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 Monica, an Attorney who hates raspberries, but loves Chinese food. 

Name: Monica

Age: 35

Occupation: Attorney

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 62nd & Madison.

Favorite Kind of Food: Tapas, Greek, Sushi, Soba Noodles, Dim Sum, Chowder, In-N-Out burgers

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I detest raspberries. Everything about them – the way they taste, smell and feel. I know everybody else loves them, but I just can’t bring myself to even mildly tolerate them. I’m also not a big fan of ricotta cheese.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pretty much anything from the Dishes salad bar, Margon‘s Cuban sandwich (46th btw. 6+7th), Utsav‘s buffet (47th or 46th btw. 6+7th), especially on the days they have chicken tikka masala, Lenny’s (any place that puts freshly sliced pickles on a sandwich gets my seal of approval) and Wu Liang Ye’s pan-fried pork dumplings (48th btw. 5+6th). It’s probably outside the ML boundaries, but the Follow Me Caffe on 62nd and Lex is a cute sit-down place with inexpensive sandwiches, salads and soups. For excellent cheese and Italian sandwiches, I like Cheese on 62nd (also at 62nd and Lex).

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Since switching jobs last year, I can only live vicariously through the adventures of Zach and the Midtown Lunch readers. I now work in a kosher facility, so we’re not allowed to bring any outside food into the building. We do, however, have a private chef who prepares hot multi-course lunches for us every day and the food is tasty (and free), so I can’t complain. I used to work at 47th and 6th and would go to Europa for a salad at least twice a week.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Oms/b (45th btw. Lex+3rd), Taki Sushi (48th btw. 5+6th), Woorjip (32nd btw. 5th+B’way)

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? San Francisco. Specifically, right near the Ferry Building. I could eat Acme bread, Cowgirl Creamery cheese and the Shaking Beef from Slanted Door every day. Locally, I’d say Chinatown due to the easy access to dim sum.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Other than Wu Liang Ye (the one on Lexington btw. 39+40th), is there any good Chinese food in the Murray Hill/Midtown East area?

Phew. I thought you were going to drop the “Is there anywhere to get good Dim Sum in Midtown” bomb. Clearly if there was, this site would go away- because I would have to eat there every single day of the week.  Anyway- back to your very good question.  My one Murray Hill recommendation, after the jump…

The only Chinese place in Murray Hill I can recommend is Mee Noodle Shop with 3 locations (2nd & 30th, 2nd & 49th and 9th Ave. at 54th).  It’s not the greatest of all time, but it’s dependable and pretty cheap.  Anybody else have any recs?  I’m sure there are better suggestions than that one, and I’d love an excuse to go chow on some good Chinese food in the high 30s on the East Side.

And as always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, or you’d like to nominate somebody in your office, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com