Cer Te Keeps The Awesome Sandwiches Coming

We’ve sang the praises of Certé for years now, but I’m continually amazed by the versatility and inventiveness of their food. On the surface, this place looks like any other generic deli, but the sandwiches are far superior and always affordable. When it was announced that the May sandwich was a “Chip & Crab Dip Sandwich,” there was a little tug of war among the ML contributors as to who would actually get to taste this bad boy. Needless to say, I won.

The large soft shell crab is beer battered and fried. Amazingly, it’s not greasy but instead rich and meaty. It might be the biggest soft shell crab I’ve ever eaten (and shockingly priced at $8.95) They include two sauces on the side (a remoulade and a hot sauce, which was probably tabasco). I generously added both and they worked like a plate of street meat with lots of bold flavors, balanced and cooled down by that tangy, creamy white sauce. Fresh bibb lettuce and a buttery potato roll were the perfect final touches. And I didn’t even mention the paprika spiced chips, which were endlessly addicting. I even added a few onto the sandwich for an extra bit of crunchy texture and was disappointed I had used up all the sauce. It would have been perfect for dipping.

And after eating it, I encourage all of you – and my fellow ML contributors – to get out there and taste this bad boy. It’s like a Filet O’ Fish, but a hundred gazillion times better, just the way Certé always does it.

Certé, 20 W 55th St (btw 5+6th), 212-397-2020

6 Comments

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    I was JUST looking for a soft shell crab benedict and couldn’t find any restaurants that serve this. Guess this is the closest I could get to. Thanks.

  • is it just me or is this blog turning into a weekly Cer Te roundup?

  • The sandwich is good, but not filling enough for a whole meal (including the chips + cole slaw that comes w/ all cer te sandwiches). I liked the remoulade and the hot sauce, which definitely isn’t tabasco–it’s sour akin to the kind you get on spicy buffalo wings.

  • Ok Mr. Hoffman, unless you got a special “Midtown lunch review” edition of this meal, you have a very loose definition of “large”. The crab itself was barely the size of my palm (and i have small hands). The roll was neither buttery nor potato. it was a regular hamburger roll you’d buy 8 for $1 for a backyard bbq.

    That being said, it was not bad, but not overwhelming either. most certainly would not do it again, not for the $9.74 (after tax).

    Chips were ok, but a tad stale. and it came with pickle, slaw and a fruit cup.

  • I tried this sandwich a couple weeks ago. I think the review is pretty right on. The crab was a nice size. It was clean with no weird yellow stuff coming out. I loved the potato roll.

    The potato chips were a little odd, but I ate them. Soft shell crab lovers will like this sandwich.

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