Newbury Deli — Restaurant in Newbury

We love Fat Belly Deli, not only for its outstanding Italian, Italian-inspired, Italian-American, and American menu/food options, but who doesn't LOVE the name????? "FAT BELLY DELI" is easily one of the more inspired restaurant names I've heard in decades. It's cute & whimsical, but also makes one think "Hmmm....it sounds as though the folks who own this establishment are speaking from personal experience & know that the more often you order from this place, the more likely you are to get your very own fat belly...Lol". I just think it's really cute. It used to go by a different name, which was simply the last name of the owners, but this newer, updated name (and new ownership, I believe, but I could be wrong) is a million times better! As for the food --- OMG. Ok, so let's start with a little explanation. 1st off, this is NOT a sit-down & eat restaurant. This is a walk in & order, wait for your food & leave to go eat in your vehicle, at your job site, at home, at one of our GORGEOUS outdoor, picnic table, park or park-like pristine lakeside settings or whatever the point is that there's no place to sit & eat inside Fat Belly's {which I personally feel is a HUGE missed opportunity -- there are 2 "stand up & eat" tables available but honestly, who wants to do that?? It's not only weird & unorthodox, it's not comfortable either. If those 2 tall tables just had 2 barstools each, they wouldn't take up any more space than they already do, and it would allow the customer who is too HANGRY to wait, the rare opportunity to just sit for 5 minutes & wolf down their amazing deli sandwich/lunch of choice. I do not believe adding a couple of barstools would change the dynamic & suddenly alter the normal flow of things -- 99.9% of Fat Belly's customers are local, or at least out-of-town repeat customers [we have a massive out-of-state tourist population around here, thanks to our naturally beautiful lakes & mountains abounding the area], and these repeat customers all know that it's a TAKE-OUT style, "counter service only", "might as well be a food truck on a street corner", type of place & they're not going to suddenly change their habits and want to sit at a tiny, round, 1-2 person table inside the deli..... BUT for the occasional "I was driving by & saw the sign & I was really hungry so I stopped & just want a quick bite to eat"passer-by, or like me the other day, a person who had only ever eaten lunch/dinner from Fat Belly's in the past but always wanted to try their limited breakfast item menu options & went there with a friend specifically for the purposes of eating a Giada breakfast sandwich (2 fried eggs, sliced tomatoes, pesto & mozzarella on a fresh rustic roll... Mmmm... It was so good!), and had deliberately not eaten anything else that day & was starving, I just wanted to sit down, as I've said, for 5 minutes, wolfed it down and carried on with life, but instead we had to stand at one of those little tables & eat that way. Not a great time, especially since I have a medical condition that causes severe pain in my legs if I'm on my feet for too long. I would've killed for a chair/stool that morning! But anyway - standing, sitting, swimming, in a boat, over a moat, under your coat however & wherever you eat your food from Fat Belly's, it's gonna be absolutely amazingly delicious, very generous portions, and I believe you'll be another satisfied, and most likely a future repeat, customer. I encourage everyone who hasn't ordered from here to do so -- Immediately! For what is lacking in atmosphere inside Fat Belly's is more than compensated for by their downright incredible homemade food. Oh, and let me not fail to mention the other 2 awesome things about this place -- 1. The dessert/bakery/pastry options. I guarantee you that this is truly the inspiration behind all the "fat bellies" around here! The options are seemingly endless, with options from simple chocolate chip cookies to tiramisu to lemon squares the size of a grown man's fist to cake slices & more! And lastly, there's a copious amount of...

Came in this cute establishment to support a local deli. Heard great things about it. We ordered 5 sandwiches, a coffee and a pastry. My mother in law ordered an iced coffee and the taps were out. The lady in the dress who is wildly underdressed with her cleavage hanging out, totally unprofessional for a coffee and deli shop, was explaining how one of them usually works… Anyway, after they finally went under the counter and refilled it, we got the iced coffee. My husband and his friend wanted to wait inside for the food while the rest of us waited outside. So about 20 minutes later, I said something about how I wonder if our food is ready. I went in and learned they never even rang the food up, there was a couple who was behind us, who actually got their food before they even started on ours and they walked out after. So my husband went up to the counter and the lady in the dress was like oh did you guys need to be rung up? Then I stepped in and said yes ma’am, we have been waiting for 25 minutes. So she then asked the teens that seemed to not know what was happening, if they had made the sandwiches. They then didn’t know where they were, and found half of them on the shelf, and then the pasta salad my husband ordered, the teen said she didn’t know where it was, but then found it. You can’t make this up… So then we realized they missed 2 of our sandwiches all together, and then they had to make them. I brought my grilled cheese out along with the other 2 sandwiches, and I opened mine up, to see where it was soggy and not grilled like at all. So then I went in again, and asked if they could just grill the other half of my grilled cheese. The lady remade it and brought it outside to me. It was much better. Train your employees. They had no idea what was going on with putting a few sandwiches together. This is not a good look...

Was disappointed in my experience here called in an order for 1 slice of pizza and a sandwich. When I picked up the staff asked me if I was ok with a broken pizza 🤔 I asked them to clarify and they told me basically “the person making the pizza should not be making the pizza that they put too much sauce on it and the crust was all broken”. I then asked if they had another kind that was not broken which they did so decided to go with the unbroken pizza. Then having to wait for them to heat it up which is why I called it in to begin with so I wouldn’t have to wait. Thinking they may comp me for the 1 slice because of the hassle but no still paid for the slice. When they brought it out they handed it to me open on a paper plate rather than putting it to go so had to ask if they could wrap it somehow so I could take it home. After all that I get home and the pizza crust was so hard that I didn’t even want to give to my dog because I was afraid she would break a tooth. The sandwich definitely was not made to order, and tasted like the chicken was made a few days ago it tasted dry and tough and barely had any pesto on the sandwich. I barely ate half because it that bad. The staff seemed like they didn’t really know what was what in some aspects without going into detail there probably should of been an adult/owner there to over see the staff. Overall...