In celebration of this gorgeous summer weather, we met up with Justin and Sophia for lunch in Hudson River Park. We picked up some lunch at Deb’s Catering Deb’s Catering, which had received a great review from Eric Asimov in the New York Times, calling it “The hottest lunch in New York”. I’ve long stopped reading the New York Times reviews, and I’m I’m not going to start now, because the four of us were not impressed.
First off,service was weird. It was close to 1pm and they didn’t have much ready. Sandwiches (not made to order) were just coming in. We couldn’t do much customizing. We asked for provolone on a Philly Cheese Steak and when we got to the park, it was American, and otherwise, very average.
They asked if we wanted french fries. We said yes, and then they said oops, no one turned on the fryer, how about home fries. Ok. We can usually be pretty agreeable since we eat everything and when I’m trying a place for the first time, I’m willing to try anything they think is good. Well, the potatoes were fine but not notable.
The roast beef sandwich was under-seasoned, but Lon liked the foccacia roll. I didn’t like the tasteless mozzarella used in Sophia’s sandwich, but the pesto was very fresh.
I scooped up a variety of salads at $9.95 per pound. They were all fresh and tasty, but way too expensive at that price.
Overall, nothing was bad and the ingredients were fresh, similar to any other “gourmet” sandwich and salads shop, but “hottest lunch in New York” is a far stretch. Be carfeful when you throw around words like that Eric. People (me) will stop believing you.
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It’s so nice to read these reviews. I too am very wary of traditional food reviewers, since I’ve been disappointed way too many times. It’s just too bad you guys can’t review restaurants all over the world, so when I travel I know I can depend on my info! 🙂
I love the photo with the cheese oozing out. mmm I’m getting hungry!
ahh sorry that you didn’t find the establishment to be as well-reviewed as it was in the new york times.. i now usually refer to things like yelp.com where i can actually read honest reviews from people who go on different days. 🙂
For me yelp is a mixed bag. everyone has an opinion and sometimes I just get more confused and end up deciding on nothing. But I also take food reviews especially the 25$ an under category. I think you have to remember that journalist are influenced by many things.
‘Deb’ is both a Bengali first name as well as a surname. I got excited thinking that this was about a Bengali caterer in NYC. I guess that will have to wait for the moment.
Megan, well hopefully we’ll continue to grow and if we ever make money, we can cover more area.
Pearl and Abby, I do prefer yelp because reviews are written without outside influences (or at least less), but I still take it with a grain of salt. Some people’s honest opinion is still useless because often people just have bad taste.
Sometimes a so-so experience is worse than a bad one. Of course it all depends. The food looks like it was pretty good, but it’s all about taste of course.