Santini's New York Style Deli — Restaurant in Virginia

This was our first time in Santini's since we keep driving by this place.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't impressed by the ordering system where for example we didn't know if we pay now or later. The person who took the order didn't say anything and she didn't seem happy to be working there.

The place seems clean with sports bar vibes mixed with low budget restaurant style decor. The cashier speaks very little English, barely understood what my husband said when he went to pay the bill and, as it's usual for him, joked around a little.

After we paid and sat down, the sandwiches arrived quickly, not impressed by the presentation nor the taste. Check out the photos, not enough sauerkraut or coleslaw.

My husband ordered 'New Yorker' corn beef and pastrami with melted provolone cheese toasted on rye bread, so little sauerkraut you can barely taste, definitely the cook doesn't know what he's doing.

Mine was Steak and Cheese grilled slices of prime rib-eye, provolone cheese, onions, hot peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise, served on toasted sub roll.

In my sandwich I chose coleslaw, didn't have enough either and meat was in very small pieces more like ground beef, 'not grilled slices of prime rib-eye, as described in the menu.

All the sandwiches came with a pickle cut in half and served on a paper plate. Very poorly presented to customers!

No drinks for us because most of what they have is unhealthy to drink and we had water in the car.

I noticed the employees are always talking among and laughing with themselves, and not acknowledging the customers existence.

At least I saw the cook wearing gloves when preparing our food, but I don't know if he changes them after touching non-food items. I wonder because after I saw him serving a table coming from the kitchen and talking again with the staff, he then touched other things behind the counter.

Anyway this place or the sandwiches are not even close to the original New York style deli, something I know well because I lived there over a decade and I know the difference.

In New York you normally see Italians or Germans preparing sandwiches with warm, fresh, baked bread, and a balanced or even generous combination of meat and other ingredients.

Not coming back...

The good. We ordered cheese pizza, a Caesar salad, a grilled cheese sandwich , Santini fries and New York sandwich. The Santini fries, grilled cheese and Nee York Sandwich was great. The chicken in the salad was also good. We did not like the pizza.

The bad: The staff! We waited over 15 minutes to finally place our order(We were completely ignored until it was time to order). The line behind us was extremely long while we waited to order. No one acknowledged any of the people waiting in line. After ordering they refused to speak to us in English and when we corrected our order because they had it wrong again, refused to speak to us in English. It was obvious that they were not saying, kind things about us or the people around us in Spanish, even though we couldn’t understand them it was clear they were frustrated with the customers .

Overall: we will not be back. The economy is so tight right now that you have to be selective where you spend your money and the atmosphere as well as the food is equally important...

Boy has this place tanked! I've been coming to santini's for years now, this particular store has clearly taken a dive. Looking rather run down.

I arrived Saturday afternoon. They were not busy.Couldn't get anybody to take my order. One of the staff was standing right in front of me, but decided to play with his phone. The staff were looking at each other to figure out who was going to break down and take my order.

Eventually I ordered an eggplant parmesan sandwich. After 20 minutes I started looking to see what happened with it. They clearly had forgotten to actually make the order. When they saw I was looking around they scurried to put an order together. They promptly made the wrong sandwich .(Which i didn't realize until i got home). Ended up with something that's sort of like a ground veal parmesan sandwich. Overdone and bland!

My last two experiences at this store were better, but not by much. Time for this store to close or get new management! No longer...