Monty's Deli

Monty's Deli

Salt Beef, Pastrami, and other Jewish classics in London

Monty's Deli

Monty's Deli opened as a market stall in 2012.

Mark had long been obsessed with refining the perfect pastrami and salt beef, and his sandwiches – hand carved towers of meat – were soon declared by Tom Kerridge 'the best value lunch in London'.

One of the only places in Britain to make their own salt beef and pastrami, Monty's Deli is proud to produce everything by hand.

This is the food Mark was brought up on, food that his grandfather, Monty, introduced him to as a child.

Salt beef perfected over a week.

http://montys-deli.com

Reviews and related sites

Monty's Deli London Restaurant Review Cake + Whisky

Review analysis
food  

My idea of the perfect autumn Sunday is the absolute Instagram cliché: brunch, golden autumn light, a bit of a walk and fresh blooms .

One of the only places in Britain to make their own salt beef and pastrami, Monty’s Deli is proud to produce everything by hand.

The smoked salmon bagel board is a lesson in the value of simple things done to perfection.

A dense, crusty, sesame-speckled bagel, served with just the right amount (e.i. too much) of cream cheese, salty smoked salmon and a few other bits on the side.

Thinly-sliced pastrami, kraut, Swiss cheese, mustard and Russian dressing sandwiched inbetween two slices of toasted rye bread… Though it’s not quite as epic looking as Katz’s Deli‘s version, Monty’s take on the classic sandwich is positively Reuben-esque!

GourmetGorro: Monty's Deli, Hoxton, London Jewish restaurant review

Review analysis
food  

I’m a sucker for Jewish deli food and Monty’s menu is packed full of the stuff from chopped liver and egg and onion to babkas and blintzes.

Impressively, everything is made on site from the bread to the cured meat.

Soft carrot, fronds of dill and lokshen (noodles) were on the mark but the kreplach (matzah balls) were a little too leaden.

Served on toasted rye bread, it was loaded with flavoursome soft meat topped with melted Swiss cheese, tangy Russian dressing, punchy mustard and richness tempering sauerkraut.

Golden fried patties of shredded potato and onion were super crisp on the outside with perfectly soft interiors.

Monty's Deli, London: re-engineering the classics

Monty's Deli, Hoxton: Restaurant Review - olive magazine

Review analysis
ambience   food   desserts  

Sandwiched between unassuming (read: yet to be gentrified) takeaways, corner shops and barbers, Monty’s Deli is a classic Jewish deli named after the owner’s grandfather.

We ordered a meshuggener sandwich, a combination of salt beef, pastrami, chopped liver and coleslaw.

Salt beef and pastrami are taken seriously at Monty’s Deli, it’s one of the only places making it in-house in Britain.

Monty’s blackboard is crammed full of bagel options, with a larger-than-life salt beef bagel hanging next to it, sadly for illustrative purposes only.

Go for a sesame and salt beef bagel – doughy, slightly chewy and juicy.

Grace Dent reviews Monty's Deli: Firmly on the list of places I love ...

Review analysis
food   drinks  

But there was genuine warmth across London’s food world towards Mark Ogus’s dream to build a permanent home for Monty’s Deli and serve food that reminded him of his grandfather Monty.

Since 2011, Ogus and his partner Owen Barratt have been on a discreetly avowed mission to hone salt beef, bake the perfect bagels and serve what they call ‘Jewish soul food’.

A patch in Maltby Street Market serving their Reuben special (multiple layers of salt beef, pastrami, pickles and mustard piled on rye bread) turned into an imperfect albeit loveable home in a Bermondsey arch, then rumours of a Katz’s-style deli.

Each evening Monty’s serves Shabbat dinner delights such as challah and chicken soup, beef and dill meatballs, cholent stew and entire joints of salt beef.

This was followed by a relatively humble but delicious salt beef mensch slathered in house mustard, which appeared with a fearsome pickle.

Monty's Deli | Restaurants in Hoxton, London

Review analysis
food   ambience  

Once a stall at achingly hip Maltby Street Market – where many a street food star is born – it got itself a rep for serving absurdly good salt beef sarnies, long before the reuben became A Thing.

But if this is your first time, order one thing: the salt beef.

They choose the fattiest cuts of brisket, dry cure it for days with their own secret blend of sugars, salts and spices, soak it overnight, then simmer it for hours.

Try some in the signature reuben: toasted rye, melted swiss cheese, a lick of mustard, ‘Russian dressing’ (a piquant mayo-ketchup), a pile of finely shredded kraut, and, finally, lashings of salt beef.

I had it in a ‘classic’: soft rye bread (this time untoasted, all the better to taste the subtle caraway seeds), more Russian dressing, fresh coleslaw and a heap of thickly-cut pastrami.

}