The Harold's in Lyndhurst has taken a triple nose-dive; the quality of the food, customer service, and even their business ethics have hit bottom. In mid-February (2009), we ordered a double meat (26 ounce) pastrami sandwich and a knish. When the sandwich came, we were unpleasantly surprised. As the waitress then confirmed, they had changed the pastrami recipe. Instead of the richly flavored, smoky, superior meat we had been served there in the past, the meat was more akin to cheap supermarket corned beef with some black pepper on the outside, in both flavor and texture, without any detectable smoke flavor. Also, the sandwich appeared to be a bit on the small side. We asked the waitress if she was sure this was the 26 ounce and not the 19 ounce pastrami sandwich, and she assured us that it was. The bill specified that we did order the 26 ounce sandwich. The potato knish did not have the usual traditional Jewish fried-onion in shmaltz flavoring; instead it was bland whipped potatoe ... more

The Harold's in Lyndhurst has taken a triple nose-dive; the quality of the food, customer service, and even their business ethics have hit bottom. In mid-February (2009), we ordered a double meat (26 ounce) pastrami sandwich and a knish. When the sandwich came, we were unpleasantly surprised. As the waitress then confirmed, they had changed the pastrami recipe. Instead of the richly flavored, smoky, superior meat we had been served there in the past, the meat was more akin to cheap supermarket corned beef with some black pepper on the outside, in both flavor and texture, without any detectable smoke flavor. Also, the sandwich appeared to be a bit on the small side. We asked the waitress if she was sure this was the 26 ounce and not the 19 ounce pastrami sandwich, and she assured us that it was. The bill specified that we did order the 26 ounce sandwich. The potato knish did not have the usual traditional Jewish fried-onion in shmaltz flavoring; instead it was bland whipped potatoes in a pastry crust. We brought half the sandwich home with us. Still doubting the waitress' claim, I weighed the meat on a scale, and, sure enough, there was only 9 ounces left; they had given us the 19 ounce sandwich and charged us for the 26 ounce sandwich. We called the restaurant the next day about the overcharge and the missing half pound of meat, and were told to speak to Carlos, the general manager. We called Carlos twice over the next few days; both times he promised to get back to us to resolve the problem. No response. The fourth time we called, we spoke to the bartender, who promised us that Carlos would get back to us. They never returned any of our calls. We have realized that the restaurant management has no intention of even talking to us, much less trying to make it right. The only conclusion we can come to is that Harold's in Lyndhurst no longer cares about quality or customer service. less