This Unassuming Texas Sandwich Shop Serves What Critics Call the Best Reuben in the State

I grew up thinking a Reuben was a thing that happened to lunch, not a thing worth driving across a city for. Then a friend slid a foil-wrapped bundle across a picnic table and told me to just try it before I said anything.

I unwrapped it. Steam came off the rye. The smell hit first, warm caraway and peppery beef and the sharp tang of sauerkraut, and I took a bite before I had finished being skeptical.

That first bite reset the whole category for me. The pastrami was tender with a crust of black pepper, the Swiss had melted into every fold, and the Russian dressing tied it all together without drowning a single thing.

I sat there chewing, saying nothing, which was exactly what my friend had predicted. Some food makes you talk. The good stuff makes you go quiet and reach for the second half before anyone can ask you for a bite.

The sandwich came from a small counter on West 34th Street in Austin called Otherside Deli, and it makes proper deli magic. Below, here is why regulars talk about the Reuben the way other people talk about a great steak, and everything you need to go get one yourself.

The Reuben That Started the Rumors

The Reuben is the bestseller here, and it earns the title honestly. It stacks house-made pastrami with Swiss, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on marble rye that gets griddled until the edges crackle. It is the sandwich the whole place is built around.

The pastrami is the reason. They start with a whole brisket, brine it for days, cook it low and slow, and hand-carve every single order. You get thick, tender slices ringed with a peppery bark, the kind of meat that tastes like someone paid attention to it for a week.

That is the part most sandwich shops skip. Real pastrami is a multi-day project, not a deli-case shortcut, and you can taste the difference in the first bite. It is beefy and rich, with just enough salt and spice to keep you coming back for more.

The griddle finish is what pulls it all together. The whole sandwich goes onto a hot flat-top so the rye toasts to a golden crunch and the Swiss melts into the pastrami. That warm, crisp shell against the soft, steamy middle is the magic of a proper Reuben.

The bread matters just as much as the meat. It comes fresh from New World Bakery down in Kyle, a real marble rye with structure, so it holds a heavy load of pastrami and kraut without turning to mush under the hot griddle.

Then there is the sauerkraut, tangy and bright, cutting through all that richness so the sandwich never feels heavy. The Russian dressing brings a little sweetness and a little punch. Every element is doing a job, and none of them are fighting for attention.

Austin American-Statesman critic Matthew Odam once called this the best pastrami Reuben in Texas. That is a big swing for a state that takes its smoked meat seriously, and one bite makes the case for him better than any review possibly could.

My pro tip: get it with a pickle and a bag of Dirty chips, the Texas-made kind, and eat it while it is still hot enough to pull a long string of Swiss. A Reuben waits for no one, and this one is worth eating at its absolute peak.

I have watched a first-timer take that opening bite and go quiet mid-sentence, eyebrows up, chewing slower to make it last. That is the standard reaction, and it is the whole reason regulars keep talking about this sandwich to anyone who will listen.

Beyond the Reuben, a Whole Northeast Sandwich Board

The Reuben is the headliner, but the menu reads like a love letter to the northeast corridor. This is a Philadelphia deli that happens to live in Central Texas, and the whole board leans into that identity without a hint of apology.

The Roddy, sometimes billed as the Rowdy Roddy, is their patty melt done deli-style. It piles tender pastrami with gooey American cheese, grilled onion, and Russian dressing on toasted rye. Ask for the spicy pepper relish if you like a little heat with your comfort food.

The cheesesteak runs about $12 and it is the real thing: ribeye, onions, green bell peppers, and melted American cheese, the version a Philadelphia native would defend to the death. It is griddle-slicked and messy in the best possible way.

There is a chopped cheese too, the New York bodega classic that rarely shows up this far south. It is all seasoned ground beef and melted cheese griddled together on a hero roll, and it is exactly as good as it sounds.

Add an Italian sub loaded with cured meats and a hearty turkey club to the board as well. Between all of it, you have a lineup that would feel right at home on any street corner up in Philly or down the Jersey Shore.

They cure their own corned beef in-house, right alongside the pastrami, so the deli’s whole heart runs through the sandwiches. Subs come on toasted marble rye or on sourdough if you ask, hot or cold, and the kitchen does not chase trends.

Round it out with a bag of Dirty chips, the kettle-cooked brand made right here in Texas, and something cold to drink. The sides are simple on purpose. When the sandwich is doing this much work, it does not need a fancy supporting cast around it.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” owner Derrick Smith told Community Impact, and you can taste the discipline in that. The goal is a good sandwich made fast and made right, and the food shows what that focus buys you.

Did you know the Reuben runs in the mid-teens, roughly $14 to $17 depending on the size you order? For a hand-carved, house-brined pastrami sandwich that a major critic crowned the best in the state, that is a genuine steal.

From a Food Truck Behind a Bar to a Beloved Counter

Every great deli has an origin story, and this one starts in Philadelphia. Otherside Deli was founded by Derrick Smith and his partner Conor Mack, two friends who grew up eating the kind of sandwiches that most of Texas had never tasted.

Before any of it, Smith spent five years working the counter at Herschel’s East Side Deli, a New York-style Jewish spot in the city’s famous Reading Terminal Market, learning first-hand what a real deli sandwich should actually be.

Reading Terminal is one of the great American food halls, a place where the pastrami is serious business and the standards are set by grandmothers who have been eating there for decades. That is a demanding school, and Smith clearly graduated with honors.

Mack came up on the Jersey Shore, so between the two of them they had the whole northeast covered. Both landed in Austin, found the city short on the sandwiches they had grown up eating, and in November 2017 they did something about it and opened a food truck.

That first truck parked behind a bar called Back Lot, slinging pastrami and cheesesteaks to a crowd that caught on fast. Word spread the way it does with truly good food, one convinced customer at a time, until the truck had outgrown its little patch of gravel.

In November 2018 they moved into a brick-and-mortar home on West 34th Street, the former Delaware Sub Shop. The counter has been there ever since, a small unassuming storefront that gives absolutely no hint of the reputation quietly building inside it.

The recognition followed quickly. The Austin Chronicle handed Otherside a First Plates award in 2019, and glowing features have piled up in Austin Monthly, the Chronicle, and the Statesman. Not bad for two transplants who just wanted a decent sandwich in their new hometown.

What is charming is how little any of that seems to have changed the place. The counter is still tiny, the menu is still short, and the pastrami still gets brined and carved by hand. Success did not turn Otherside into something it was never trying to be.

Why a Philly Deli Works in Austin

You might not expect a northeast deli to fit in a barbecue town, but it fits perfectly. Austin respects anyone who takes meat seriously, and a place that brines its own brisket for days is speaking the local language, just with a different accent.

It also fills a real gap. Austin has world-class tacos and world-class barbecue, but a proper hand-carved pastrami on fresh rye was a genuinely hard thing to find here before this counter opened. Otherside walked straight into that empty spot.

What keeps regulars coming is that the place never got precious about it. There is no fuss, no reinvention, no forty-dollar deconstructed Reuben. Just a small kitchen doing the classics with real skill, which turns out to be the rarest thing on any menu.

There is something comforting about that in a city changing as fast as Austin is. Trends come and go, hot new spots open and close, but a griddled Reuben made from scratch is timeless. You could serve it to your grandparents or your kids and both would understand it instantly.

What to Know Before You Go

This is a lunch counter, not a dinner destination, so plan your visit around the middle of the day. It keeps daytime hours and tends to wind down by the afternoon, so an early lunch beats a late one if you want the full menu waiting for you.

The spot is small and every sandwich is made to order, so a short wait at the peak of lunch is simply part of the deal. Online ordering through their Square page is your best friend if you are squeezing this into a tight work break.

Pro tip: come hungry and share if you can. Ordering a Reuben and a cheesesteak between two people lets you taste the real range of what this kitchen does, and both sandwiches travel well if you would rather find a shady spot outside to eat.

The medical district location means parking can be a puzzle at busy hours, so give yourself a couple of extra minutes to circle the block. It is a tiny price to pay, and the sandwich at the end of the hunt makes it feel like nothing at all.

How to Get There

Otherside Deli sits just west of central Austin, tucked into a low storefront on West 34th Street near the medical district. It is an easy detour off Lamar or MoPac, close enough to downtown for a quick lunch run and worth the trip from anywhere in the metro.

Where: 1104 W 34th St, Suite D, Austin, TX 78705

Start Planning Your Austin Sandwich Run

Some road trips are built around barbecue, some around tacos, and this one is built around a Reuben that a critic called the best in Texas. That is a promise worth driving toward, and a lunch worth building a whole afternoon around.

So point the car toward West 34th Street, come with a real appetite, and order the sandwich that turned two homesick transplants into Austin legends. Grab your foil bundle, find a sunny spot, and try not to say a single word until after that first perfect bite.

Featured image: @ Otherside Deli