Broadway Deli

Buckwheat pancakes ROCK here.
Rest is «Meh. I’ve experienced better»

Serial, this place was absolute balls. Balls, as in BALLS.
Trying to find parking on a Saturday evening in Santa Monica is frustrating enough. As my boyfriend and I were quite fungry, we wandered to the end of the Third Street Promenade to one of two sit-​down eateries. The deli made our stomachs cheer a delightful hunger pang, and decided for us that this was a right choice.
We’re told there would be a fifteen minute wait, and understandably so — the place was packed. Whatevs, right? We’re patient people.
We wait patiently for around fifteen minutes, without trouble or qualm. The host announces my boyfriend’s name, Jay, with some hesitation, and our party of only two. We walk up there, and he’s already seating a family of FOUR, who did have a reservation under the name RAY, who were AFTER us, AFTER glancing at his wait-​list, AFTER my boyfriend explains that our reservation was called. Wait, what?
The host never apologized, or bothered to explain why he sat the wrong party before us. He huffed and grabbed our menus, and walked the maze of tables to quickly find us an open one. We get one in the very back — my boyfriend speculates that he grouped us there as not to cause any more trouble for him. I tried to make excuses for the guy, saying that perhaps some tables weren’t ready. We calmed down and looked at the menu.
The menu had some great-​sounding items that appealed to my now very hungry stomach. The price-​tag then suddenly cut my appetite in half; for sandwiches that were not particularly gourmet, they were over ten dollars! ;:O Whatever. We are HUNGRY. We shall prevail in eating something that night.
After ten minutes of waiting, the waiter takes our order — I get a chocolate milkshake to tie both of us over. That comes, but my boyfriend’s request for a glass of water came twenty minutes after. I was noticing that two other tables with bigger parties were complaining about their food not arriving. Little did I know…
It took 45 minutes. Actually, we didn’t bother to wait any longer for food that seemed to have no chance of arriving any sooner. We left a note on the table explaining our absence, and promptly went to the Italian café, which was awesomely satisfying. Apparently our waiter saw us leave, but didn’t question it. Psch.

1. Where is our server? 2. Is the server excused for his tardiness by rushing to apologize and saying he’ll be right with us, then disappearing for five more minutes? (no)
3. Tokens for the bathroom? I guess it keeps the street rats out but the hallway to the facilities still smell like they’re getting in anyway.
4. Mediocre entrees at brash prices. Marinara that was likely just a can of tomato sauce thrown in the microwave. Mediocre-​er dessert. Soda that costs $ 3.50.

First off, I only stop in and had the desserts while shopping on 3^rd street. The guy behind the counter that was helping us was super nice and help us pick out some choices to try.
Definately for chocolate lovers!
I end up getting a chocolate cupcake and a piece of chocolate sin cake. The chocolate sin cake was a bit sweet for me but really good. And for the chocolate cupcake, i would voted as one of my top favorite chocolate cupcake. The frosting was yummy and not too thick and combine with the moist cake was excellent. Also, It wasn’t too big like other cupcake. And for 2 dollar a cupcake i was a happy customer.

It’s really hard to put my finger on this place — one part of me really wants to like this place, but the other more rational part takes a step back and realizes several of this establishments flaws. Lets get right into it.
The Broadway Deli, situated in a prime location for business but terrible location for convenience, has been packed the few times I’ve been to it. With the new opening of the Santa Monica Mall right across the street suddenly the tail end of the Promenade that this deli is located at is even more busy. Again, great for business, bad for customers. You walk in and to your left you have the bakery, to the right the wall of wine, rarely occupied, and the bar, commonly occupied by washed up Santa Monica 40-​something hags who’ve nothing better to do.
Walk past all of this, ignore the gigantic line for seating and sit at the counter — this is a deli after all — and almost immediately the friendly staff will come and hand you menus. A couple of different menus: a breakfast menu, a lunch/​sandwich menu, etc. I’m basing my review off my most recent visit where I ordered the Reuben with a water. The total, plus tax, was about fourteen bucks for reference. The sandwich was served with fries from a bag (I know this because you get a birds eye view of the kitchen at work sitting at the counter). The fries were whatever, but the main course was the sandwich.
… It was mediocre. Maybe you can argue that it was good. Definitely not great. The meat was fatty and grisly, like the kind you get at your local charbroiled burger place for a fourth of the price. Friend ordered coffee, was three or four bucks I believe.
I mean, I understand that this place can command the prices and dictate whatever price they want, since because of their location and the abundance of dumb tourists people will gobble it down without even glancing at the check, but for the price the quality is just not there. Broadway Deli is definitely not the worst option on the Promenade but it’s still disappointing.
Three stars because it’s not disastrous, it’s a fun place to eat at and the close proximity to so much entertainment. This place really isn’t worth making a dedicated trip to the Promenade for, however.

My family went there for lunch on Monday. It was not packed (about half full) but somehow waiters and waitresses were running around like they had a full house. We ordered an omelet, roast beef sandwich, BLT, and a veggie with cheese pizza. I did not try the omelet but it looked okay. Roast beef and BLT were average, and my veggie pizza with mozzarella was plain. I think I would prefer The Hat’s sandwich than this place.
Their service is okay and food is average too but they sure charge like a 4-​star restaurant.

Here’s what you should know about Broadway ‘O’ Deli— O’ my Gawd, dodge this place like it was B.O. Deli.
The food sucks. My wife’s pastrami sandwich had no flavor. Literally none. It was some dry meat with two pieces of equally dry bread. I swear to God all the moisture in my mouth evaporated after I took a bite of the sandwich.
If you are a fan of flavor in your food, I would suggest going someplace else.

I’m sitting in this establishment as we speak. 20 minutes in and they just took my drink orders. Of course, I tell them we’re ready to order our food. Suddenly, I get attitude. If this weren’t a lunch meeting, I would’ve walked out already. Worst service in the world. An extra two dollars for fries? Are you kidding me?! Not ordering that on principal.
I’m not even touching my water because I wouldn’t put it past the wait staff to spit in it. Still waiting for our food. It’s been another 20 minutes. Our waiter is just standing there. If you have time to stand and count your tips (or lack there of), you have time to pick up our food, Mr. nameless red bow tie failure. Let’s see if the food is even worth all this trouble…
The hot pastrami was on par with some normal restaurant. Not great, not terrible. The pickle was not a pickle, but a cucumber. They don’t even carry Dr. brown (the waiter offered Dr. pepper as a substitute, HA!) Potato salad was bland. The bread in my sandwich fell apart when I picked it up.
I honestly don’t understand how this place has been around for so long. I guess tourist foot traffic is enough… That and the occasional business meeting.
My suggestion? Don’t bother with this place if you have a choice. Seriously. Another 30 minutes to get the check… Yes, that means you, you sad, sad man.

Wow, it’s been years since I’ve been here but I can’t believe this place is rated so badly. I mean, I didn’t think it was great but my past experiences as well as my most recent experience made me think it was an okay place.
It’s a regular higher end deli place (kinda like Jerry’s) so in that respect, it was okay. Got a good chicken salad sandwich. I did like that they didn’t cheap out on giving me a nice amount of the chicken salad. Some deli places only give you a little. Also, while it wasn’t the best chicken salad sandwich I’ve ever had (and since it’s one of my favorite food, I’m quite critical with it), it wasn’t bad either. I thought it was tasty enough.
I ordered a root beer and I liked that they gave me an IBC… nice touch.
Service was extremely friendly and nice. Especially since they were closing within the hour and they still let us sit down and enjoy our late night meal. Having worked at a restaurant back in college, I remember how I hated it when people would show up right around closing time.
Overall, was a good experience.

Mannnn I dont know how the hell my friend convinced to me to come here. I was seriouslyy disgusted while eating here… I even UnilocalED it but it wasn’t showing up in my phone and my friend kept saying let’s go let’s try it.
First off. this place is sooooo freaken OVERRPRICED!!! $ 15.95 for some chicken sandwich or something.yeahhh.well anyways I ended up ordering the crunchy french toast with hash browns. let me tell you. My freaken hash browns were sooo cold. they werent even cooked. it was soooo cold. after waiting 7 mins for our server to come out I finallyy told him look this crap is colddd could you have them warm it up. he took my whole plate and i had like one bite of my french toast. he came back and it was hot. but i took a second bite and seriously it was sooo grosss. no taste. lacked salt. very bland.
as far as the french toast goes. it was okayyyy. i’ve had better. seriously my mom makes wayyy better french toast than this… my friend ordered the chicken sandwich and fries. the fries were sooo damn oily. we sat outside and the fries were just glistenning with OIL.yuckkkkkk.
SERVICE SUCKED ohhh and the freaken waterrr. OMG the WATER seriously tasted like it was straight from the tap out of the ocean or something… I kept telling my friend doesn’t the water taste funny she said she didnt notice. i drink a lottt of water so i should know. a damn bottled water was 4.50…I ended up drinking nothing throughout my whole meal cuz I didnt want to waste another cent at this place… Overall my experience was horrible. sucky ass food. sucky ass service. and this place can suck it!!!

Just had to get out of the house tonight, So a friend and I ventured down to the 3^rd Street Promenade to grab a bite. As many times as I’ve been to 3^rd St. I have always wanted to try this place but heard it was expensive. Being a student it was never in my budget to check it out. but now being able to afford something a little more pricey than usual I finally got to say, hey lets eat here.
We came in on a rainy Saturday night around 8:30 and it wasnt busy at all. We were seated right away. The servers were all very nice and very attentive, and really ready to get you anything and everything. He took our drink orders and then gave us some time to talk and look over the menu. Looking over the menu you could indeed see that this place is a bit more than your used to paying, but i was ready for that. My friend got a bowl of their French Onion Soup, and I ordered the Eggs Benedict w/​a side of Hashbrowns. The food came out in about 10minutes and was nice an hot. The soup looked pretty appetizing, even for me who wont eat onions, and my eggs benedict had a very unique taste to it. didnt really taste like any I’ve ever had before but it was oddly good. I would have another haha.
Over all it was pretty good food, the atmosphere was very nice and upscale almost, and the service was good. When the bill came it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be, but that being said, it was still more than i would have liked haha.

Walking around Santa Monica & looking for a nice spot to rest when we eye Broadway Deli
Okay — who am I kidding… I was craving a cupcake like nobody’s business & we couldn’t find one ANYWHERE in the general area & for once, Unilocal was of no help. Several of the places they showed either didn’t exist or didn’t serve cupcakes
But back to my story… we enter Broadway Deli & saunter over to the bakery section. I see NO cupcakes but I did see a Cheese Pocket that looked tasty so I bought that
Then the bf points out a Peach Cobbler & those who read my reviews will know Peach Pie & Cobbler are my absolute FAV so easy decision to save the Cheese Pocket for later & get the Peach Cobbler for now
Yummy peach cobbler! Even with using canned peaches, they seem to have cooked them up in some good spices that added to the cobbler. Fresh peaches would have put this over the top delish — maybe they use fresh during peach season?
The crust is all thick & gooey & brown sugary… all it was missing was a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream… but I still seemed to have no problem wolfing it down
The Cheese Pocket which I ate later on the plane wasn’t all that. The bread was a weird sourdough & they had put some lemon & raisins in the cheese filling & there wasn’t a lot of it. More like a huge airy pocket w/​a little cheese… compared to the pinnacle Cheese Pocket which is found at Max’s, this was somewhat of a disappointment
So our overall impression was that this is a nice spot to come for a breather & maybe a nice desserty break & we’d come back… A-​OK
But where does Santa Monica hide their cupcakes?!

I would not touch the food at Broadway with a 10ft pole. You could not pay me to eat it. It’s the kind of food you’d feed your worst enemy and giggle in the corner as you watch the look of disgust creep on their face as they eat it.
Year after year, this «deli» with some of the worst food on the planet manages to stay open. One has to scratch one’s head in disbelief. Blame the tourists and the incredible location on the corner of Broadway and 3^rd St. for the fact that this awful food still sees the light of day.
The 80’s said it best: Grodie to the max!

My friend and I stood next to the directory of 3^rd street, and we played a game of crossing out what we didn’t want to eat for lunch. Somehow, we ended up with Broadway Deli.
I was expecting a small deli, but it’s part deli, part restaurant — and overall big and spacious.
But the food was quite disappointing. I ordered the herb chicken breast ceasar pita, and when it arrived, I was QUITE unhappy. It looked so small and lonely and not tasty! And in this case, judging it was in my best interest. It didn’t taste good (actually it didn’t taste like anything!), and there was too much pita wrap. My friend’s swiss corned beef was alright, but still not worth it.
Overall, way too expensive for what you’re getting (small portions of bad food).
The service wasn’t good either, and we had to wait to get seated even though there were plenty of empty seats.

This place is pretty mediocre. The tables were slightly sticky but you almost expect that at a diner-​ish place. The space is large so you don’t feel crammed in. The food is standard american fare for lunch and breakfast. I ordered the crunch french toast and had a side of bacon. It was alright. It wasn’t super tasty, it wasn’t super crunchy and the almonds didn’t really shine through the thick pieces of bread. But anything in syrup tastes decent. The bacon was thick cut and just crisp enough. My friend ordered an omelet, but they brought the wrong one out to him at first. After he got his correct order, he asked for salsa and it tasted like ketchup.
The promenade is full of these MEH places because they are always busy with the tourists so it doesn’t seem like they need to put any effort in to make it GOOD. As long as they are making a profit, nobody cares it seems.

If you don’t focus your attention on the eyes in front of you, across your table, they might wander throughout the room — Broadway Deli really is that big. And noisy.
«What were you saying dear? Oh, yes, I agree –we should go to Anthropologie after this, and buy scented candles at $ 47 a pop… I guess…»
Broadway Deli is equal parts cafeteria, deli, fine dining restaurant, hangout spot for people ditching work, and place where pedestrians on 3^rd Street stop by to use the restroom (wait for the locked door to open, or ask for a token).
At any given time of day, your eyes will scan the room («Uh-​huh, you’re right honey, there aren’t any good movies to watch right now…») and see the formal date couple dressed like they’re going to a Catholic wedding, a giggling gaggle of girls with T-​shirts over their bathing suits — straight from the beach, complete with sandy beach sandals — a group of cheesy 30-​something men who think they’re hot when they’re definitely not, getting wasted at the bar before they spit game at all the ladies in the club, a sweet, elderly lady shopping at the deli, wicker basket in hand, and a pretentious, artsy couple sniffing their wine in a clumsy, affected manner — in their best imitation of that indie movie they just saw that had wine tasting as part of the plot…
They’re all here, and they all fit — it’s the Promenade, and you came for the sights and sounds of life in action, yours included.
What’s at Broadway Deli, that isn’t at Café Crêpe across the pedestrian path?
Well, everything except crepes. Think of it as a more expensive Norm’s, with wine and slightly slower service.
If you’re in the mood for burgers, fries, and most typical fast food fare (sorry, onion ring fans), you can get them here, though you’ll pay dearly for it. Granted, there’s a McDonalds (among other cheaper choices) further down the way, tucked away on a side path almost as an afterthought from the main traffic, but you came for waiter service, convenience to Santa Monica Blvd. (you want to make that quick getaway, don’t you, Bonnie Parker) and ambiance.
Well, you’ll certainly get ambiance — pleasant in some parts, suffocating in others — but expect to wait for your waiter longer than he or she will wait for you.
Steak and seafood more your speed? Same thing — it’s Sizzler-​style food, at baseball stadium prices, and a good thirty minute wait on a busy night.
And yes, there’s a bar, so you can get a head start and feel really good about spending money to watch Transformers II.
After enough red wine (to go with that classy burger and shoestring fries), it becomes Oscar-​worthy, and even the so-​so food deserves an honorable mention.

I am not sure why a Grill Cheese would cost 9 dollars, or 6 dollars for chips and salsa. This place totally has potential to be great! But what a disappointment. Crème brûlée was still watery and frozen in the middle. The fries were over cooked with thick hard dry skins.
Y’all are at a prime location in Santa Monica, with a nice spacious interior, there are so much you guys can do, and I must say gf and I were very disappointed with such below average food at such ridiculous prices.

MInus 2 stars off the bat for slow service and unwelcomingly penetrating prices, but 3 stars for the food once we got it. My friend ordered a plain omelette, hash browns, an onion bagel that she gave to me, and coffee. I ordered a cup of french onion soup and a latte. My simple meal was good and I absolutely loved the fresh-​tasting bagel. My friend was happy with her breakfast and said she’d come here again.
While we waited for our food, I looked over the regular menu (not the breakfast menu) and noticed a lot of tasty looking martinis. Yes, folks, this deli has a full bar. Score! And the bakery and deli case items are chock full of things that would make you want to take home a little something something, like fresh fruit tarts, macaroons, little chocolate souffles, or deli meats and cheeses.
The managers must get their waitstaff at the same place that Bread & Porridge gets theirs. «I’ll take bot #452…yes, please… no no no, not the one with the personality… yes, that one… thanks!»
Overall, my meal was satisfactory enough to kickstart a nice shopping trip on the promenade. If you’re not hungry, could be worth it just to pick up something for later.

Disgusting and overpriced — they don’t even deserve one star.
The only reason this place is open is because of the unfortunate tourists who don’t know any better.
I was here on a Sunday afternoon and it was semi-​empty. STRIKE 1We got seated right away but directly next to the fill-​up station — glasses, silverware, napkins, etc. STRIKE 2 I ordered a bloody mary and the cheese and chive omelet. The drink tasted a little funny but was drinkable I suppose. The «meal» on the other hand… wow. I’ve never been to prison but I imagine it to look and taste like this crap they served. The omelet looked like a sponge, the wheat toast was like rubber, though surprisingly the hash browns were decent. The whole plate looked like the fake food you use to play with as a kid. STRIKE 3 Way overpriced. Which makes sense because this place is a tourist trap.
I have never been left so unsatisfied with a meal.
I actually went to my parents’ house the next day to eat a real omelet — nothing like mom’s home cooked breakfast!
NEVER go here.

Yuck. Everything about the place was bad. First, there was a 30 min wait for a table at 2 pm. What? Then, they seat 4 of us in a 2 person booth. After we move, we wait another 10 mins for someone to serve us. Everything is overpriced ($ 3 for soda!). I got the turkey burger which was SO dry. I had to add a ton of mustard and other sauces to make it edible. The fries were ok. No one really enjoyed their meal (someone had a salmon omelette, another minestrone soup).
Getting the bill was another ordeal. All the servers looked the same (for real) and they don’t even acknowledge your existance. We finally got it but it was a task to get him to come over with it.