she said oh I gave lox cream cheese instead, oh seems like chive me but ok, I say… As I was half way done with my meal anyways before she even stopped to check on us. The staff must hide in back or something, as it is small place! Later, when she comes back again with the bill, she says «sorry we forgot your lox, did not charge for that. Well you’ll get it next time! Lol!!“That was odd to say and there was No service recovery, like a free coffee or anything, I was charged the lox bagel price for a cream cheese, egg bagel and one that was not even especially good, very pathetic breakfast and no, I won’t get it next time, likely will avoid this stop. Too bad as it has a nice outdoor seating!

What happened? I have been to the store downtown on Stark and generally enjoyed everything that we have ordered. We decided to go to the store on Williams after the line at Tasty N Sons became unbearable. The place was relatively empty which should have been our first clue. I didn’t check the Unilocal reviews until after we ordered — my mistake.
The service was fine — our waiter seemed a little more interested in chatting up his female co-​worker, and they seemed a little bored with work. The décor is fair.
The food… oh so disappointing. The corned beef hash was bland and seriously under seasoned. I don’t order corned beef hash to be healthy and expect some salt. The corned beef was firm and somewhat chewy — felt as if it was prepared a couple of days prior to my meal. I asked the waiter when and where the corned beef was prepared, and was told it was prepared fresh — just not when or where. The Cubano sandwich was OK, but the chips were stale.
Expansion has not been kind to Kenny and Zukes. They would really have to make some serious improvements to their food for me to ever return. Definitely over priced — the corned beef hash I had at Screen Door was cheaper and ten times the quality.
Food: ²⁰⁄₄₀ (½ the meal was OK)
Atmosphere/​décor/​vibe: ¹⁴⁄₂₀
Service: ¹⁴⁄₂₀
Value: ¹⁰⁄₂₀
Total: ⁶⁸⁄₁₀₀

Went here for lunch the other day and. never again. Meatball sandwich was cold, cheese like a piece of plastic just sitting there on top of the meatballs. Egg salad sandwich was dry and uninspiring. Food sat on the window for ten minutes, they had only one server in the building. The wine bottle they use to serve water was covered in dishwasher detergent. Ugh. Kenny & Zuke’s is OVER.

This review echos others comments about small portions, poor value, and disappointing flavors.
I had half sandwich and a cup of soup for lunch. The matzo ball soup had all sorts of flavors that would make your Jewish grandmother roll over in her grave. The cup of soup was practically served in a shot glass, very small. The pastrami was fine, but not enough!

House made pastrami has the right amount of flavor without being too salty. The deli cobb with pastrami is a nice combo of veggies and meat. It’s like having a dose of meat, but somewhat healthy.
Reasonable lunch specials and nice outdoor seating area.

What the hell. Why is the only person working is a cook who doesn’t know how to use the register? I waited after a similar weird experience when they first opened this location. At least the food is mediocre.
Katzs needs to come to Portland.

I resent being called a liar and being accused of doctoring the photos. I told the truth and did not «doctor» my photos. And especially resent Ken’s ridiculous statement that I can not do math correctly. If Ken could read he would have seen I referred to a half sandwich. So the math and scale provided amounts were for the half I did not consume in the restaurant, but took home to check out.
I believe I am entitled to an apology, but I do not think Ken is about to do that. BTW, he has not indicated that the amounts of pastrami and chopped liver provided by his N. Williams Ave. store were a mistake so I guess he feels the weights shown on my digital scale (times 2 for a full sandwich) are adequate. I most certainly do not. I felt ripped off and still do given his response.
I wrote my review to alert him to what I believed was a mistake or problem of quality/​amount control. Instead I received an insult and an absolutely false accusation. Sad.

I’ve only been for breakfast and every time I leave mildly disappointed. Their coffee is strong, which I like but that’s about it. The food is OK and WAY too expensive.
They had a sweet potato hash on special a few months back that was delish, wish they would make that a recurring menu item!

Let’s just say the food here is delicious. They have an excellent and large Tuna Melt sandwich. The prices are high for sandwiches, but you can get half a sandwich on some of the sandwiches. The service is decent, but they seemed a bit understaffed the last time I went and the atmosphere is pleasant.
The bar stools are unbelievably uncomfortable and not great to sit in while eating a meal. In addition the bar does not have much room for your plate and other needed items for a meal. Still the food is great!

The deli bar is smaller than the parent restaurant downtown, but it’s a bit more cozy, they have a full bar, and they serve Ristretto coffee from across the street.
My current go-​to breakfast spot — especially on mornings which call for a bloody Mary. The pastrami is what K&Z is all about and it’s nearly always delicious. Usually I go for the two eggs, two slices of pastrami and sub fruit for the toast. Once, they had a «breakfast salad» with poached eggs and pastrami over hearty greens — PLEASE MAKE THIS A MENU STAPLE! That was pretty much the most perfect breakfast, EVER. Love the cobb salad for lunch, and I like the pastrami twist instead of the usually chicken protein toppings.

For my semi-​monthly Friday lunch adventure time with my friend, we decided we wanted some meat. Delicious red meat. Naturally, I ordered their Famous Reuben, because if they’re going to brag…
Maybe I’m missing something, but I didn’t think the pastrami was anything special. I’ve had much tastier in Chicago. The bread was sadly soggy too. Bread should not be soggy.
Plus I got their spicy tomato basil soup, and it was also sad. My friend and his wife understand how much I like soup, and he could clearly see the sadness in my eyes. It was salty tomato water with some spice. No heart, no soul, no go.
I almost feel pressured to give it a 3-​star, just to not completely disappoint Don B., but I really don’t think I’d come back for another meal. Sorry K&Z.

A sandwich bar?! We have it so good here in Portland.
The Williams/​Vancouver area was in no way lacking sandwich joints. With top notch neighbors like Chop & Brass Tacks, you really have to bring your «A» game. Luckily, It’s not Kenny nor Zuke’s first time at the the Sandwich rodeo. They came out swinging to take on the new hood.
I have never been disappointed with my choice here. From the sandwiches, soups, or (may the sandwich Gods forgive me for saying this) the salads they have it all covered. Of course pastrami is the headliner but in my humble opinion I really LOVE the tuna. The flavor is so delicious I always opt out of the melt because the cheese overpowers the flavor the Tuna brings to the picture. Everyday they offer the matzo ball soup which is epic, they also have a rotating daily soup. I’m all about the half sandwich with a cup of soup — the best compliment to a cold Portland day.
Why minus one star? Well It’s a tad bit spendy, but worth it! My bigger gripe would be the wait. There seems to be a correlation between the amount of people in there and speed of service. When it’s busy, they’re cranking out sandwiches, and it’s wonderful. When there is only a few other people, food takes forever! Very counter-​intuitive. I will say that the staff here is always very friendly and attentive.
I have not yet stopped in for brunch but I can only imagine they bring the same Kenny & Zukes quality I have grown to love. On a unrelated… yet related note, they are always playing the best music in here! I always catch myself singing along.

Fuck yeah pastrami!
Anyone who disputes the validity of Ken Gordon’s pastrami is probably:
A: In need of a head check
B: in a bad mood and just taking it out on the poor pastrami
C: Drankin’ tha haterade, or
D: simply unaware of what good pastrami tastes like
Smoky, juicy, tender, brined, steamed delicious meat. I’ve had the fabled stuff from the famed delis in NY and this pastrami is as good or better. Plus the bread and everything else is made in house. Bam. There’s nothing else like it in PDX, and now it’s on N Williams. And I can have a Cel Ray soda with my pstrami. Or a stiff drink. Because it’s a pastrami bar.
Pastrami. Bar.
Yup.