The smoked meat is better than Katz's! I didn't think it was possible. Ordered "fatty," you will never get closer to heaven. It's so soft and salty, and the bread is nice and soft too. For $6.15... wait, 6 bucks??? NY is a killer on the wallet, it's bullshit that I am even GLAD to pay 15 for a pastrami at Katz's. Now I have some perspective and want to move to Montreal.
From across the street, I looked at the line out the door, and didn't want to go - no matter how good it is, I'm not going to wait in line like a bunch of lemmings for a sandwich. THEN, I found that there is a take-out shop next door selling the exact same sandwich - and there's even tables and counters to sit at! Zero line. How come no one told me about this before???
I have no idea what the classic Schwartz's deli looks like, and I don't care. Schwartz's take-out window gets 5 stars - easily. It blows up the scale.