Milano's Deli — Restaurant in Jersey City

You walk into Milano’s Deli, tucked away in the glass-and-steel sprawl of Jersey City’s Exchange Place, and for a fleeting moment, you forget you’re standing in the shadow of Manhattan’s towering ambition. Here, there’s no pretense. No meticulously curated Instagram aesthetic. Just a deli that’s been unapologetically itself longer than most of the finance bros nearby have been alive.

The smell hits you first—warm bread, thin slices of cured meat, vinegar-soaked peppers, and the faint metallic tang of a well-seasoned meat slicer that’s seen more action than a dockworker’s punch card. This isn’t some artisanal façade peddling nostalgia at $18 a sandwich. Milano’s is the real deal. The kind of place where the mozzarella is fresh enough to weep, and the prosciutto has the decency to bite back.

You order the Italian combo because you’re not here to mess around. Layers of salami, capicola, mortadella, provolone—stacked like a love letter to gluttony, kissed with oil and vinegar, hugged by bread with just the right amount of give. Each bite is a reminder that simple things, when done right, don’t need reinvention. They just need respect.

The guys behind the counter aren’t here to charm you. They’ve got sandwiches to make, lives to live. There’s an art to that kind of indifference—a quiet confidence that comes from knowing you’ve got nothing to prove. And they don’t. Because Milano’s isn’t a trend. It’s an institution.

So you sit there, a paper-wrapped masterpiece in your hands, watching the world rush by outside—the suits, the smartphones, the endless churn of progress. But inside, time slows down. Just a man, a sandwich, and the undeniable truth: this is what food should be. Honest....

Food is decent but pricing is very shady. On 1 order, I got fish with veggies on a platter plus a Snapple. It came out to $16 so I charged to my credit card. A few days later, I check my credit card transactions and noticed I was charged $17.06. There was no disclaimer verbally or visually that they would charge a fee for using credit card.

Usually when I get chicken cutlets or grill chicken, I ask for the spicy sauce instead of the regular. Well today, the lady look at my order and asked if I have the regular or spicy sauce. I said spicy and she charged 50 cents extra. LOL. Seriously, it's the same sauce but with a little chilli flakes added. In a pizzeria, you can put all the chilli flakes you want. My friend ordered the same with regular sauce and he had parmesan added but that didn't...

Always solid food. Whether a sandwich or a platter, they never disappoint. Some people complain of varied prices, but I've never really experienced this. Honestly, even if the price varied, I would still eat here.

I wanted to add to this review. It's important to note that this place does not always play by the rules. If you're going here, check your privilege at the door cause they work on an old school business model where regulars get the best treatment. Sounds backwards, yes, but their food is too good to not come back twice a week. Just know what you're ordering, keep your head down and pay what they ask. Yes Soup Nazi status. BTW you'll know you've hit the inner circle if you're invited to have wine in...