RESTAURANT REVIEW : Citi and Epi: Downtown Deli Offerings

There aren’t many places in downtown Los Angeles where one can dine outside in a pretty, shady, tree-filled spot and feel the city’s hum. Thus, I had high hopes for Citi Deli on South Hill Street.

Downstairs in the International Jewelry Mart, Citi Deli’s plate-glass front overlooks Pershing Square and its foliage, public art and purple bell tower. Inside, the deli is spacious, airy and bright. Old etchings of rural California hang on one wall, quirky black-and-white photographs of jewelry-making and diamond-grinding on others. (What on earth are all those men doing down on all fours?) Booths are divided by partitions decorated with old postcards. And there’s a lovely, vast patio, filled with acacia trees and bougainvillea and plenty of tables. All in all, Citi Deli looks like the big, bustling downtown deli L.A. has always needed, especially at lunch, when it’s packed with office workers and tourists diligently studying guidebooks.

Unlike large delis in other locales (and even in this one) Citi Deli is only open for breakfast and lunch--not enough night life downtown to support it through the dinner hour.

The food is modestly priced. The menu is vast--everything from breakfast to meatloaf, blintzes to hot dogs. Too bad that most everything we try leaves a lot to be desired. Yet portions are downright overwhelming.

Take the Reuben sandwich. Two slices of rye, each heaped, open-face, with several inches of corned beef or pastrami, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. It’s not grilled. It’s not even approachable. It’s Mt. Whitney, the sandwich. The meat alone could make three, maybe four, sandwiches for average humans.

I understood, then, when the woman at the next table, facing a ham sandwich the size of a dictionary, blanched and refused to let the waitress set it down before her. The very size of the thing daunted and embarrassed her; she didn’t even want to be associated with it and sent half back to the kitchen.

Certainly nobody has a mouth big enough to span these creations. Many people, we noticed, were eating tuna salad, egg salad and pastrami sandwiches with forks.

I had the best luck with soups and breakfast items. Cold beet borscht and matzo-ball soup are both palatable. And a spinach omelet is fine. Matzo brei is probably the best thing I try at Citi Deli; a huge plate, with sour cream and/or applesauce, could fuel a jackhammer operator till dinner time.

The egg salad has a weird tang, as if seasoned with bicarbonate of soda. A sandwich of grilled shrimp, bacon and avocado sounded great but the shrimp’s tasteless and the bacon is dry and tough. Stuffed cabbage rolls are terribly sweet. Blintzes are filled with farmers cheese and, strangely enough, a heady dose of almond flavoring. Carrot cake is uncooked inside.

On one visit, a tall glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice seems like a bargain at $1.95; the next visit, it’s poured from a plastic carton, fermented, undrinkable.

Better, then, to stick with Dr. Brown’s sodas from New York--the cream soda or, my favorite, the Cel-Ray, a pale gold soda flavored with celery.

Leafy shade, the attractive space, the feel of a bustling metropolis are all rare enough in this town to make Citi Deli a real draw. Add reasonable portions of better-quality food and this place would rock.

* Citi Deli , 530 S. Hill St . , Los Angeles ; (213) 629-0910. Open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch. No alcohol served. All major credit cards accepted. Lunch for two, food only, $14-$38.

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On the other hand, if you’re not looking for distinctive surroundings, but want a more manageable sandwich, there’s the Epi Deli and Coffee House in the Kawada Hotel on Hill Street. Epi, I believe, is a shortened form of Epicentre, the adjoining sit-down restaurant whose design motif is earthquakes.

At the Epi Deli, there’s a small, limited menu. A handful of eggs and omelets for breakfast--the bare basics, good enough. Espresso and cappuccino are not wonderful. But sandwiches, ordered by Richter scale number, are good. I liked the 2.5 (delicious roast beef) and the 8.5 (juicy, fresh egg salad). The 8.0, “Club Sandwich Tremor,” is a basic, stable club.

* Epi Deli , 200 S. Hill St . , Los Angeles ; (213) 626-2777. Open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch. Open Saturday and Sunday for breakfast. No alcohol served. Lunch for two, food only, $10-$18.