Izzy's

Corned beef is one of my favorite dishes. This place is within walking distance of my house. I've been there twice in 9 months. What does that all add up to?

Yep, pretty obviously not anything special. I wish it was, but unfortunately it's not. They do serve large sandwiches at a decent price, but that's about it.

According to Google, "Izzy's is a Cincinnati tradition, serving the World's Greatest Reubens and one heck of a Potato Pancake." My wife is a big fan of theirs, and I have to admit that I've only recently started eating at Izzy's. I guess since I've never really eaten red meat, corned beef was never a big draw for me. Fortunately I've discovered there are a few items on the Izzy's menu not involving beef that are worth a try.

My wife and I stumbled upon their newest locations in Madisonville over the weekend. Our son was sound asleep in the car, so we were looking for something we could easily pick-up and eat while running errands. Fortunately this location is equipped with a drive-thru window. It does take a little time to prepare your order, compared to other drive-thrus, but the food is worth the wait.

My wife and I decided to split sandwiches. First up is The Suzzy - Izzy's oven roasted turkey breast topped with a special recipe of cranberry orange relish, cream cheese and lettuce on a toasted sourdough roll served with a potato pancake ($7.89). There was a large slab of cream cheese in between layers of turkey, so don't think you are being too healthy when ordering this sandwich. However the taste was great, and I really liked the sourdough roll that it was served on.

Our other sandwich is a favorite of ours, the Turkey Reuben - Izzy's oven roasted turkey breast topped with sweet-n-sour cole slaw, melted imported Swiss cheese, and a smear of Izzy's special dressing on our own rye roll also served with a potato pancake ($7.99). If you enjoy turkey Reubens, you will definitely love this sandwich. The roll is a little thicker than traditional rye bread, but it is packed full of tasty ingredients. The potato pancakes are also very good, though I could have used a little ketchup for mine. Each sandwich is also served with dill pickle chips on the side.

If you're looking for a decent deli sandwich around Cincinnati, it's hard to go wrong with Izzy's.  The Reubens here are pretty tasty, but my favorite is the goetta Reuben.  It has all the classic ingredients of the regular Reuben sandwich, but instead of corned beef, it has cooked slices of goetta.  The weak part about the sandwich is the dressing.  Their thousand island could be better.  The bread comes plain unless you get it toasted or grilled (I prefer grilled).  Each sandwich also comes with a potato pancake, which are usually ok.  Sometimes they can be a bit chewy and hard to cut.  They taste good with the Gulden's spicy brown mustard that's at each table (in my book, it's the only brand of mustard that matters).  Another thing I must mention is the pickles.  I'm not a big fan of pickles unless they're on a White Castle slider, but I love Izzy's pickles just by themselves.  They're thick cut, zesty, and have a great crunch to them.  I usually go through about 20 slices before my meal even gets to the table.  The service at Izzy's is pretty good, except that most of the times I order grilled bread, they bring me toasted bread, which isn't really a deal breaker.  The parking at this location sucks.  I came here at 11:30 on a Wednesday and all of their 5-6 assigned spots were taken, even though there was only 4 other people eating in the restaurant besides me.  I had to pay $3 in a private lot just to get lunch, as there aren't many metered spots around either.  All in all, it's worth it every few months or so, just to get a goetta Reuben and some pickles!