Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. Today it’s Jake, an actress (yes, you heard that correctly… Jake is a girl) and theater manager  by night/executive assistant by day, who is looking for the best french fries in Midtown.

Name: Jake (Yes it’s a guys name. No it’s not short for anything.)

Age: 31

Occupation: I’m an actor/theatre producer, but I make a living as executive assistant.

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 45th & 6th

Favorite Kind of Food: Anything spicy or with shellfish. And I always have to eat a hot lunch.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Yogurt. Even the smell of it is revolting to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pam Real Thai (49th btw. 9+10th) for delivery, Pam Real Thai Encore (47th btw. 9+10th) for eat in. My friend Liz got me hooked on their chichen laarb and vegetarian pad thai. Pam’s versions are really light and delicious.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Kwik Meal Cart (SW Corner of 6th & 45th St.) I get veggies over rice, but their falafel and lamb are just as amazing. The chef gets profiled all the time — seriously, it’s way better than anything made in a “Kart” should be. I also get soup and a half sandwich at Pret a Manger once a week — their butternut squash soup is so good!

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Paris, near an old-school bistro with perfect open-faced Croque Monsieurs.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers?: Where can you get really good fries around here?

Well… that’s an easy one for me.  My favorite french fries in Midtown after the jump… Read more »

Haagen Dazs is introducing their new Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream with “Free Flavor Day”, which means, today from 4-8pm you can go into any participating location and get a free scoop of the new flavor.  But don’t go running out to your nearest Haagen Dazs just yet… you may remember from last year, when they did this same promotion, it is only “participating” locations, so many of the Midtown franchises that sell Haagen Dazs will not have the new flavor, or be offering any sort of free Ice Cream.  Don’t be fooled by the “Find a Location Near You” link on the Haagen Dazs website.  Not all of those locations are participating.

We take our free stuff very seriously here at Midtown Lunch, and have tracked down confirmation one way or the other, from three of the Midtown Haagen Dazs locations.  The list is after the jump…  Read more »

Lunch from Oms/b, Posted to the M.L. Photo Pool by lazysundae

• It’s not cheap, and you have to wear a jacket, but the Delegate Dining Room at the UN is having a Malaysian all you can eat lunch buffet until May 23rd [Eating in Translation]
• Apparently the Alambre Burrito at Pampano Taqueria is where it’s at [A Passion for Food]
• Here’s a look at what the sit down lunch at Fig & Olive looks like [LWF&D]
• Lamb shanks are still the thing to get at Kanaat (aka Al Baraka) Turkish Buffet [Peter Cherches]
• I’m not the only one who likes the Mongolian BBQ at Food World [Grace is Full]

This sign popped up last month while Law & Order was filming inside Goodburger

A few weeks ago Serious Eats couldn’t help but post a clip from an episode of Law & Order: SVU where Robin Williams plays a deranged “locavore” (seriously) who used his “condition” as an alibi for why he couldn’t have committed a crime inside a fast food restaurant.  Even funnier was the fact that Zen Burger (on Lex btw. 45+46th) makes an appearance as “Happy Burger”, the generic fast food restaurant where the crime was committed.  Playing a crappy “ecoli” and “salmonella” filled fast food chain was quite the stretch for the all vegetarian Zen Burger, but the giveaway is the the orange and green stripes that line the walls.

Check out Zen Burger in its acting debut, after the jump… Read more »

Since I started this site, I’ve been on a quest to find a *real* gyro sandwich in Midtown. And when I say ji-roh or yee-roh or however the hell you want to pronounce it, I mean the Greek inspired sandwich, featuring slices taken from those giant hunks of rotating meat you see on every street meat cart in Midtown, topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce (the white yogurt sauce with shredded or sliced cucumbers). Not shawarma (which has a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor), not the pre-made gyro ovals they serve at diners, and not that chopped up stuff you see served off of every street meat cart in Midtown. I want a real Greek style gyro. (I say Greek style because I don’t actually know what an authentic gyro sandwich in Greece is all about… I just know what I ate at Greek festivals growing up as a kid, and I love it.)

I understand the economics of the situation. While most street meat carts have the generic lamb slab used by most Greek restaurants that serve gyro sandwiches, they don’t have the time to allow it to fully cook up on the spit. So what do they do? They cut it off before it has a chance to brown, chop it up into pieces, mix it with onions, peppers, and whatever else, and cook it on the flat top. Tasty… but not a gyro. I just want a simple sandwich, with gyro meat that has been given the chance to get crispy on the spit, sliced and put directly into a piece of soft pita, topped with onion, lettuce, tomato and Greek yogurt (not the street meat “white sauce”).

Last time I mentioned this on the site, the only in bounds recommendation I got was for Gyro II on 7th Ave. btw. 33+34th. I checked it out last week… Read more »

Lobster Roll Sliders, from The Volstead’s Free Lunch (Every Tuesday in May)

• In anticipation of the Free Lunch at the Volstead, Lawrence posts about a Dinner he had there [NYC Food Guy]
• You snooze you lose. This Midtown Lunch fan missed out on the free lunch…  [C.O.A.S.S.]
• … but this one managed to snag a reservation, and post photos of her lunch[Grace is Full]
• Jay Z Gets Special Treatment at the Midtown Pop Burger [Eater]
• Big Bowl Noodles is Not as Good as Szechuan Gourmet [Food in Mouth]
• The Line at the Treats Truck this week almost overtook the Kwik Meal Cart! [Blondie & Brownie]

In the comments today about Indus Express, the fairly new Indian “Deli” on 48th btw. 5+6th:

Zach – you missed the really ass-kicking deal at Indus Express. At the front of their store they have a sign for “All you can eat buffet.” Last night my friend and I inquired, and to our great joy, the buffet consists of ALL of their meat and veggie curries, PLUS naan, for $8.99 (it’s not a self serve buffet, but who freaking cares). The guy who seemed to run the place said that deal was available anytime, any day. Service was great, food was excellent, and the price really is phenomenal for what you’re getting. And I didn’t even make it to the chaat or the naan-rolls yet…

I managed to contain my excitement enough to call up Indus Express and confirm that they do have an $8.99 buffet special, but it is only M-F after 4pm, and all day on the weekends.  Eat in only (obviously) and you’re allowed to take as much as you want from the steam table (including pakoras and samosas).  I’m bummed that it’s not for lunch, but still a great deal if you need a big (but cheap) dinner after work, or you’re stuck in the office on the weekends.

Indus Express, 48 W. 48th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-221-7952

Related Posts:

• Snapshots: For those about to chaat…
• First Look: City Market Cafe Becomes Indus Express Serves Giant Kati Rolls

The “Boulangerie” attached to Brasserie Cognac, a 3 week old, mid-scale French restaurant from the owners of Serafina, is now open- and as promised, they are selling rotisserie chicken to go, at lunchtime. *Sigh* rotisserie chicken. Is there anything you can’t do? I am no history-ologist, but this is how I imagine rotisserie chicken was invented. A really really really long time ago, somebody took a chicken, and held it over a fire for awhile. And it was good. And all was right with the world.

Then, for some reason, and who knows how or why (but thankfully it happened), another guy said, “What it we take that same chicken, cover it in egg and flour, and drop it into this incredibly hot oil.” And he did. And what came out, was pure magic. Nobody had any reason to eat that other kind of chicken anymore. Why bother? (Nobody cared about being healthy when all this was going on.) This newfangled “fried chicken” was the greatest invention in the history of man. (Yes- better than even the wheel, whose sole purpose, as far as I can tell, is to get us from our homes, to somewhere where we can buy fried chicken.)

So then, the original guy, who put the chicken over the fire (I’m sure he was still alive, or maybe it was one of his great grand-kids), was like “Nobody is eating my chicken anymore! I’ve got to come up with something better! What if I stacked all the chickens on top of each other, and then, as they cooked over the fire, all the chicken fat from the top chickens will drip down onto the ones below. Then, we’ll turn this whole contraption (with that wheel thing mentioned before), so the grease, and fat will just keep moving from chicken to chicken.” And that is why fried chicken isn’t the only chicken we eat today.  Oh to be alive when these magical things happened in our worlds history!

And now, you can get a slightly overpriced, Midtown version, on Broadway btw. 55+56th.  Read more »