24 Hour Dining: Canter's Deli

419 North Fairfax, LA

I'd been to Canter's once before, so I should have known to expect mediocrity.

24-hour joints like Canter's and Fred 62 are meant to be experienced only in the wee hours of the morning-- what passes for acceptable food at those hours become Dennysesque at best when the sun rears its bright head. And it was 2am.

I had a fruit bowl. Last time I had the hot open-faced turkey sandwich (also at around 2am-- a bad idea). The fruit bowl was decent and not outrageously priced, which is more than I can say for Swingers (and their $8 bowl), but the service was so-so and the environment shared frightful similarities with the dining hall of a retirement home (both in clientele and decor).

Their pickles put me in a bit of a sour mood. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that when a restaurant publishes in their menu "Try our world famous _____," said food item should be amazing. And yet these pickles-- which were delivered to our table for free-- were the worst I've ever had. They were still 98% cucumber, which (coincidentally) makes them 98% bland.

I should've just sliced them, put them on my eyelids, and gone to bed.











-->Ravi