That is definitely the wrong bread. Good recommendation. A very good sandwich. Loved the smokey pastrami which was basically brisket. Pickles were great and cole slaw was great.
The bread was fine. I expect Langer’s quality rye whenever I’m eating pastrami.
Total aside but there was a lady eating by herself who ordered a regular meal and a kids meal. Who cares you say? Thursday is kids eat free at Mendocino Farms. This lady ordered up herself a free kids meal. I thought that was kinda janky.
I love a good Kaiser roll and I kill for great pastrami, but the two together doesn’t do it for me. Just too much a creature of habit I guess. I like putting ketchup on a hot dog. YMMV certainly.
I think the rye has definitely improved, at least at the Santa Monica location. I haven’t had GCM location in a while, so I don’t know about there or Century City.
I picked up a couple of pounds of Langer’s pastrami and half a loaf of rye to take home the other day, and realized that another element contributing to their superiority is that the bread has way more caraway than most.
I tried the pastrami at the Century City location several wks/months ago and found it oddly… bland. As in, I don’t-feel-like-eating-here-again bland. Not sure if it was just a one-time thing, and I don’t recall thinking that about the DTLA or SaMo location.
And for what it’s worth, Mendocino’s pastrami is super bland too. I asked to sample some and it literally tasted like nothing. But this may be a one off.