Harold's New York Deli - Edison, NJ

Posted by Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle on March 15, 2008

Harold's Deli is a large, brash restaurant that serves enormous portions of food. Don't be fooled by those comically large servings; quantity is not all at Harold's. Owner Harold Jaffe, once of the legendary Carnegie Deli in New York, sells some of the finest Jewish deli dishes to be found in the New York City area.

Located in a Holiday Inn in an unattractive collection of office parks and hotels, Harold's is a classic New York Jewish deli (old Carnegie Deli model). In fact, many signature Carnegie menu items, such as Go, Giants, Go! (two foot long dogs with a giant knish), also appear on Harold's menu. There is often a wait for tables; Harold's is extremely popular.

The dual stars of the menu are pastrami and corned beef. Waiters no longer ask if you'd prefer lean or "juicy" (lots of fat). Unless you ask for one or the other, you get what they call "regular", which is something in between. We've had it all three ways, and while the lean meats are moist and excellent, the fattier versions can be extraordinary (although once in a while they can overdo the fat). The pastrami, in particular, has a hauntingly smoky flavor and a steamy melting texture; not for fat-phobes. We feel confident in proclaiming that Harold's, at its best, serves the finest pastrami sandwich around (and we've been to Katz's and enjoyed their hand-carved meat).

Your sandwich gives you access to what is billed as the world's largest pickle bar. Half-sours, full-sours, dills, sliced, spears, tomatoes, kraut, and fantastic health (or Claremont) salad (cabbage, carrots, peppers in a vinaigrette) are available, as are stacks of their good chewy-crusted rye bread and small onion biscuits and vanilla muffin gems. Sandwiches also come with spectacularly good sweet slaw.

The kasha varnishkes (buckwheat cooked with onions and bow-tie noodles) is wonderful. There is an "appetizer" called kreplach with dark fried onions. This is something like the Jewish version of St. Louis fried ravioli. The kreplach are sturdy little packages of dough and meat, but the real draw are those dark fried onions. They’d be worth ordering by themselves.

The mammoth knish is well-oiled and onioned, in both potato and kasha varieties. Terrific chicken soup (with bigger-than-softball-sized matzo balls, if you wish) and outstanding freshly-made blintzes are also available. There is an enormous menu of other things to eat, and much of what we've seen heading to other tables looks good. The Roumanian steak, in particular, looks promising. They even make that old NY diner/deli oddity: Chinese roast pork with Chinese mustard and duck sauce on garlic bread (yes, in a Jewish deli).

The cheesecake recipe keeps changing. We would once claim that Harold's serves the best cheesecake in the land. Today's version is good, if not the world’s best, lightly sweetened and tasting mostly of cream and cheese and eggs, with no lemon or vanilla flavoring that we could detect. It sits on a thick, but not sweet, graham cracker crust. The eclair goes beyond comically large into preposterous territory. Your slice of layer cake will serve a table of six generously. A container of crunchy rugelach, speaking more of fruit and nuts and sugar than cream cheese, would be a nice sweet for when you get home.

There are a few Harold's delis in NJ, but this is the only one actually owned and run by Harold Jaffe, and it is the only one we recommend. You can usually spot the very friendly Harold schmoozing with customers somewhere in the restaurant. Prices are very high, but much of the food is sized to be shared. In fact, the menu recommends it; no sharing charge.

Overall: Worth planning a day around

50 out of 53 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?

Reviewers "Must Eats" List

pastrami ($12.00)

corned beef ($12.00)

Health Salad ($5.00)

Kasha Varnishkes (N/A)

Kasha Knish (N/A)

Pickle Bar (N/A)

Corned Beef Sandwich - 13 oz. ($13.00)

Corned Beef/Pastrami 26 Ounce Combo Sandwich ($33.00)

Cheese Blintzes (N/A)

Pastrami Sandwich - 26 oz. ($25.00)

Potato Knish ($7.00)

Onion bread (N/A)

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato Sandwich ($16.00)

Linzer Tart (N/A)

Corned Beef/Pastrami Combo Sandwich - Large ($20.00)

Mushroom - Egg - Barley ($10.00)

Chocolate New York Egg Cream-16oz. ($3.00)

Fried Kreplach ($12.00)

Rumanian Steak ($47.00)

Rugelach ($5.00)

Chicken Noodle Soup - Cup ($5.00)

Roast Brisket Of Beef Sandwich - 13 oz. ($16.00)

Matzoh Ball Soup ($13.00)

Cheesecake ($6.00)

Chicken Soup with Golden Noodles - Bowl ($9.00)

French Fries ($6.00)

Single Potato Pancake ($6.00)

Hot Dog (N/A)

Harolds Delicious French Fried Sweet Potatoes ($12.00)

Pastrami Reuben (N/A)

Napoleon (N/A)

"A close-up of the pastrami showcases the juiciness of the spice-edged smoky meat."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"At its best, Harold's pastrami is as good as it gets. This is half a large sandwich. The other half is hidden behind it."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Here's what you came for!"
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"We think of blintzes as breakfast food, but as we enjoyed these we were saying how they would make a great dessert for two or three people. As we got ready to leave, a table of four next to us were served a plate of blintzes for dessert."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The giant kasha knish is filled with well-onioned and oiled smooth-textured cereal. True Jewish soul food!"
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Here is a bowl of seriously satisfying chicken soup with noodles."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"A serving suitable for a family; the terrific kasha varnishkes are loaded with deeply-browned onions. Ignore the bad and irrelevant gravy."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"There are boxes of ruggies for sale at the counter as you pay your bill. They are crunchy and fruity and make a satisfying zweet for when you get home."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The cheesecake is dense and creamy. The picture doesn't show it, but a slice will feed three generously."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"This is the small Reuben. It comes in a large version, too. Yes, underneath that tidal wave of melted (good) Swiss cheese is a pile of Harold's incomparable pastrami, along with some mild sauerkraut and sweet Russian dressing. There's even rumored to be some rye bread at the bottom."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Fried kreplach come with ultrasweet, long-cooked onions."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"This "small" corned beef was ordered lean and, sure enough, it had barely any fat at all."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"A potato knish is sized to serve three or four as a side dish. It would also be suitable as a monomaniacal entree for one. Filled with smooth potatoes dotted with browned onions. They also serve a version filled with kasha."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The table next to ours was kind enough to let us photograph their triple-decker sandwich. When the waiter brings it, the sandwich is standing erect, about a foot-and-a-half high. He then lays it down on the plate. This one has turkey, Swiss cheese, and what looks like pastrami. "
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"You can pick up extra slices of the chewy-crusted fragrant rye bread at the pickle bar. Be sure to take some extra to bring home with your leftovers."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The health salad (or Claremont salad) from the pickle bar is a perfect example of this deli favorite."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Towards the bottom right you can see ONE (!) eclair. Below that are single apple turnovers."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The pickle bar holds sour pickles (lower left), dill pickles (lower right), and half-sours (top). There are also pickle chips and slices and pickled tomatoes and sauerkraut."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Harold’s matzoh brei (broken matzoh bread scrambled with eggs) is a truly unique dish in theory, though the result was rather tasteless and dry."
ayersian

"We are especially fond of the health salad, not visible in this shot."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Part of the pickle bar; the health salad is terrific."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"On this colossal breakfast sandwich, the Taylor ham was tender and juicy, and the melted cheese sloughed off the sides in large gobs. Fork and knife required!"
ayersian

"This “side order” of pastrami hash is enough to feed 5-6 people, and every hunk of meat and potatoes was bursting with flavor."
ayersian

"Bright, noisy, crowded, and casual - just what you'd expect."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Order a piece of cake and you get a wedge, two feet top to bottom, cut from one of these. We haven't tried them all but in our experience they have too much frosting to cake."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"From top to bottom: rugelach cheesecake, napoleon, and plain cheesecake (the best dessert in the house). That rugelach cheesecake is so over-the-top but one day we're going to give it a try (and we expect to say that it's good but the plain is better). We do not like the napoleon at all."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Harold's is a classic NY-style deli."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Rumanian steak can feed three NFL players comfortably. Mostly hidden beneath the beef is a mountain of well-cooked onions, mushrooms, and garlic. All highly recommended!"
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"Regular entrees come with your choice of potato. Ask for potato pancakes and you get two foot-wide, inch-thick manhole covers of spud. They are finely textured and a little sweet and, like all restaurant potato pancakes, not nearly as good as good homemade latkes."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"A small brisket sandwich is a nice change of pace if you eat here frequently, but if you come here once you should stick to the cured meats."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle

"The dish listed as Mushroom - Egg - Barley is like a moist, mushroomy pasta-based stuffing, along the lines of matzo farfel and kasha varnishkes."
Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle