When Harry Met Sally at Katz's Deli: The Table Where 'I'll Have What She's Having' Was

Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East SideLower East SideThe historic immigrant gateway neighborhood, now layering galleries and nightlife over tenements, delis and knish bakeries. serves pastrami to anyone who walks in, and one table in its front room is the exact spot where Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal filmed the deli scene in When Harry Met Sally. A hanging sign above it marks the seat.

A Table Under a Hanging Sign

In 1989, the dining room at Katz's Delicatessen became the set for the most quoted scene in When Harry Met Sally. Meg Ryan's Sally demonstrates, loudly and at length, that women fake it. Billy Crystal's Harry watches from across the table. The punchline, “I'll have what she's having”, was delivered by Estelle Reiner, director Rob Reiner's mother, a detail most viewers never catch. The table where Ryan and Crystal sat is still in the deli, marked by a hanging sign that reads: “Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!”

Harry and Sally Came Back in 2025

In February 2025, Ryan and Crystal returned to Katz's and recreated the scene at the same table, under the same sign, for a Hellmann's Super Bowl ad. For a deli that has fed lower Manhattan for generations, it was a repeat performance rather than a reinvention. The sign above the table had already been telling visitors the same story for years, and the ad simply put it in front of a larger audience.

The Table Is Still a Table

Nothing beyond the sign is staged for visitors. The marked seat sits on the deli's regular floor, surrounded by other customers eating the same lunch, with no rope around it. Pastrami on rye, hand-cut at the counter, arrives on a tray and is what nearly every neighboring table is eating. The sign is a joke, the sandwich is not.

How to Sit at the Table Yourself

Katz's does not reserve the marked table. Take the ticket handed out at the door and keep hold of it, payment happens on the way out. Order at the counter, hand-cut pastrami on rye is the sandwich most people carry back to their seat. The table sits in the front room under the sign, so if it is occupied, wait a few minutes or ask a staff member to point it out. Weekday afternoons are quieter than weekend lunch, and peak hours bring a line at the counter and a full front room. Hours change seasonally, so check the Katz's Delicatessen website before going.

The deli sits inside the ChinatownChinatownManhattan's dense, working Chinese neighborhood of markets, dumpling counters and a century and a half of history. and Little Italy stretch of lower Manhattan, which makes a longer food walk easy. A guided walking tour of Chinatown and Little Italy that includes a stop at the deli runs from $75 (estimated), and traveler reviews on the activity page are the quickest way to judge the pacing before committing. After eating, a walk south reaches the Brooklyn BridgeBrooklyn BridgeThe 1883 Gothic-towered suspension bridge whose elevated walkway is the city's most famous free walk. and the Wall Street district without much trouble.

More on the place itself: chinatown little italy.