Mamaleh's Delicatessen Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

I was really missing matzoh ball soup from a Jewish deli… Not to mention bagels and homemade cream cheese. We were on our way back to Logan airport and I found this deli online. When I looked at the reviews I thought this would be a great place to stop to grab a bite to eat and purchase bagels and cream cheese to take home with us. What an absolute disappointment to say the least. We ordered a large bowl of matzoh ball soup for two and paid almost $17 for a bowl of tasteless water(far from a chicken broth)that I needed to add so much salt and pepper to be able to eat it. There were two matzo balls in the bowl, It was a lot of tasteless liquid which was definitely not seasoned chicken broth maybe six little scraps of chicken and a very few vegetables pieces at the bottom of the bowl. A server never came to the table to see if we needed anything or how the food was. I definitely would have mentioned it. I don’t understand why we were charged so much when a bowl of soup for one cost $6.75. We purchased a dozen bagels and a vegetable cream cheese to go as well. There are almost no vegetables in the cream cheese they might as well call it plain… vegetable cream cheese from the grocery store actually has way more vegetables than theirs. For $7 they could have put some vegetables in the cream cheese. Their prices are exorbitant and the food is not worth the price at all! We have eaten at Jewish delis all over the country much less in other countries and never had tasteless food like this restaurant served. I should’ve sent it back because it was awful. Obviously all of these reviews cannot be legitimate unless people just don’t know what a real Jewish deli serves and offers! If the food was good… I wouldn’t even mind paying the price but it was subpar to say the least! At least the bagels were not bad… but that is probably their claim to fame. I would definitely look for a different deli in the area if you want good food that is worth the money! Totally disappointing. I normally only post good reviews unless something was really bad and should be known by others. This is one of those situations. Sorry Mamaleh you need to work on your recipes if you are charging these prices and serving tasteless food!

UPDATE... the owner of the business reached out to me to refund me for my purchase. That quickly changed when he realized where I live. He had offered me a gift card to use at another time. After the offer I’ve been ghosted by him. What a shame to not only have a poor experience, completely disappointed with our meal and not to mention the exorbitant prices we paid. As an owner of a business don’t make an offer to a client that you post online and don’t come through! What a shame! This was part of his reply…Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us online and via email. I'm sorry we didn't have an opportunity to rectify with you in person at the deli in the moment. We sincerely apologize for your experience, and I completely understand how disappointing it must have been to expect a delicious meal and end up feeling let down. I'm sorry you were disappointed in the soup, we try to get every handmade batch just right, but it seems we missed the mark on this batch. The veggie cream cheese was confusing to us, it almost looked like we put a veggie label on a plain cream cheese container, it is usually a yellow hue and chock full of veggies. Glad you liked our bagels though! We always aim to provide a high-quality dining experience, and it’s clear we fell short of those expectations during your visit. I want to make things right for you. If you could kindly provide us with either the check number or the last four digits of the credit card used for your purchase, we would be happy to offer you a full refund. Please feel free to send that information when you have a moment, and we’ll process this for you as quickly as possible. Then I...

First off, let me say that I am thrilled that there's a good kosher deli nearby, and that the food I've had so far at Mamaleh's is very good. My complaint is either the portions or the price, depending on your priorities.

I've eaten a lot of lunch at a lot of places around Kendall Sq. and I can tell you that the average for a decent lunch sandwich is between $8-$10. Pricey, but in line with the local averages. Now I also expect to pay more for a good deli sandwich, because they tend to be a lot larger than your average sandwich, at least traditionally.

The issue here is that for a basic 50/50 Corned Beef and Pastrami sandwich at Mamaleh's you are paying $14; for the "fresser" version, twice as large, you'll pay $27.40. I'd be ok with that $14 sandwich, even costing a little more, if I got what I expected to get for a real, solid kosher deli sandwich. But what I got was little more than the same kind of sandwich I would expect to get elsewhere in Kendall Sq., at least as far as raw volume. It's a good sandwich, it's fine, but there's just not very much of it. Worse yet, when I ordered the same sandwich I'd had in the restaurant as a takeout order, they gave me significantly less meat than in the one I got on premises - the attached picture shows you the sum total of that sandwich.

Compare that to the regular size sandwich from Rein's deli in CT. Their standard, unadorned sandwich is $6.29, and in that you get at least 3x the meat I got in this Mamaleh's sandwich; their fresser sized version is $8.99. I can't vouch for the size of the Rein's fresser sandwich, but there is not a 100% jump in price. Another favorite, The Kosher Nosh in NJ, also has a $14 sandwich, but for that you receive enough meat to create literally - and I mean literally - SIX of the sandwiches I got today from Mamaleh's. If the Mamaleh's $27 sandwich is twice what they gave me today, it would barely come close to the volume of a single $6.29 Rein's sandwich, and maybe 1/3 of the $14 Kosher Nosh sandwich.

I understand about location and demand and higher wages and facilities costs and all of that. But none of that really explains this cost-to-material ratio to me. Particularly with this takeout experience, it has left me very disappointed and unlikely to go back and patronize them again.

A good kosher deli sandwich should at least fill you up; a really good one leaves you needing extra bread to deal with the meat you had to remove so you could eat the thing. But if you go to a kosher deli, get a $14 sandwich, and leave hungry, they are doing something...

Oy vey zmir! I'm disappointed to say that this deli was not even remotely up to par, and I don't know what the hype is. And being a Jewish guy who has been to many Jewish delis, especially those in Los Angeles, it's not like I didn't know what to expect or was trying out a brand new cuisine. The food selections were EXTREMELY limited. Just one side of a page, with perhaps 10-15 dishes in all. They said the selection was limited by the fact that they had a special menu they had rolled out for Hanukkah. O.K. that's great, who doesn't like latkes and all that jazz? But if you're going to offer special foods for a holiday, then let those dishes add to or supplement the menu, rather than replace the normal stuff.

The portion sizes for most of the dishes were ridiculously small and nothing was particularly flavorful. The potato knish that my wife ordered - two bites! Our kids ordered childrens-sized hot dogs - the frank was just not tasty at all; very dry and uninspiring. The turkey sandwich - very dry and uninspiring as well. The kids only ordered hot dogs and a turkey sandwich because they didn't have anything like a hamburger on the menu (like many kids, their palates are very limited). Before we came in, I saw a patty melt on the menu available on-line, but there was no such thing when we got there. Surely they must have at least had french fries. Guess again!

The reuben that I ordered was better - at least the cornbeef was good, but there was not enough Russian dressing on it and they stuffed it with too much sauerkraut.

Even the beverage choices were totally funky. They didn't even offer the Coke or Pepsi line of products. My son had to settle for this mint sparkling lemonade, with a huge bunch of mint poking out of the glass.

On all levels, this was a total fail. I always root for Jewish delis and establishments and wish the good folks at Mamalehs well, but we won't be returning unless they go through some kind of complete transformation that I can only dream of...