Best Old-School Deli in New York: Our Picks

The appetizing counter is a New York institution under quiet pressure — rents, retirements, and a generation that orders delivery. But the great ones endure, and they are worth the trip. We are ranking the pastrami that still gets steamed right, the bagel-and-lox spreads that justify the line, and the family counters that have outlasted three landlords. This is not nostalgia for its own sake; it is a guide to where the real thing still exists, borough by borough, before it does not.