Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse — Restaurant in Montreal

Had I written a review before today, it would have been 5 stars in every category. I have been there 3 times in the past year. The first time, the food was great as was the service at the counter. I went there on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025, at 6:30 pm, just before the Montreal Canadiens' very important hockey game (which they won; 6 games in a row). The atmosphere was magical! I sat at a tiny booth and looked out at the snow softly falling. I don't like the snow and winter, especially not in April, but the Alamo Burger I was enjoying was so amazing, I wanted to write a poem about the experience. I wanted it to go one and on. Each bite of the burger tasted better than the last. I loved the music too. It was from a Spotify Spies Jazz playlist, the server informed me, who was as nice as could be. I could only eat 1/3, and that was too much. I asked for a box to take the rest home and realized that it would have been better for me to ask to be served only half at the table and given the other half in a box when I leave. Many of us were brought up to clean our plates and I ate too much. Having the delicious food in front of us is too tempting to continue eating when you've had enough. I got sick later that night at home because I hadn't eaten very much in 3.5 months. I had told the smiling manager that the food was amazing and the service was even better. I went back today, Saturday, April 12th, because I had some business next door and I would have loved just a two bites of an Alamo burger, No snow, this time, just a faint hardly noticeable drizzle. No excitement in the air. No magic, no great music, no smiling male manager. However the girl who greeted me was sweet. I asked the waiter if it would be possible for someone in the kitchen to cut the hamburger in half and box it, serve me half and let me take home the rest when I leave. He said ''We can't do it. It's policy and it won't look good on the plate.'' I'm thinking, :they must have good knives for this in the kitchen.' He said, ''You can eat what you want and wrap up the rest to take home with you.'' I told him I didn't want to; it was too much food to eat. Another person came at me, like a policeman, in an angry tone. ''It's not unreasonable to ask you to wrap up the rest yourself'' I politely said it was unreasonable; I just wanted two bites.'' ''We don't do that here.'' The way he spoke, in my face was angry and aggressive, not at all good customer service. His tone injured me. I have been a waitress for many years in high class restaurants and hotels. I always loved to accommodate clients' request, with a smile. If a customer asked me that, I would have found a way to satisfy their request because I love to spoil people and make them happy. If they wanted tea with thin full slices of lemon to fill the cup instead of wedges, I cut up thin slices. I could have asked to have it to take out, but I was made to feel very unwelcome and needed to get out of there. I left, feeling as if he threw me out. There was an elderly man sitting on the sidewalk in the rain a few feet away. He looked tired and sad. I went to Five Guys around the corner and bought a cheeseburger and fries which was probably not anywhere nearly as good as the $26 burger from Reuben's, and filled the bag with some salted peanuts in the shell they had to help yourself to, while waiting in line, and brought it all to the gentleman, with lots of napkins. He was still sitting in the rain. I didn't need to eat a hamburger and be treated as a persona non-grata, trying hard to get the disrespect out of my mind. The gentleman needed the hamburger and respect. I gave it to him and went home feeling...

Don't go to grab food and run, even if it IS allowed. Stay and experience the ambiance. We were told this was a deli and a restaurant, so I had expected a two-sided situation, like a walk-up window or two separate entrances. No; they had an old-fashioned meat counter deli inside a rich, 1920s sit-down restaurant. High ceiling, dark wood, vintage murals and servers dressing in black and white uniforms with crisp white aprons. We sropped to grab sandwiches to bring on the next leg of our tour, the place having been recommended to us. Even though we mistakenly treated the stop line a quick deli shop, the staff served us graciously and quickly. They acted like it was a GrubHub or DoorDash order, but with the customers in the lobby! So very kind. My husband got the Rueben and I had the Turkey Club. The sandwiches were at least 3 inches thick, piled generously with savory meat. The side of French fries were only lightly salted (which I appreciated) and the portion was just as generous-couldn't even finish them all. The sandwiches were toasted and then foil wrapped to keep them warm, and the To-Go box was bigger than a hard-cover novel. It had to be for the amount of food they gave us! There was an attractive case of layered cakes and desserts that I really wish were had sampled. We passed because I didn't think they would survive the upcoming bus ride. As wonderful as the food was, we really need to go back and enjoy this place correctly. Don't make the mistake we made! Sit down and enjoy...

Oct 5 at around 20:00, my girlfriend and I went here for dinner. She had never been here before so I thought I’d show her this place, which I’ve been to multiple times over the years.

We were seated at a table for 2 right by a pillar, where two benches border each other. Sitting right on that border (i.e. between two benches) wasn’t too pleasant so we politely asked our waiter if we could be seated at another table across ours. He seemed mildly bothered, if not annoyed upon our request and said sure and that he would bring us water. ~15 mins passed by and no one came over to give us anything. After a while, we decided to ask him if we could have some water. This time, he asked if no one had come to serve us. We said no, to which he then chuckled subtly and said something on the lines of “you see, you should’ve stayed over at the other table”. He then made a colleague of his come serve us. Even she, when we told her what happened, commented “ouf that’s not professional”.

We weren’t exactly pleased. Mind you, the restaurant wasn’t exactly busy or crowded: we saw plenty of empty tables. Anyhow, having been to this restaurants many times on different occasions, I’ve never felt disrespected like so. The food was great as always, but going forward, we will have to think twice before even hatching the...