Recently I commented on how Susie’s is the worst deli, and so my hunt continued for a half decent deli in Murray Hill. After trying quite a few, I stumbled upon a new cafe, that opened next to Artisanal called Silo Cafe Silo Cafe. Silo is more than just half-decent, it’s wonderful.

In addition to being modern and clean inside, Silo features various deli and cafe foods, but seems to do them all well. They have a hot sandwich and grill area, pizza, cold salad bar, hot buffet, custom salad, custom pasta, deli sandwich area, pre-made and custom sushi, and more. There is a large seating available and the entire space just feels open and inviting.

For my first visit, I selected their hot sandwich special of the day, a Philly Cheese Steak. The seemingly simple sandwich is actually more difficult to prepare correctly than it seems. The grill cook took his time and used thin sliced steak and plenty of mixed bell peppers and onions. He conscientiously asked me what type of cheese I wanted– and I went with provolone. He steamed the bread over the melting cheese and steak. Overall the sandwich was greasy and delicious; my only complaint is that some peppers were not sliced to the correct size and the meat was cooked medium and I prefer rare, but I didn’t ask specifically.

Yesterday, I paid a second visit to Silo. This time I patronized the custom pasta bar, selecting bolognese sauce over farfalle with black olives and grilled eggplant. The cook sauteed (in too much oil) the olives and eggplant; reheated the pasta; tossed them together with some sauce and it was ready in about three minutes. The bolognese offered little value, but the pasta was cooked correctly and the olives were delicious. The eggplant tasted like grill or propane, and so I didn’t care for it. The portion was huge and only $6.95. Plus for $1.00 I picked up a soft piece of parmesan bread.

The food at Silo is good for a deli/cafe, it’s not amazing. The experience inside is perfect: fast service, good prices, and great atmosphere. I will visit again and suggest you do the same.

posted by Lon at 07:53 PM Filed under Restaurants, Take-out/Delivery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.