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A little while ago, Neal wrote up Junior’s Deli in Westwood. Junior’s opened a new outlet in the South Bay, called Junior’s Deli Boys. Deli Boys is part of a new development in Manhattan Beach, anchored by boutique hotel, Shade.

Just outside the hotel is a courtyard with a fountain, surrounded by three restaurants. Petros, an upscale Greek joint, Le Pain Quotidien, the French bakery with the name that no one can pronounce and Junior’s Deli Boys, an offshoot of the 50 year tradition.

Admittedly, I have never been to the Westwood location; and truthfully, the first time I ate at Deli Boy’s I didn’t know that it was related to Junior’s. While Junior’s holds on to a traditional look, Deli Boys has gone full modern. Starting with the menus, which are displayed above the cashiers on large plasma screens. The resolution is good, but not as good as printed menus would be, I’m not sure why they went the plasma screen route, since the display is static. An octegenarian couple in front of me were having a terrible time making out the menu items. I will say that the bold colors are attractive, but I would have opted for a printed sign over the digital version.

On to the important stuff — the food! To me, deli means sandwich and a true traditional choice is the pastrami on rye. The sandwiches at Deli Boys are not cheap, but in the end, I think that you get value for what you pay. I opted for the “small” 1/4 pound sandwich and the mini potato pancakes and coleslaw on the side. In addition to fountain drinks, Deli Boys also offers two different types of brewed iced tea (brewed iced tea is very important to me) as well as lemonade. At the self serve station, I whipped up a tasty Arnold Palmer to sip while I waited for my food.

I grabbed a table outside and enjoyed the nice weather. I did notice that the servers were having a lot of trouble keeping the customers satisfied. I will chalk a certain amount of it up to opening pains, but even when I went back a couple weeks later, there were problems. People getting incomplete or wrong orders, requests for mustard going unanswered, multiple servers coming up to the same person asking if “everything was ok” and then bolting while the customer was trying to make requests. I did see a manager-like fellow taking this all in and making suggestions and talking to another guy about where they needed to improve, so it does look like they are working on it.

When my sandwich did finally come, I knew I was in for a treat.

The pastrami was so good that I thought about it not only for the rest of the afternoon, but for the rest of the week. The meat was cut rather thick and was juicy, with a perfect amount of fat. Enough fat to keep it moist and flavorful, but not so much that it was like bacon. The pepper spices were equally as balanced, adding tremendous flavor but not punching you in the mouth.

The rye bread was soft and tasty. With each bite I was falling more and more in love with this sandwich. I should also come clean that I rarely eat red meat. I could probably count the number of times I had beef last year on one hand. I might save my meat indulgences just for this sandwich.

The coleslaw isn’t worth much of a mention. Not bad, but not remarkable. The mini potato pancakes were a nice alternative to french fries. They certainly packed all of the grease of fries, with a little different flavor, and a softer texture. I would definitely order them again.

Since having the pastrami, I have been back and I tried the turkey with a cup of Manhattan Chowder on the side. The chowder came out right away and had a delicious fish stew taste. I’m not sure if they make their soups on site, but it sure tastes like it. Large slabs of clams were swimming in the red broth which I slurped up with gusto. The turkey was great, it obviously didn’t have the flavor of the pastrami, but it was fresh and not one of those pressed loafs.

Deli Boys is a much needed addition to the Manhattan Beach food scene. There is no ocean view, but the pier is just blocks away and parking is ample in the structure beneath the courtyard. Check it out.

Junior’s Deli Boys
451 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach CA 90266

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.