Morty's Delicatessen — Restaurant in Maryland

On my last night in the area I decided to make the trek out to the Arundel Mills Mall for dinner. My hotel was about a ten minute walk from the mall. Word to the wise, the mall closes at 7pm on Sundays I did not know this and it made for an even further walk back. I was hungry and knew from experience that the best place to get food would be the casino. After spending 3 years working in the casino industry I find it fun to explore any one I come across and knew this would be the place to find some good eats! Maryland Live has your usual spread of restaurants one would find in any casino in the country. I settled upon Morty's for a few reason. First being the speed of it all. It was later in the evening and I was getting tired, and had to pack for the morning. Second the style of food in general. I'm from New Jersey a place where deli's are everywhere, and I was craving a taste of home. I knew going in that since it was casino it would not be exact in any means, but at least it would be a close to the taste as I could get. My last reason for Morty's was the price. I know casino food is overpriced out the gate. Its right up there with your sport venues and theme park food as far as price goes. So I wanted the most bang for my buck. When you first walk in the ordering is a bit of a confusing process. They have a long counter stretching all the way back to the far wall, with signage about displaying the menu, which really doesn't tell you much on the prices of the items. You order all the way at the end of the counter, where they also have menus with the pricing on them for you. After you place your order they give you a number and you find a seat. The register would make so much more sense on the front end of the counter, and put the prices on the menu board. The core sandwiches range from $11 for your basic salad sandwich and $12 for any kind of meat sandwich, cheese cost extra. I did find something on the specialty side that was mildly priced and fit my craving that night, The Big Paul, which cost $7. "The Big Paul" consisted of an all beef hot dog wrapped in salami and covered in sauerkraut and mustard. It was packed full of flavor, but could have had more to it. It was a big dog which I was thankful for, since it came with nothing but the dog. Even with the size I wasn't quite filled, but I did happen upon a closing cookie stand in the mall who gave a lot of discounted cookies to fill the void. One of the big reasons I came here was the speed that I expected from a deli. Sadly what I got was quite the opposite. My lonely Big Paul took 25 minutes to produce in a pretty much slow restaurant with a bunch of people standing around behind the counter. In an ideal casino restaurant you don't want people sitting there waiting on food. But Morty's is a quick service , and this now wait defeated the whole purpose. Plus I cooked hot dogs before this should not have been more than a 10 minute process. And to see staff just standing there talking to each other was the most annoying thing. Over all Morty's was a disappointing experience. Even with the good tasting food the wait time and the prices don't really justify a trip back when I'm in the area. The only reason it will get the Fat kid approval is the food quality is good. Stay...

I'm writing this review hoping for a major improvement from Morty's. If I could give less than one star, that would make me feel better--in addition to those who waiting as long as I did.

Let me first start with the fact that they had three employees at the cash registers who all stood there appearing to be ready to take orders. Only one [of those three] employee was available to take orders. (Mind you, there was a line of at least 12 people!)

There was an employee counting her register right in front of the customers. She ignored many people asking if she was taking customers--gave a dirty glance, and would continue counting each individual coin out of the register. How is this NOT a risk to the company? Risk of her counting the register out in the open to where she could be of harm and a risk to the reputation/customer service.

Finally after confusedly hovering at the registers for five minutes (still with three employees standing behind the counter)--where no one even acknowledged to direct customers and say a simple, "Someone will be right with you. Thank you for your patience," I ordered. I ordered ONE sandwich.

I sat there for 38 minutes for one sandwich to be delivered to my table. This was after nine other carry out orders received their food first. When I finally took a bit, the bread was soggy. There were FOUR people standing at the food counter assembling the food. How could they have four able-bodied people, but the service be this slow?

For management, I wish you these proposals to your staff:

Basic customer service training 101 Adherence to proper money handling--for security measures. Time effectiveness. There is no reason for anyone to think that assembling a sandwich should take over 30 minutes. Proper food handling. I noticed some people not even wearing gloves who would walk over to the food counter area.

I will never be coming back to this establishment unless it's guaranteed that there's been a course of...

Usually their corn beef sandwiches are stacked high, hot and prepared specifically as requested. Last night... I got home and found my sandwich to be horrible!! Was not prepared the way I asked and was so thin, loaded with fat and gristle!!!! I am so mad, I can’t even eat this mess. The service has definitely changed, not sure if management has changed, but something needs to be fixed. I would go their instead of “Corn Beef Row” in the city. The wait has gotten worse, and for what?! Horrible expensive sandwiches. If I’m paying top dollar for a specialty sandwich that is what I should expect. I would go there instead of the mediocre Phillips/Asian/Pizza mess they have there. Now seems Morty’s has adopted the same sub par technique in service...