Jake’s Delicatessen

I really enjoyed the corn beef on my first visit, so came back because my spouse was looking for good pastrami. I decided to try the turkey pastrami. That was a mistake. It was dry. I don't think it was on rye. Not sure there was cheese on it that I requested, very disappointing compared to the corn beef that I had before. I tasted some of my spouse's pastrami. I found it to be very fatty and messy, but he had bell pepper put on which might have contributed to the ooze. Overall, very disappointing second visit. my rating is a three only because of the great service.

My first visit to Jakes Deli was over 10yrs ago. I have traveled the country trying to find Pastrami as good as Jakes. There was no comparison. I used to live in Chicago and traveled to Milwaukee often just to get a Jakes pastrami. Now I am living in Columbus Ohio. Fortunately, my sister now lives 40 minutes away. I have visited her and each time we must make the 40 minute drive to Jakes. She too believes it's the best pastrami she has had.

Jake's is kind of an interesting place. Located in inner city Milwaukee, you want to make sure you visit during daylight hours and park as close as you can to the front door. The interior of the place is quite simple. There is an order desk immediately inside the front door on the left. As you proceed to the back food preparation is in the right and a handful of tables and chairs on in the right.Gwen took our order and set up our table. Extremely pleasant person with customer service flashing from her smile. I ordered the lean corned beet with pepper jack cheese and French's mustard on toasted rye. Sandwich came to the table hot and loaded with luscious corned beef stacked high. A dill pickle accompanied the sandwich. The cheese was missing. My friend ordered the salami on rye with Mayo. The sandwich came with a generous portion of salami sliced thin and stacked high, and a dill pickle. The food was great, Gwen was fabulous and the servings were well worth the money. We had fountain drinks from a common dispenser.The food preparation area is wide open. You can see every step of the food in process. The only thing that concerned me was safety. I would have preferred to go with a larger group, park closer to the front door and for sure go during the daytime. It was my first trip to Jake's at the recommendation of a friend. He was spot on about the quality of the food, but he was a little short on what to expect from the neighborhood. Lesson learned.

Good food. Great sandwiches service decent I will be going again I do wish they would give a bigger portion of meat

Killer Thick Ruben Sandwich! Counter service was great. Seating simple. Ideal for a lunch spot.

I miss this place after moving out of Milwaukee. You must get there before they sell out of their mouth watering corned beef. When that sell out they close their restaurant for the day (last I remembered).

I had been a customer since 1979- until recently, twice I have gotten sick from the Corn Beef and Pastrami. Once in the summer of 2024 and recently in January of 2025. After 2024, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, maybe it had something to do with me and not the food. After searching the city for something comparable, with no luck, and my taste for a Corn beef sandwich had grown exponentially, I broke down and tried them again last month. I got sick again.Fool me once, fool me twice... I won't shop there again. The sandwich is too expensive and it made me ill after consuming the product.

DISGUSTING GARBAGE! I say this as a customer who's been going to Jake's for over 25 years. If Herb Kohl and Bud Selig could see what they've done to their once nice deli, he'd snap. No table service, no plates, no forks or knives, not even paper plates. They give you plastic bags of grease to eat. The nasty Ruebens are horrible slabs of stacked blubbery fat on stale bread which falls apart, served with no mustard, and their mustard was what made Jake's Ruebens different. The new tight wad owners should not be allowed to use the name. I will never step foot in that horrible dump again. How sad, and it was a long time Milwaukee institution where I used to eat some of the best meals ever.

Place looks like a rundown dump. Would say the most that if you can't make the restaurant look half good the food can't be all that good either.Found a pastrami sandwich, tender, good fat content, and a water down washed out flavor. Would not go back.

Service was great first thing in the morning for a first timer today and the three different sandwiches were awesome and rated as equal to the best we have ever had.