Goodman's is the best-kept West side secret I can think of. To those of us in Brooklyn, it's an institution. This is the place you take out-of-towners to impress them (though, granted, when you walk in the door, the decor is very, well, 1973). But one bite and you will be bowled over. They've got, hands down, the BEST corned beef sandwich you will ever eat. This is not hyperbole here. I don't know what they do to their meat-- something in the spices or in the cooking or what-- but it has an unbelievable almost buttery flavor that no other sandwich shop can touch. The sandwiches are huge-- maybe 4 or 5 inches thick with beef on fresh soft rye. Denny's the guy carving up your lunch, and you might catch his father Saul there, still running the cash registers at age 94. The waitress cracks bawdy jokes and slides cans of soda down the lunch counter like they do in movies. Seating is limited, but stop in on a sunny day (the waitress insists the place fills up on rainy afternoons-- ""People are like ants,"" she says, ""they come out after the rain"") or during off-hours if you're in a hurry or don't want to sit elbow-to-elbow with salt-of-the-earth West siders.
Pros: Huge sandwiches, good folks
Cons: It's not good to eat as much corned beef as I wish I could
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