It's unfortunate that most people in Des Moines have not been to a real deli or they would realize this place is a mediocre sandwich shop at best. It was unsettling to step up to order and be staring at a microwave that is cooking and melting things in styrofoam. I should have known to turn around but I didn't. I ordered a cup of cheese soup and a cold sandwich so that at least I was not encouraging the microwave culture. The cheese soup was awful. It was acidic in a strange way and almost tasted as if it had been burned at some point in preparation and that taste lingered through the soup. My sandwich was a bit better than say a prepackaged one off the shelf at a gas station, but not by much. The bread, the meat, and the cheese tasted like the bland and safely boring variety that gets rolled in off of a food service truck. I regret my pallet is not sophisticated enough to tell if it was a US Foods or Sysco one. I would not be harsh about decor or service or even price. I don't care much about that if the food is excellent, or even original or daring. Manhattan deli is in that dreadful zone of a place that plays it safe. They are the adult equivalent of chicken fingers and buttered noodles.

The definitions are all off here. True Manhattan Delis would cringe at this place. Fresh here means not rotten. Homemade means precooked but they run it through the slicer. Go pick an ear of sweet corn and eat it. That's what a real deli sandwich should taste like. This place is canned at best.