I'll admit it out and front: I am a pickle LOVER! I even had my dad make homemade Russian pickles for me to take to work and then people started putting in requests and collecting their empty Vlasic jars for dad to package his wares into. But, back to the main subject of the story here...Arnie's pickles are DELISH!!! I like to get there at lunch when I have time and eat about six of them, covered with the free mustard they have on the tables...that's just wrong, isn't it? Yet so good!!! Now, this place has got all the good Jewish eats here and for a gal from Odessa--the undisputed Jewish capital of Eastern Europe--I can find all the good stuff here, with a bit of the New York twist. My favorite, though, is the tongue sandwich. I've been bringing back one for my best friend, who's anemic, and she--HATER OF ALL THINGS LIVER, HEART, TONGUE, KIDNEYS-->you know the type, picky eater-->as acquired a taste for this and has even come to love it. I consider it Arnie's achievement because it's just as easy to mess up a good tongue as it is to make it tender. Theirs is soft and almost buttery, real easy on the teeth, if you know what I'm saying. I get mine with the extra red onions and then, when I get back to the office, there's no question of where I've been for lunch...haha! But, beside that one item the chopped liver and bagel crisps are a lot of fun, as are the salads. The service is easy-going and the place has TONS of seniors lulling about, just as a real Manhattan deli would. You can make-believe you're in a Woody Allen movie, if you want. Or, even in a Seinfeld episode before dork Michael Richards a.k.a. Kramer went and polluted it for the rest of us. The only downside to this place is that it closes too early: 4 pm, I think. And it's closed on the weekends. Otherwise, when you're out to get something at Staples in Costa Mesa, run in and get yourself a treat :)
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