KwikPick: Mort’s Deli, Golden Valley, MN

We have trouble sustaining an authentic deli in Minnesota. Mort’s is the most recent attempt. We gave it a try for lunch when my daughter came to town for a visit from Chicago.

· Food: 3
· Service: 3
· Ambiance: 3
· Value: 3

Pretty average scores, in my judgment. Based on this visit, I’d have to say that Mort’s sandwiches are your best bet. My wife and daughter split a Mort’s Reuben. It was made with horseradish cheese instead of Swiss. They liked the lean corned beef and the sandwich was very tasty. But the horseradish cheese was very mild. They both spiced up the sandwich with mustard. We were joined by my sister-in-law and her older daughter. They split a corned beef sandwich, and they also liked the corned beef.

Mort’s serves breakfast until 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, so I focused on the breakfast menu. I opted for corned beef hash (which is available all day anyway, as are the omelets). Sorry, but I was not impressed. The corned beef was good (notice a trend here?) But the hash seemed to lack flavor. I much prefer the hash at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown.

The hash came with a bagel and two latkes. The menu says that the bagels are from H&H Bagels in New York City. The bagel came with cream cheese and two pats of butter – very nice touch. The latkes, on the other hand, were unimpressive. They needed to be much crisper. They were served with sour cream (good) and applesauce (tasted like grocery-store Mott’s).

After we placed our order, the server brought us a plate of pickles. They were very good, as was the matzo ball, chicken noodle soup. For beverages, I had coffee. It was ok, nothing remarkable. The half-and-half on the table wasn’t Land O Lakes (boo, hiss). Mort’s also offers a large variety of Dr. Brown’s sodas – my wife’s favorite. And my daughter had a large glass of chocolate milk – only 99 cents, a bargain.

Recommendation: Worth a visit, stick to sandwiches, nothing to rave about.