The best chopped cheese in NYC starts with ground beef and American cheese chopped together on a flat-top grill, folded into a hero roll with lettuce, tomato, and however much hot sauce you can handle. That’s it. That’s the whole trick, and it’s the reason a five-dollar Harlem bodega sandwich turned into one of the most photographed foods in the city.
It’s having another moment this year. Beef prices are up, a Brooklyn deli’s wagyu version is going viral on a weekly basis, and half of food TikTok is currently arguing over who does it best. The sandwich has changed a lot since it was invented behind a Harlem counter decades ago, but the good versions still know exactly what they are.
Here are 8 spots serving some of the best chopped cheese in NYC right now, from the original to the ones reinventing it entirely.
Blue Sky Deli (Hajji’s) – 🏆 Bowery Beat Editor Top Choice
Address: 2135 1st Ave, New York, NY 10029
Phone: (646) 682-7488
Style: The original chopped cheese, ground beef and melted cheese with lettuce, tomato, and onion on a hero
Vibe: 24-hour East Harlem bodega, line out the door, nowhere to sit
Price: $ (about $8.50)
This is where it started. Longtime deli man Carlos Soto is generally credited with inventing the chopped cheese here sometime in the ’80s or ’90s, and Blue Sky Deli (everyone just calls it Hajji’s) has been serving some version of it ever since.
There’s no menu innovation happening here, and that’s the point. Ground beef, American and mozzarella, caramelized onions, a heavy hand with the sazón. Grab it to go and eat it around the corner in Thomas Jefferson Park like a local.
If you’re only trying one chopped cheese in NYC and you want the answer to where it all began, this is it.
Prospect Park Deli
Address: 155 Prospect Park SW, Brooklyn, NY 11218
Phone: (718) 854-6983
Style: Wagyu chopped cheese with rotating add-ins, including mozzarella stick and meatball versions
Vibe: Family-run Windsor Terrace deli, the Odeh brothers filming nearly every order
Price: $$ (roughly $12-16 depending on the build)
Website: prospectparkdeli.com
Mohammed Odeh has run this deli for more than 30 years, but it’s his sons Yazen and Adam who turned it into a TikTok account with a sandwich counter attached. Their move was swapping in 100% American wagyu, and it’s currently one of the most-filmed chopped cheeses in the city.
They keep pushing it further: a meatball version, one stuffed with mozzarella sticks, even pizza-topped riffs that show up on their page every few weeks. It reads like a gimmick until you’re standing there watching the line form at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
This is a real contender for the best chopped cheese in NYC right now, not just the most photogenic one.
CR7 Gourmet Deli
Address: 26 1st Ave, New York, NY 10009
Phone: (646) 692-3329
Style: Classic bodega chopped cheese on a hero, made to order
Vibe: 24-hour East Village staple, deliveries running nonstop
Price: $
CR7 is the East Village’s answer for anyone who wants the classic version at 3 a.m. without a trip up to Harlem. It’s a straightforward bodega build: chopped beef, melted cheese, and whatever you want piled on from the hot bar next to it.
It’s not trying to reinvent anything, which after a few of the fancier versions on this list starts to feel like a relief.
Nishaan
Address: 160 1st Ave, New York, NY 10009
Phone: (646) 370-3610
Style: Chapli kabob chopped cheese, Pakistani-American fusion
Vibe: Tiny East Village storefront, halal, started as a food truck
Price: $$
Website: eatnishaan.com
Nishaan swaps the usual sazón for the cumin, coriander, and chile you’d find in a chapli kabob, then trades ketchup and mayo for a lime-cilantro sauce and tamarind chutney. It’s still recognizably a chopped cheese. It just tastes like nothing else on this list.
The restaurant started as a food truck before landing a storefront the size of a walk-in closet a few blocks from CR7, so you can reasonably combine both into one East Village cheap eats run.
Chopped
Address: 101 MacDougal St, New York, NY 10012
Style: Build-your-own chopped sandwiches, plus beef tallow fries and thick milkshakes
Vibe: Modern Greenwich Village sandwich shop, counter service, not a bodega
Price: $$
Website: chopped101.com
Chopped isn’t a bodega, it’s a dedicated sandwich shop built entirely around the format, fries and milkshakes included. That’s a different experience than grabbing one off a deli flat-top, but the sandwich itself holds up.
It won’t win any “most authentic” debates, but if you’re ranking the best chopped cheese in NYC by sandwich quality alone, it belongs on the list.
Brooklyn Beef N’ Cheese
Address: 5409 Avenue T, Brooklyn, NY 11234
Phone: (347) 365-3357
Style: Cheesesteak-leaning menu with a loaded chopped cheese, plus specialty builds like vodka sauce and BBQ
Vibe: Mill Basin strip-mall spot with a following well outside the neighborhood
Price: $$
Website: beefncheesenyc.com
This one leans more cheesesteak shop than corner bodega, but the chopped cheese is still the reason people drive out to Mill Basin for it. The vodka sauce and BBQ versions get more attention online, but the classic build is what put them on the map.
If you’re already deep in late-night food in Brooklyn chasing the Prospect Park Deli wagyu version, this is worth the extra trip.
Olympia Deli
Address: 761 6th Ave, New York, NY 10010
Phone: (212) 924-5074
Style: Classic deli chopped cheese, made to order at the grill
Vibe: 24-hour Chelsea deli, breakfast crowd by day, late-night crowd by night
Price: $
Olympia is a proper Chelsea deli: juice bar up front, grill in the back, open around the clock. The chopped cheese here doesn’t get the TikTok attention some of the others do, but it’s a reliable order if you’re already in the neighborhood.
Good pick if Midtown or Chelsea plans have you nowhere near Harlem or Brooklyn but you still want a real one.
New Morris Deli & Grocery
Address: 744 Morris Park Ave, Bronx, NY 10462
Phone: (718) 931-3536
Style: Classic Bronx bodega chopped cheese
Vibe: 24-hour Morris Park neighborhood spot
Price: $
Consensus among people who take this sandwich seriously is that quality tends to go up the further into the Bronx you get, and New Morris Deli is a good example of why. It’s a straightforward neighborhood bodega doing the classic version well, no gimmicks required.
If you’re already up in Morris Park for Arthur Avenue, it’s a quick detour before or after.
So, What’s the Best Chopped Cheese in NYC?
Finding the best chopped cheese in NYC really depends on what you’re after.
If you want the birthplace of the sandwich, Blue Sky Deli (Hajji’s) still has it.
If you want the version everyone’s filming right now, Prospect Park Deli’s wagyu build is leading the conversation.
If you want something that barely resembles the original, Nishaan’s chapli kabob take is worth the trip.
If you’re just hungry at 3 a.m. and want it done right, CR7 or Olympia will do the job.
There isn’t one single answer, and that’s kind of the point of a sandwich this many bodegas have made their own.
Pick a borough, pick a mood, and go find out for yourself.
