Wednesday, March 31, 2010

New York State of Mind at Gandolfo's - CLOSED


Gandolfo's New York Delicatessen
23981 Alicia Pkwy., Ste. 120
Mission Viejo, CA 92691

I drive past Gandolfo's just about every time I leave my house. It opened last year, and I just recently made it in to give it a try. Gandolfo's is a chain that was begun in Utah of all places. I know what you are thinking, "Deli sandwiches from Utah?". According to their web site, the founder of Gandolfo's was a New York native and lamented the fact that he could not find a good deli sandwich in Provo, so he decided to open up a shop. 45 shops later in 14 states, let's see if he has succeeded in his quest to provide quality New York sandwiches west of the Mississippi.


When we visited on a recent Wednesday night, we were one of a handful of people that came through the door. The place is decorated with the obligatory New York sports teams posters, and NY street signs. They do keep the place clean though, the workers were pretty busy wiping things down on our visit.


Here were our two sides that we tried. The pasta salad was pretty good as far as pasta salads go. It had a nice mild flavor, and I liked the whole pieces of broccoli in this salad. The red potato salad was good as well. It had a decent flavor with a hint of dill.




At Gandolfo's, they have over fifty sandwiches to choose from. Above is Katie's pick, the Rockefeller Rueben. She chose turkey to go along with the Swiss, sauerkraut, and spicy mustard. This sandwich comes on rye. I thought that this sandwich was good but boring, It would have been better if she would have gone with corned beef or pastrami. She liked it though and really thought the bread was great.



Next up was the Gandy's Coney Island Dog. Their hot dogs are made by Nathan's and served on a hero roll. The Coney Island dog comes with kraut, onions and spicy mustard. They definitely did not skimp on the toppings. There was a lot of kraut on this dog, and the taste was really good. A little steep at $3.69, but you pay that same price at the ballpark, for an inferior dog, so it really is a decent deal.



After much debate, I decided on the Carnegie Hall sandwich. Corned beef, turkey, swiss, coleslaw, and Russian dressing, all on rye. This sandwich was as good as it looks. With all of the stuff on it, I thought it was going to make the bread soggy, but the bread stood up. At $7.89, again you think that this might be too much for this sandwich, but now that Subway is done with their five dollar sub deal, and this is not a sandwich you can get from Subway, it makes this sandwich very worth the money.


So in review, I really liked Gandolfo's. I think that they succeeded in making a good New York sandwich. They will definitely make it into my sandwich cycle. With 50 different sandwiches to choose from, they have the variety to keep me coming back.

So out of five subways, five being best to zero being worst, Gandolfo's gets three solid subways.

For more information on Gandolfo's check them out here: http://www.gandolfosdeli.com/

7 comments:

  1. OCEater -

    Thank you so much for the fantastic reviews of our sandwiches. The Carnegie Hall is my personal favorite, so I was excited to see the photo and your opinion of it. Even though it seems that you're more of a pastrami man, I hope your wife enjoyed the Rockefeller Reuben. Did you take advantage of our Reuben promo with the free potato salad?

    I'm so glad you checked us out and I'm pleased to hear you had a delicious experience in a clean, enjoyable environment. Please let me know if there is ever anything we can do to improve your guest experience!

    Sincerely,
    Leigh Pinkston
    Franchise Marketing Coordinator
    lpinkston@gandolfosdeli.com
    770-513-7220 x104

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  2. Yes, your "wife" (or girlfriend :)) enjoyed the turkey rueben very much, and it is now my go to comfort food sandwich. Yum. Awesome review babe - can't wait to go there again! Love you!

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  3. Thanks for the comment Leigh, Yes we did take advantage of the free potato salad offer, and we are lookig forward to exploring the rest of the sandwich board.

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  4. What the hell is going on???? Your wife???? Why am I always the last to know!!!!!

    Katies Dad

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  5. No need to worry semi-anonymous, you would definitely be in the loop on this kind of talk!

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  6. One of these just opened here in Fullerton. As I was trying to look up the menu on my phone, I noticed your review. Your site is the only one I have consistently bookmarked on my pc at home and laptop, so I payed attention. You're 3/5 subways made my decision easy. I enjoyed my visit and got a chance to speak to the owner as well (it was opening day, he was a little bit busy). I told him the chain of events that led me there, including your review, and he really seemed to appreciate the info.

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  7. Micketymick - Thanks so much for the kind words. One of the best comments I have had in awhile. Glad to know my recommendation of Gandolfo's paid off for you. We have been back numerous times and have always liked it. Good sandwich place that does not get enough credit. Thanks for reading the blog and taking time to write.

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