Essen NY Deli — Restaurant in New York

Spent over $100 dollars here on not that much deli meat -- when we asked politely if we could please sit at one of their 20 + empty tables to eat a bit of our to go food, explaining that we drove over 2 hours to be in that area and that it would be so nice to sit at a table for literally like 5 minutes just to quickly eat some food - the owner very unfriendly abruptly then demanded back our $100 valued (already paid for) bag of deli meat purchase. Not understanding why he wanted it, it was attempted to be handed to him nicely and midpass he snatched it aggressively, then proceeded to (without explanation) cancel out the purchase just made on the already processed credit card payment and dictated that he would remove all the food from the bag and then have a waiter take it out of its wrappers and then have the waiter serve it on a plate instead if we wanted to sit. He said this to us very aggressively (with absolutely no regard for anything other than his own agenda with no gratitude whatsoever respect or compassion the fact that we just told him we drove two hours to be there) and dictated that he would upcharge us by a service charge of 20 percent as it was a “table service only” restaurant. Why would we want plain deli meat served on a plate by a waiter with no bread? We just wanted to grab a few deli slices from the bag and eat it somewhere other than the car for five minutes being the fact that we were driving on the road that day for more than 4 hours and basically wanted to just stop for a moment at a table outside of our car for five minutes and then be on the road again. His nasty apathetic abrasive behavior and attitude exhibited he didn’t care one bit about his customers or the fact that we literally just bought and paid for a bunch of his food for not a small amount of money - and there was literally no other people at the tables, plus there were two side tables on the deli side of the establishment totally unused! Must be nice for business to be going so good that you don’t have to care about being nice to your paying customers. This unthankful attitude towards your customers who spend alot of money in there with no regard for humanity, will ultimately hurt business over the long run. I’ve never experienced a business owner treating a customer so poorly as this By the way, the last time we went there it must’ve been a different owner possibly an older man who had been a heck of alot nicer and let us sit for 5 minutes from the last trip when we asked then.

Essen needs to remember to treat their customers like they mean something and as human beings - not just dollar...

Now normally I like to try my best to give 5 stars. Essen had all the essence of a great sandwich spot, classic ny style roast beef sandwiches. I got the honey beef Junior, and the fried pickles. The honey beef ESSellent, however, the pickle chips might be the saltiest of the saltiest thing that my taste buds have ever experienced. I’m not sure if they add salt ontop of the pickles, if they do they need to stop, because they are near inedible. The honey beef was delicious, quite a bit of fat from the beef, but other than that a nice balance of sweetness, and meaty. Great combo for that sandwich. The half sour pickle was mediocre nothing you’d want from a good roast beef spot, the coleslaw was good, and just that. Nothing to lose your mind over. Overall the honey beef took the cake, and it’ll be the reason I go back to Essen. I won’t make the mistake of the pickle chips, genuinely guys if you’re salting it ontop of the already salty pickles I really think they would be much better if you didn’t. Little bit disappointing as I haven’t had fried pickles since I was a kid. Overall though Essen is definitely a roast beef staple in south Brooklyn, and I really think if you’re in the area it’s certainly worth trying. They also have some really inreeesting stuff on their menu like the Kishka sticks, and brisket flatbread which I think could be ESSellent. 8/10 for Essen. Although they definitely get the r beef right. So don’t think that I’m saying they aren’t good. They’re very good at what they do. They...

The only thing good about this place is the wait staff. I came in and ordered a ton of food. I was expecting a great meal with great service. However I dont know what happend to this place. It gone totally down hill. The kitchen did the one deadly sin. That every culinary school teaches the first day. When you have a 7 top you never ever never ever send out food one dish at a time. I got my food first 10 min later another came out 5 min later another came out. The whole point of sitting down together for a meal is for everyone to eat at the same time and that is not what happended. I have no clue what happend with this place. You cant get a pitcher of water for your table. They are all claiming total nonsence at this point in time that as per CDC guidence not to have it. Instead they give you water bottles and didnt even get enough for the whole table. The burger was horrible its like they are cheaping out on meat. Using extra lean beef meat. The sesame chicken is like eating sand dried out. Ordered one beef egg roll and one vegtible egg roll and got two beef. We told them about the issue and pretended like they were going to take care of it and correct the mistake. However they never did and then proceeded to argue with us about it. Only after disputing about the issue did they then take off the egg roll. We ordered a peice of cake for a birthday. The staff did a great job making the birthday person feel great. However the cake was burnt!!! and like a...