Schmaltz Delicatessen — Restaurant in Lisle

First time visit to Schmaltz Deli and it was a great meal. Visited in the mid afternoon and they were fairly busy. Was warmly greeted by the host and sat at a nice table. The waiter who was also the host was super nice and sincerely asked if I had some questions. The menu is pretty extensive and he helped me make the rights sandwich selection as I wanted to try both the corned beef and the pastrami. I went with the #20 Old New Yorker which came with cold slaw and Russian dressing, plus he brought me spicy and yellow mustard after I mentioned I wanted the Russian dressing on the side.

I had to try the Matzo Ball soup and it did not disappoint. A cup that is a bowl in most restaurants. They know what they are doing. The broth tasted home made and had great flavor. A giant Matzo Ball in the soup. It was soft and fluffy on the outside and a little firmer in the middle. In my family, we always made them very firm. But I like them both ways. They had a nice flavor and I added a little pepper to spice it up a bit, as I have my whole life.

Oh I almost forgot, they bring you some nice baked parmesean bagel chips to start. They were very good. I took some home. I think there was butter on them, but could have been olive oil, not really sure. A tasty start!

My waiter went home mid meal and the guy who took over was super attentive and very polite.

The waiters and the whole staff were very experienced and they really seem to go out of their way to make people feel appreciated. I think one of the family members came by and asked me how everything was. We chatted about the Russian dressing, which I told him reminded me of my Mom's homemade Thousand Island dressing. He said their Russian dressing is an original mixture of Thousand Island and Russian. Its excellent!

The sandwich was delicious with spicy pastrami and lean and tender corned beef. The pastrami was a bit fatty, but I forgot to ask for extra lean (my fault, as many people like the fatty cut.)

It came with a full half-sour pickle, which again takes me back to my childhood when my grandmother would make these for us. A truly nice touch.

All in all, this place exceeded my expectations. They would have knocked my socks off if they had Kishke on the menu.😁

I will definitely be back and bring some friends and family who I am sure...

This is the first time I had been to the new location but I was looking to get a great deli sandwich like I remember. Eventually, I did. after a myriad of troubles. i was only given my drink after ordering, we had to remind the cashier to give my wife hers. We ordered a cheesecake slice which wasnt given to us. We hoped it would come with the food. We noticed that the receipt said Take Out. We didnt ask for that. After flagging down a guy delivering sandwiches to tables, he said that he would bring it out but it would come out as a Take Out order and couldn’t change it. As long as we got our food, it was whatever. Waited 30 minutes (!) for our order and my wife went to the cashier to ask about it where they called out our order over there. If she wasn’t over there, we would have never got our order. She also asked for the cheesecake. we got our sandwiches and I was missing a pickle and she got the wrong sandwich. We were afraid to ask someone about it because we didnt want to wait another 20 minutes. We did anyways and he was friendly about it. We received the replacement sandwich in about 3 minutes and upgraded it to an overstuffed. It was a nice gesture but my wife just wanted the half stuffed. The same gentleman came back out to ask if everything else was ok and was sincere. We just said yes since we just wanted to get on with our lives.

3 stars instead of 1 since the food was good and the second sandwich came...

Fantastic breakfast experience, wonderful food, not run of the mill, but they have unusual and tasty choices. First time for breakfast, but have gone many times for lunch at their old location. My daughter loved her kids meal too. I had the smoked fish breakfast, I picked two fish, trout salad and creamed herring, with olives, capers, tomatoes, cucumbers, bagel chips, bagel and wonderful cream cheese , i picked veggie cream cheese. It's convenient they have a deli and freezer section so you can take food home with you. Wonderful, friendly and helpful staff. Point system which is great to have , 100 points (which is $100 spent) gets you $10 off. The new drive through is a great service to have. Although, I would always want to come in and look at the full deli and freezer section. Somewhat pricey (except for some of their freezer foods and kids meals) so I have to space out my visits, but everyone has to do what they need to do to stay open and make a profit. Maybe have a special of the day would be a good to have and bring people in more regularly that are on a tighter budgets. And maybe a senior discount day for certain selections would be nice too. My daughter and I loved that freezer navy bean soup, will be back soon to try a few soups to take home with us and maybe take that tasty trout salad to go. I hope your business is...