A great pastrami, corned beef, or tongue sandwich is hard to come by in Houston, and many people have accepted that fact. Still, many still lavish upon Kenny & Ziggy’s an unfettered rhapsodizing; perhaps those fans will be thrilled to learn that, while it may be the best in this city, this is nowhere close to how good a New York-style deli can get.

The paper bag-brown space is airy, and everything from the layout to the dishware to the Manhattan-fetishizing décor is actually pretty spot-on. Add the noise level at lunchtime, and it successfully evokes the feeling that you’re in a Lower East Side institution. But the pastrami and corned beef, reportedly flown in from New York, aren’t as convincing. Why can’t we get that thick, fatty corned beef that we lust after? (It’s brisket, after all, and we’re the brisket state.) There are wonderful successes, including onion rings, matzoh ball soup, pickled green tomatoes, and mocha milkshakes. As well as giant, pricy sandwiches, there’s plenty of typically Jewish food like whitefish salad and chopped liver (both are pretty good). Corned beef hash is some of the best in town, and if you need a fix of sable or lox—accompanied by red onion, capers, tomatoes, and schmear—at least it’s here. Many cities can’t even claim so much.