Judah’s Deli is a food cart in the Rose City Food Park at 5235 NE Sandy in Portland, OR. They specialize in East Coast Jewish-style deli items like Pastrami and Corned Beef sandwiches. Owners Nick and Fiona are always running the cart, and they have started leaning into some specialties from Nick’s Hungarian heritage like Hungarian Mushroom soup, Hungarian Chicken soup, and Viennese-style potato salad. They opened in April 2025 and have grown a dedicated following. It seems like that they have really blown up in the last few months and now the lines are reliably long during regular lunch hours. Gone are the days of me casually rolling up at 1 pm and grabbing a quick sandwich. Now I need to strategize my timing and roll up later in the day. They are making the best Reuben in town though, so it’s worth a wait.

Let’s start with the featured image above: The Reubenowitz. 1/2 pound of Pastrami (!!!), melted Swiss, Saurkraut, Russian Dressing on Rye. You can get full sandwiches or 1/2 sandwiches. The 1/2 size is akin to a normal sandwich and the full is a behemoth, they don’t skimp on the portions! Most of their sandwiches revolve around either Pastrami or Corned Beef. They are both excellent, but my preference is Pastrami. You can’t go wrong with either though. This is some of the best Pastrami I’ve ever had in my life. The sandwich is perfectly put together, it holds up nice and is incredibly satisfying and crave-able. It is my favorite on their menu, and I’ve had all of them at this point.

The Rachel with Pastrami. You can also get this with turkey breast instead of pastrami. OK this is basically the same as the last sandwich, the one difference being coleslaw instead of sauerkraut. But that one detail makes a big difference in terms of the sandwich. Some times I feel like coleslaw, sometimes sauerkraut.

1/2 Reuben and Jókai Bableves (Hungarian Bean Soup). Look at that delicious corned beef! This sandwich is so good. It’s so much food for $13, and I think the soup was $5 or $6. A full meal for under $20 for sure. I love that Nick started making soups, it’s really showing off his cooking chops as well as an appreciation of his heritage. It’s soup season again so I’m looking forward to more soups!

Speaking of soups, check out this Hungarian Mushroom soup! My mom made a killer version of this soup when I was growing up. She was a great cook, and this was one of my favorite of her dishes. We weren’t Hungarian, she just cooked from a lot of different cultures because we lived abroad in various places and she picked up cooking styles and recipes where ever we lived. I was talking with Nick one day and mentioned growing up eating this soup and I asked if he did as well and he said he did. I told him he should think about making his own version and lo and behold a few weeks later this debuted. It was so good! Similar to my mom’s but not exactly the same. I hope it makes its way back to the menu at some point.

I also got the Turkey Club when I got that soup. This turkey club was delicious! Really deep, smoky flavor on the bacon and turkey. This man knows his sandwiches!

Hungarian Chicken Matzoh Ball Soup. This was super incredible. Matzoh ball is not my favorite, but I’ll say this is the best version I’ve had. In the future I’ll probably get it without and just focus on that delicious chicken and deep broth. This is such a universal comfort dish. I’m so excited for soup season!

Viennese-style Potato Salad. This is a recent and very welcome addition to the menu. Gold potatoes in a dressing made of Hungarian Goulash broth, Apple Cider Vinegar, Gray Poupon, Caraway and Red Onion, and topped with Tobacco Onions. This was super tasty! I am a potato salad fanatic and I always am on the lookout for a great potato salad. I waited in line for a long time just to get this as I had ordered a dumpling soup from a neighboring cart. This was the first time I realized that the Judah’s line is no joke! Word is certainly getting out about Judah’s for good reason. They have the best pastrami and corned beef sandwiches in town. Happy eating!