Monmouth Street Deli - An Italian Deli Worth Visiting

Welcome!  I’ve lived in Jersey City for about six years in which time, I have eaten a number of sandwiches throughout the city. However, I recently came upon a new recommendation: Monmouth Street Deli.

The sandwiches focus heavily on Italian cold cuts with fresh mozzarella and there’s a wide selection of Italian mains – pastas, parms, etc. as well as a selection of hot daily specials, cold salads and sides out for you to ogle and drool over. Monmouth Street also had refrigerators containing some frozen pastas and raviolis, whole milk ricotta, and some other cheeses.  Not a huge selection, but enough to put together some pretty good meals.

On my visit, I was sucked in by a list of special subs they have up on the wall and selected the Monmouth Street Sub: peppered ham, turkey, salami with fresh mozzarella, imported sharp provolone, roasted peppers, and olive oil on a roll.  Figured I couldn’t go wrong with the namesake, right?

 When I placed the order, the guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted a crustier or softer roll. I went with a crustier one (which I regretted – too much stuff to manage) and I appreciated him asking. He also asked if I wanted vinegar with the olive oil which I happily agreed to. The meat was good quality, piled on thickly without being overwhelming and the vinegar and peppers cut really well through the richness of the meat and the cheese. Altogether, a really good sandwich but huge! I ended up only getting through half (plastic knife included for size reference) and was incredibly full afterwards.

While I was there, I also asked to get an order of one of their specials, sausage and broccoli rabe. I was there about 1:30pm and they were already out of a couple and running extremely low on others so it’s worth going early. Again, a large portion and delicious.  There were pieces of sautéed garlic in there, the broccoli rabe was tender, well-seasoned and there was a generous amount of sausage. I could taste oil but it wasn’t overly oil or even extremely heavy. 

They’d offered bread which I turned down, feeling the sandwich had me covered carb-wise, and I ended up eating some of it by itself and then mixed the rest with pasta which lasted for two dinners. Like I said, large portions.  All in all, I spent around 18 dollars which is a bit pricier than other delis but for how good it was and how many meals I got out of it, I’m not complaining.

All in All:
Monmouth Street was a really exciting find with a lot of options that I can’t wait to explore further.  The address is 500 Monmouth Street, between 8^th and 9^th, and they seem to close by about 4pm on weekdays and 2pm on weekends.