Prices large, but so are portions

That a tony shopping center in a tony ZIP code could be home to a New York-style deli like Shlomo & Vito’s is nothing less than bizarre.

Step inside the roomy, black-and-white-tile-floored, sports-barish deli and you’ll quickly shoot a look back out the front windows at the shopping center to make sure you didn’t just fall through a wormhole.

If you’re still feeling off-kilter, open the menu and take a look at how much a sandwich will set you back. Presto, you’re back at Skyline and Campbell.

Thing is, as pricey as Shlomo & Vito’s may seem compared to other delis, you end up getting quite a bit of bang for your quite a bit of buck. The portions on everything from starters to sandwiches to desserts are, as the kids like to say, “ginormous.”

After knoshing on a plate of complimentary slabs of sliced kosher pickle, we ordered two starters, the Stuffed Derma ($8) and the Fried Kreplach & Dill Pickles ($10). The derma came as thick slices of kishka, a sausage made with matzo meal, grated carrots and onions, rendered chicken fat and spices. Served with a brown gravy, the sausage had a mild, pleasant essence of turkey stuffing in taste and texture. It was nicely complemented by the also-mild beef gravy, and made for a soothing if unspectacular comfort-foodish start to the meal.

By definition, kreplach are small dumplings stuffed with meat. Like everything else at Shlomo & Vito’s, there was nothing small about these kreplach.

The three turnover-sized fried kreplach contained near-golf-ball-sized servings of heartily seasoned ground meat and came off as giant fried pot stickers. The accompanying fried dill pickles were a curious affair, the slices of dill pickles breaded in cornmeal and lightly fried and tasting exactly like slices of dill pickle breaded in cornmeal and lightly fried.

We eschewed entrees because, even though this was a dining review, Shlomo & Vito’s is first and foremost a deli. The server informed us that the most-ordered sandwich of the bunch was the Shlomo Classic ($12.95), 12 ounces of genuine Sy Ginsberg hot corned beef and pastrami served on Jewish rye. It looked like 24 ounces. This is not exactly a fair fight for the poor little slices of rye. You can actually eat a couple of bites as if this actually was a sandwich, then you end up going after the corned beef and pastrami as if it’s served open face, because it essentially is. As for the beef, the corned beef and pastrami ranks up there with the best of each I’ve had.

We surrendered to our morbid curiosity for the other sandwich, opting for the Babbling Brooklyner ($12.25), which featured turkey, tongue and chopped liver served on the aforementioned overmatched rye. While the portions were just as generous, this sandwich left us with the distinct impression that it either desperately needed something or desperately needed something taken off of it. The ample slices of smoked turkey, though of good quality, came off as largely neutral in the way of flavor, yielding to the satisfying but also somewhat neutral slices of beef tongue and the pungently sour cold chopped liver. All three of the ingredients were fine sampled by themselves, but combined in the sandwich, did nothing for us. This is an acquired taste that I’m fairly certain I would never acquire, though it may be just the ticket for others.

Shlomo & Vito’s has a staggering assortment of 16 desserts, which our server had impressively committed to memory. We went with The Smidgen ($14.75), which featured pairs of rugelach, cannolis, small éclairs, chocolate-covered macaroons and a large black and white cookie.

The collection looked like a dream, but ended up being a big platter of OK. The fillings in the cannolis and éclairs struck us as rather lacking in sweetness. The rugelach was a little too fruity and a little too thin on cinnamon and sugar. The black and white was serviceable, and of course, ginormous. Our favorite parts of the platter were the nicely moist and flavorful macaroons, though rather than covered in chocolate as advertised, they were instead studded with chocolate chips.

There was a football game on the flat screen televisions overhead, which came in handy, because we were both so stuffed that we were in no condition to move a muscle for a good half hour or so.

For a deli, this place does a brisk dinner business and from what I’ve been told, the lunch rush makes the dinner rush look like a library. I’ve had good, knowledgeable and timely service on two visits, despite the crowded conditions.

Though there are probably a few more Babbling Brooklyners among this extensive menu that I’d probably order once and never again, Shlomo & Vito’s has the hearty portions and the chutzpah to build a long, loyal following in this unlikeliest of settings for a comfy, casual deli.

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AT A GLANCE

What: Shlomo & Vito’s New York Delicatessen

Address and phone: 2870 E. Skyline Drive, 529-3354

Prices: Appetizers from $4.50 to $13.50; soups and salads $4.50-$11; sandwiches $9.75-$12.25; entrees $13.75-$21.75; desserts $7-$14.75.

Bar: Full

Vegetarian options: Eggplant Parmigiana ($17.75), The Big Apple salad ($10), The Greek Tycoon salad ($11), Potato Latkes ($8.50).

Desserts: Sixteen in all, including The Smidgen ($14.75), a sampling of rugelach, black and white cookie, cannolis, éclairs and chocolate-covered macaroons.

Currency: Cash and credit

Latest health inspection: An “excellent” rating May 28. No critical violations were reported.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Taste. Tags for this post: page-d03, Restaurants, Review, Taste-Restaurants, Taste-Restaurants-Review, Tom Stauffer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.