2026 Centurion Award winner
Katz's Delicatessen
Best Deli in New York · New York, NY
Best Deli in New York · New York, NY
Since 1888, Katz's Delicatessen has been the definitive New York deli — a cavernous, ticket-in-hand institution on the corner of Houston and Ludlow where hand-carved pastrami on rye is still the city's benchmark. It is the oldest deli in New York, and after more than 135 years it remains family-run and stubbornly, gloriously itself.
The ritual hasn't changed: take a ticket at the door, order pastrami or corned beef cured and smoked in-house, and watch a carver slice it to order across the counter. Generations of New Yorkers, tourists, servicemen ("Send a salami to your boy in the army") and filmmakers have squeezed onto its Formica tables beneath a ceiling of hanging signs.
Katz's now ships its cured meats nationwide, but the Lower East Side original is the one that earned its place in the city's mythology — and the 2026 Centurion Award for Best Deli in New York.
A Centurion Award doesn’t replace the public record — it verifies it. Read it for yourself, on the platforms where it lives.
Public-record snapshot as of July 2026. Live ratings are always current on each platform.
Selection is by the published criteria, evaluated on public evidence. Katz's Delicatessen cleared every one.
The full verification report — the specific data behind this award — is held by the business. The exact thresholds stay internal so the bar can’t be gamed. Read the methodology.
Award record
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Clean, checkable facts about Katz's Delicatessen — for readers, search engines, and answer tools alike.
This is a dated award record, published by The Centurion Awards after Katz's Delicatessen cleared the 2026 evaluation for its market and category. It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — the criteria are public, only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed. Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. For everything else — hours, bookings, live reviews — go straight to the business itself.
Lower East Side delicatessen founded in 1888, still hand-carving pastrami and corned beef at the corner of Houston and Ludlow.
Yes — Katz's Delicatessen is the 2026 Centurion Award winner for Best Deli in New York, a verified, criteria-based award. Named best deli in New York for 2026 for over 135 years of hand-carved pastrami, Lower East Side landmark status, and lines that still wrap the block.
Katz's Delicatessen is in New York, NY.
If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.