Oldest vs. Newest Deli (Taste Test)

Does LA's oldest deli make better sandwiches than its trendiest? Let's talk about that. Good Mythical Morning. So far we've tried the oldest Italian restaurant in LA up against the newest, and the oldest Mexican restaurant in LA up against the newest, but when. it comes to delis, an old school institution in and of itself, how. does a new hip trendy deli compare?

He's only right that an old guy and a hip, trendy, younger guy. find out. It's time for The Course of Time! Deli Edition. Okay boys, today's old school restaurant is one of the. oldest delis in L.A., and one of the most iconic. Cantor's Deli, which opened in 1931, offers diners the. traditional Jewish deli experience. After losing a deli in the 1928 stock market crash, Ben Cantor and his.

brothers moved from. New Jersey to L.A. with just $500. They opened a Cantor Brothers Delicatessent in 1931 in Boyle Heights, the Jewish center of Los Angeles. Today, Cantor's Deli exists on Fairfax Avenue, officially. called Cantor's Fairfax. It's frequented by celebrities and politicians, with the website noting. visitors like Henry Winkler, Prince. Stevie Wonder, Olivia Newton John, Mel Brooks, and Dick Van Dyke, to name a few.

And then we have the very trendy new deli, Belle's Delicatessen. Belle's was originally a bagels only pop up that eventually got a flagship. spot in Highland Park, but a mere few months ago, completely revamped itself. and reopened as a A full, sit down, all day service Jewish delicatessen to. a ton of buzz and praise from outlets like Eater LA, The Infatuation, The. LA Times, and Time Out Los Angeles. Okay. Mmm. Alright. I don't know if I've ever been to either of these.

Surely I've been to Cantor's at some point. But I just can't, I can't er remember it. Okay. But Dick Van Dyke has been there. Yes he has. Bell's looks old. That's the thing that they've nailed. It's so new, but they look so vintage. It's going to be a showdown. Let's kick things off with pastrami sandwiches. On Rhett's side, you've got Cantor's Pastrami Reuben for 21.

95. And on Link's side, Belle's Pastrami Reuben for 20. 90. This is an incredible sandwich just in general, you know? Oh gosh, look at it. It's falling all over the place. Look at that. It looks amazing. Mhmm. I got so much meat in that bite. I mean, do they say that Cantor's has the best pastrami? We don't care about what they say.

It's about what we say. Good point. Very good. You know, you'll see some pastrami sandwiches that are. like inordinately stacked. Way too high. Can be offensive sometimes. I really like the proportions here. Great cheese, great bread, great sauerkraut, great sauce, great meat. Did I say that already? I end up having one of these every five years, and every time I'm like, Why such a long wait, Linkster?

Yeah, when you're scolding yourself, you call yourself Linkster. Yeah, cause I'm trying to take the edge off. Pretty similar. The meat is not coming out so hard at me. Looks like it might be more sauced. More sauced, more crowded. Hmm. Less of an edge on the meat. Definitely different. Still very good.

Wow. Hold on a second. This is so tough. This is not immediately obvious, is it? The thing that I'm noticing about the pastrami from Cantor's is the like, dark ring on the edge of the meat. It looks a little tastier. I think the meat on Cantor's might be a little bit better but the kraut. cheese and sauce on that one are a little bit better on the Belle's. Are we gonna have to have a tiebreaker right here at the beginning? This is a complete toss up.

How do we break the tie? Uh, well, usually for this format, we have an Italian chef step in as. your tiebreaker, but unfortunately, they were really busy today, so, uh, we have a French chef. That's fine. Come in. Let's just do it. Oh! Oh! It's you! Hello! Jacques? Yes, it's a day! Hello! We've got a chair for me, I guess. No, okay.

I take a knee for you. Now you can bite the back of that one. Cause, uh, you know, we pretty much have taken out the front of both of them. I mean, unless you, unless you just want to go to the mattress. You don't have to feed her. I mean, like, Juliette Jacques can probably feed herself. I'm not gonna, I'm not. Are you done talking? Can I eat the food now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, there's a lot of loose pieces here. I do not like that. Alright, here we go. Watch, watch your mustache. It's gonna be chewy. I mean, I am blown away by the goodness of both of these.

I don't know until I try this. Am I eating the [bleep] of this one too? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, maybe that one. I recommend. Yeah. I mean, she's really testing a different part of, oh, what's happening here? I don't know. Hang on. Yeah, I'll take some of that. Dis one. Okay. She's saying dip wan. My knee. Here, here.

Take that nakim. Thank you. Thank you, JJ. Oh, I go now? Yeah, your work here is done. Your majesty. Well, you can do the stab. Ohh! Yeah. Yeah? What, what do I stab? That, the thing that. Oh, this! Okay. Or that. Or, or, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. There we go, bye bye! Bye bye! Wow. Can't argue with that. I'm not gonna argue with it because. going back in for just that really meaty, cheesy bite, it was, it was so good. Alright. It became this melty unit. They're both great!

Next up, we have Link's favorite, Lock's Bagels. On Rhett's side, we have Cantor's Little New Yorker, on your choice of bagel. Today, our choice for you was onion, for $21.50. And on Link's side, we have Belle's McBee Bagel Sandwich, also on your choice of bagel, onion, for $12.00. Uh, both have tomatoes. Is that got a pit in it? We're going to take a bite and then take another bite of the, uh, I. mean, both, something about the, the finely diced onions being strewn.

all over it delicately with a few visible capers is a prettier one. It's much prettier. Than the classic one. It's much prettier. I just don't know. And also, I think that the, what I'm going to contribute to this. Positively, but I'm going to try. The thin slice of tomatoes, I think, Oof. That was a nice little diversion there. That was my contribution. Um, contribution. I can't say I'm too wowed about that.

So I won't. I'm not wowed about it. I'll also note the uh, type of tomato on, now, you know, Belle's looks really good to me. So I'm just saying, please, you know, if you were going to, I'm gonna bite Rhett's. Okay, great, great, great. I believe on Belle's is an heirloom tomato. Yeah, I was gonna say, that looks like an heirloom tomato, and it's a thin slice. This is way too thick. You don't, even a guy that likes tomatoes, you don't need it that thick of a tomato. You know what's saving me is the onion over here.

And when I take a bite of this, I'm really trying to get a caper in here. There's no contest in this one. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll take another bite of that, and you can take that one back to Stevie. I also learned, fun fact about the first round, uh, we actually got the. Belle's sandwich yesterday, because of their timing of when they serve things. So, not only did that sandwich beat Cantor's, but it beat it,

and it was a day old. Oh, wow. Yep. That's a great sandwich. There it is. Or, open face sandwich, bagel, Whatever you call it. Next up we have matzo ball soup, on Rhett's side, Canter's for $10.95. And on Link's side is Belle's for 11 dollars. That is a big ball. Did you, uh. Good golly! I have two questions for you. One, how'd you like that? How'd you like that?

Uh Last thing. Here, Bell's bagels have never been my favorite. Sorry, Bell's. Uh, but the salmon, the toppings were really great. I also gotta say Cantor's has never been my favorite when. it comes to bagels and lox. So that round, you know. But, I'm very interested in the moss ball soup comparison. Well that's my second question is. Is there a reason that it's like this? Well, it's like one big ball situation. Yeah. Yeah. Is there like, this is symbolic of like the stone that Moses got water.

out of something like, you know, just, or Abraham, whoever that was. That's super interesting about this battle is that Cantor's like. They stand by the classics so they haven't updated anything like it's. very much like this is the way we did it and this is The way we do it. I got a respect. As they should, as they should. I thought this was good. I thought it tasted good, but it's just there's not a lot going. on I mean, it's very comforting. It's not Before it's not IG worthy.

I'm just gonna get just mostly ball for this one. Now I'll come in for ball and chicken. Chicken Carrots. So much chicken. Parsley. There's so much more to enjoy here. I mean, what if you're just into the ball? Alright, just getting ball. Cantor's ball is really good.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you, the thing I like about this is I. feel like this is what matzo ball soup is supposed to taste like. This tastes like chicken noodle soup that has a matzo ball in it. But it, but it's more flavorful. But it's, if you really, if you have an allegiance to the classic. But just the ball? Not flavorful. This ball? Tastes like a ball. Well, I, I, I mean. I think, I think we got, I mean, I'm on page switch it up for this round.

Not, I'm not just saying because Kendra's lost two rounds. But I actually think that if you're gonna order matzo ball. soup, You're already in a certain. You know, you're in a certain mood. And I just feel like this tastes too much like chicken noodle. soup with a mussel ball in it. That's compelling. I'll give it to us. Alright. So, if you're just into the ball. We're going with the oldie. It's a good ball. But as you can see, I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't a pretty decision.

You know? Uh, so, but we're not going pretty this round. It's good. And it's big. If you like big balls. And you can't lie? Yeah. You know where to go. Hey, a little reminder. We want to marry you. Yes, we are looking for a few couples who want to get married. right here on the GMM set by us with travel and accommodations paid. Yes, we are going to officiate your wedding with a mythical crew.

This is an open casting call to all members, including. free initiative members. All the details are over at mythicalsociety. com. So go over there because we want to hear from you! It's latke time boys! On Rhett's side we've got Cantor's latkes for 10. 50 and on Link's we have Bell's for 14. 00. So, um, Bell's are bigger. Bells are bigger. And it looks like they've got some other stuff in there. They both look like sausages almost.

Yeah, you also have sour cream and apple sauce. And what's the preferred technique? Rip and dip? Sure, I think you can do whatever you want. Rip and dip, double up. And this is just potatoes. Uh, I don't know what their full, what their recipe is. Sometimes there's other stuff in it. But it looks like, it looks like you were correct in that. Pretty oniony. To greasy, good in a, I mean, very good.

I mean, I can imagine just like going to grandma's house and getting this. I mean, my grandma didn't know about this, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you could imagine. But it's a very comforting grandma type thing that Cantor's is giving me. Let's see if Belle's gives it. Their applesauce is very sweet.

Try just the, uh, just the potato part itself. Seems like there's a lot more to their, their potato. The apple sauce almost looks like apricot jam or something. Yeah, it's a little, it's a little jellified. Hmm. There's some spice in this one. They're a little bit harder to, they're, I don't know. They're definitely fancier. A lot more end with the potatoes.

Tantra's, you're just getting that, like, really nice, comforting, greasy tater. This is, I kind of feel like this is a little bit hard for us to judge as. guys who are not eating a lot of these. I think most people who are wanting like the classic thing might prefer. these, but I think as a dish, I feel like I would go back to that more. Um, I agree. I think we're planting our flag over here just because there's.

a lot of dimensionality to it. And, um, I guess the pendulum is swinging back. From traditional to wow me already. Mm hmm. We're finishing out the day with pickles. On Rhett's side is an order of Cantor's Dill Pickles, which are 4. 95 an order. And on Link's side, Belle's Pickle Plate, which comes with half. sour and full sour pickles for $6.60. Belle's always trying to be a little extra. Yeah, so far it's worked for him, except for one round.

Dink it. And sink it. Take these to the parking lot later. Mm hmm. Splendidly crunchy. Is it supposed to be full sour from Cantor's? It's dill. I think it's just dill. Okay, yeah. I don't think they have a sour scale. I think they're just making pickles, but they do. So this one, I mean, it just looks like, it still just looks like.

a, um, which one is more sour? Probably the one that's more discolored? Yes, I'm gonna go green first? I'm gonna go green first. I don't know, very. I want more. I want more sour. It's not enough. Hmm. That's why we got this one. I mean I wouldn't call it sour. I would think it was just dill.

I think it's like It's fine. The level of pickling is. Yeah. I feel like this pickle is better than both of those pickles. I agree. But, I mean, we got, we got the French opinion here. She's probably got a lot of pickle ideas. Yeah. Come on over. Come on me? Yeah, come on in. Okay, here we go. I don't, we are agreeing, but.

We're willing to be swayed. We're willing to be swayed. Swayed. Because you seem like you might have had a lot of experience with pickles. It's my favorite type of leather! Sometimes I just don't like, uh, silence. I just like to fill it with words. Would you like to fill your mouth with a pickle? Do it, do it. Only if you feed it to me. Okay, you want the long skinny one or the short fat one? I'm usually a short fat kind of girl. Okay. Oh, a little bit of real person come out.

You want all of it? No, just the tip. Okay. Okay. Good pickle, right? Very crunchy. Very crunchy. Alright. Who's next? And then this is, this is half masked. I don't like that one. Yep, I don't either. Their really green one is not great. That is a cucumber. Why is it so floppy? Oh God, the memes!

I forgot. You forget about memes. Yeah. Ooh. No! I like these. Yeah, alright. It's the best. It's classic. We're all in agreement. But I have to tell you something. I don't know if people remember me, because we haven't done. this character very much. I have a rat in my [bleep]. Yeah, oh yeah. How's Ratatouille? Ratatouille? He's good. I think he would like to know if this is the right one. Oh, okay. Alright. Okay. I'll give him a fresh one.

He likes it! You know when he really likes it? He gives me French braid. Oh no! That wasn't good! I don't know. I just said pubic hair joke. French braid. Yes. I thought you said French bread. No, you said braid. Braid. Okay. Brain. It sounds like bread. He is currently braiding. Okay, alright. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know what he's braiding. Hey, the good news is we're all in agreement here. Uh, these pickles are better, but you know what? Three out of five Belle's gets the win. And as your reward Belle's, because I'm sure you're watching, consider this your. official invitation to celebrate your 100th anniversary on this show with us in. 2124. We cannot wait. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a brand new episode of Good Mythical. Weekend, comes out every Saturday. Thanks for commenting and sharing this video.

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