Making my way through the list.
2nd Ave deli - Good pastrami, spices more subdued vs. Katz. Not as much meat, one can comfortably finish the entire sandwich.
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Go to Bell, Book and Candle for the patty melt. They call it a burger, but who are we kidding, this is no burger.
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This is what I remember our Katz’s pastrami looked like:
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Pastrami Queen in NYC is great; same terrible bread though.
Good thing I live my life in sin.
Harry & Ida, East Village.
I enjoyed the cucumber and dill. Pastrami not memorable, lacked spice/bark.
Place was dingy with flies buzzing: employee preparing food was visibly ill… ugh hope I don’t catch whatever he has 
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WTF kind of rye bread is that?
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It was a soft roll - no rye. Appears they are aiming for a non-traditional presentation.
This makes me laugh. Along with no rye bread. Yeah, I guess you don’t recommend this place - LOL.
Yes
#BecauseKatz
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One might ask the same question about the rye at Katz – technically it’s rye bread, I suppose, but it’s no better than Oroweat.
There’s bread?!?!? LOL
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My thoughts exactly with Katz
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I’m usually a pastramis traditionalist - just the holy trinity of mustard rye and pastrami, but I thought this was a really good sandwich. The pastrami is really tender, flavorful and fatty and the pickles/cukes and dill provided a nice refreshing counterpoint to the fat. If I had to quibble (and aren’t food sites about quibbling), I wasn’t crazy about the bread as it was too soft. If you are going to go non traditional a nice crusty roll would have been better.
Pro-tip: eat at a bench in Tompkins Square Park, best people watching in NYC.
Wood Tavern in Oakland, CA makes their nontraditional pastrami sandwich with a piece of crusty baguette. Also a little Emmentaler and some Dijon-horseradish dressing. The pastrami is so good I often forget it’s not pork.
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Yeah I’m with you on the Wood Tavern pastrami - it is a great sandwich. I love the nasal clearing horseradish/dijon and the crusty bread doesn’t get soggy. I made the mistake of ordering fries with it last time and had to take a nap afterwards - it is a hearty sandwich.
The bread was terrible and yes I did enjoy the dill and cukes as a refereshing counterbalance to the traditional old school 99% meat and 1% bread serving. I just didn’t think the pastrami was memorable compared to some of the heavyweights.
Yeah next trip I’ll likely return to Katz’s. Have you tried Pastrami Queen? I thought it wasn’t quite as good as Katz’s but about 1/20th the hassle to grab a sandwich if you are in that area.
That’s actually next on my list. Yeah I’m not fond of Katz’s system… unnecessarily confusing.
What’s their “system”? Don’t you just stand in line? It’s been a while since we’ve been there.