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. This week it’s Lou- an XPL convert who is scared of Indian food and Mongolian BBQ.

Name: Lou

Age: 26

Occupation: Accounting

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 42nd & Lex.

Favorite Kind of Food: Waffles and Gyros… I love them, and I’ll try any suggestion that gets a good review. 53rd and 6th cart is timeless… but XPL (on 48th & Park) has found a new place in my heart. Wafels and Dinges is truly amazing… I wish I worked close enough to get them for breakfast! Seeing as I’m Puerto Rican, I love my roast pork… especially the Cuban sandwiches. But I haven’t gotten around to trying Cafe Cello (46th btw. 5+6th)… have been to Margon (on 46th btw. 6+7th) and their Morir Sonando is great! On a side note… I don’t know how many of you love your bacon, egg, and cheeses, I know I do… but Stella Deli over on 3rd Avenue between 43rd and 44th sells $2 bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on rolls and bagels. Granted, it can be light on the bacon and heavy on the carbs, but seeing as most places charge at least $3, I thought I HAD to mention this place.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Falafel Sandwiches… I’ve tried a few highly recommended places from this website, and I just don’t see the fuss. Although I did kind of enjoy the Mexican falafel sandwich from Crisp… it’s just too expensive. I just don’t like the strong flavors in these things, but I do love the laffa… Sandwiches can seem so generic at times, and unfortunately I haven’t tried Milant and it’s been closed…

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I enjoy the atmosphere at Taki Sushi (on 48th btw. 5+6th)… service time can sometimes be a little long, but it’s a pretty comfy spot with good prices… 53rd and 6th is always a pleasure… I’ll just sit on the ledge right next to it and enjoy my food fresh. I don’t usually eat AT the places suggested by this site. Rather I get my food and go… but 90% of the places on this site I have re-visited… so hell you can say that a lot of the places I’ve been to are equally as good in my stomach! (Not sure what that means, but whatever. -zach)

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? I go to Del Monico Deli (on Park btw. 41+42nd) way too much. I don’t know, I feel like their buffet seems pretty high quality… but yea, I definitely go there way too often for my liking… And it’s always packed so I don’t even really like it when I eat there…

Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Well, XPL certainly was a huge find that I credit this site for… same goes for Margon… ummm, Wafels and Dinges… jeez, to be honest, I get on this site every freakin day and check out the index and try to venture out anywhere cause 1) it can be good exercise walking to these places, and 2) I love reading about food, cooking food, eating food and apparently, as evidenced by this profile, writing about it! But seriously… aside from the generic buffet/delis that seem to have all the same food, and fast food spots, every place I’ve had lunch I credit this blog for luring me there…

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? If I could work anywhere, I’d have to say Los Angeles… I don’t know why, but from all the comments I’ve seen about the seriously authentic Mexican carts and shacks, this place seems intriguing…

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? I have a two questions so I hope everyone can deal with that! Indian food scares me most, so if someone can help clearly explain what some of the meat dishes are, I’d probably try it more often. And my second question has to do with this place called Food World… It is a huge buffet place that I noticed has a Mongolian buffet where you choose what you want, bring it to the cook and they make it in front of you. Something about raw meat sitting on a buffet in Midtown waiting to be cooked scares me… has anyone ventured into this place… I can’t remember where it is exactly…

Oh Lou. All your questions are answered- after the jump… Read more »

Tomorrow is Jamaica’s Independence Day, and Golden Krust  is celebrating by selling their jerk chicken patties for 99 cents the entire month of August. With the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st & 7th) readily available, I’ve never given GK their full +/-, but with 4 locations in Midtown- maybe it’s time. Thoughts?

4 Locations in Midtown:

• 33rd btw. Mad+5th
• 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th
• 3rd Ave. btw. 43+44th
• Grand Central Terminal Food Court (although this is just a kiosk, so I’m not positive if they are participating in the August promotion)

Wow.  What a month.  Street Meat Palooza, our 13 cart chicken/lamb over rice showdown, probably would have been enough to make any month “the best.”  Toss in a spicy off-the-menu vegetarian sub from Blimpie, Szechuan Gourmet, and a complete translation of the menu at Taj Delhi Chat, and I think July ’08 may go down as Midtown Lunch’s best… month… ever.  I’m pretty sure it will never be topped… until Street Meat Palooza 2 of course.  Here’s the top 10 posts of the month:

1. Street Meat Palooza: A 13 Cart Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown
2. The “Special Vegetarian” Sandwich at Blimpie is the Spiciest Sandwich in Midtown
3. Zaiya Opens Cafe Zest in Midtown, With Full Restaurant Coming Soon
4. A Guide to the Best Indian Street Food in Midtown: Translating the Menu at Taj Delhi Chat
5. Szechuan Gourmet: Day 1 as a New York Times 2 Starred Restaurant
6. Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: Thai-Nam
7. Profiled: Midtown Lunch’ers “Joyce & Sarah”
8. Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er “Nina”
9. Off the Menu Filet o’ Fish at Zen Burger
10. Downtown Lunch: Bon Bon Chicken

The top 5 most commented on posts, after the jump… Read more »

I love fried chicken… and can you blame me?  I won’t step anywhere near a McDonalds, but KFC or Popeyes? You probably aren’t going to want to get in my way.  I don’t know why that is.  Oh wait- yes I do.  Fried chicken is amazing.  And, if you are as big a fried chicken fan as me you might be interested in knowing that a branch of Church’s Chicken recently opened inside that mini food court on 8th Avenue between 44+45th.

I’ll admit, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at Church’s.  I was always a KFC fan growing up, a Popeye’s fan later in life (after spending so much time in New Orleans), and I had a brief flirtation with Bojangles in 1986.  But never Church’s.  Anybody a big fan?  Feel free to sound off in the comments.  I’m curious if this new addition to the Midtown Lunch’ing landscape is something to get excited about…

I’ve gotten a lot of emails over the past few weeks asking what happened to Kwik Meal’s Muhammed Rahman.  The cart is still there (on 45th & 6th), serving up their famous lamb and rice platters, but Muhammed has not been seen for awhile- replaced by a woman who now appears to be running the operation during lunch.  Rahman famously used to work at the Russian Tea Room, before starting up Kwik Meal, where he has become widely known for his lamb, which is considered some of the best street meat in the city.

It turns out Muhammed has gotten back into the restaurant business, in an incredily unlikely location…  Read more »

Midtown Truck Wars? Photo by nycblondieandbrownie

• Turf Wars: Wafel V. Treats Truck in Midtown [Eater]
• The mini panna cotta cups at Yushi are amazing [Umamimart]
• Cheap Ass Food hits up Taj Delhi Chat… [CAF]
• … and so does Danny from Food in Mouth (both agree it’s awesome) [Food in Mouth]
• Downtown Lunch’er Yvo is stalking our own Daniel Krieger [Feisty Foodie]

Fresh on the heels of yesterdays post on how to make a complete Midtown Lunch out of free samples comes this ridiculousness.  Free sushi samples, on the street, in the hot sun, from a pizza place.  No joke.  Yesterday, Madrit’s Pronto Pizza on 55th btw. 5+6th added a sushi bar to their establishment, and to generate interest they were giving away free samples today in front of the store. I’d like to pretend like I didn’t try it, but I’m a gross man, and couldn’t help myself.  Luckily I’m still alive to type this…

I don’t think I’ll ever be getting the sushi from Madrit’s Pronto, but they do have a pretty sweet outdoor seating area in the back, so I may have to go back for a slice.

Photo by seraphim1970

Thanks to Gen from Foodies R Goodies for passing this info along.  Naruto Sushi, the take out Japanese place on 49th btw. Mad+5th is now Shinbashi 49.  Operated out of the back of the upscale sushi restaurant of the same name, Naruto was originally designed to be its own separate store, with its own management.  The owners decided that wasn’t working, so now it’s being run by the same people who run Shinbashi on 48th btw. Mad+5th.

I may be on crack, but it looks like there may have been an improvement in the quality of the rice since I wrote about Naruto.  I didn’t try anything, so I don’t know for sure… but if you work in the area, and are looking for decent take out sushi, you could probably do a lot worse than this place.  If you check it out, feel free to comment below.

And for more photos, check out Gen’s post at FoodiesRGoodies