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 Naomi a Market Researcher and self proclaimed “fat kid” who likes banana sushi rolls.

Name: Naomi

Age: 23

Occupation: Market Researcher

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Rock Center’ish

Favorite Kind of Food: String beans, red peppers, spinach, cheese, blueberries, grapes, dark chocolate, sushi, falafel, fro-yo, cheesecake, Thai, Indian, Greek, Mexican… oh I’m sorry, was I just supposed to just name one?

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Capers, olives, dill, anything pickled that isn’t a pickle, beets, zucchini, certain sea creatures (urchins, jellyfish and swordfish, to name a few), animal organs, tofu, Korean food and ham. Oh, and Jell-O… I just don’t trust the stuff.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I’d say I probably have one place to go for each kind of ethnic cuisine, however Cafe Duke (on 51st btw. 6+7th) is always a convenient option — although the excess of choices can be very overwhelming (and expensive). Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien (on 56th btw. 6+7th) is where I go when I crave something greasy — which may or may not be after a late night out — but if you want to get a booth you had better go armed with a strategy. On that same block there is a restaurant called Topaz Thai that I just tried last week. It offers a satisfying pad thai lunch special for $7. La Bonne Soupe on 55th St. offers the most delicious French Onion soup around and has a nice, cozy atmosphere. Havana Central has great Cuban food (try the seafood paella), and Two Boots is usually my office’s pizza place of choice. Oh, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a Cosi card… those Signature salads add up!

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? It’s not exactly “go-to” since we order delivery, but Toyama Sushi makes some of the most phenomenal sushi rolls I have ever tasted. I’m personally a fan of the Dynamite and Banana rolls, but they also have great maki lunch specials, which happen to be relatively inexpensive. Also, I am pretty sure market researchers as a whole have a slightly inappropriate hankering for Daisy May’s BBQ… (and yes, I did just use the word “hankering.”)

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After a short winter recess, most of the hipster food trucks are back in Midtown today. The Treats Truck is on 38th & 5th, the Wafels & Dinges Truck is on 46th & 6th, and the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck is on 52nd and Lex. The one holdout? The Dessert Truck, which will be returning in mid-late January.

Dainobu, the new Japanese bento place/grocery store on 47th btw. Lex+3rd, quietly opened a few weeks ago and it looks like they are going to be some serious competition for Cafe Zest (on the same block).

Taking a page from the Yagura playbook, Dainobu is half grocery store (with all kinds of wet and dry Japanese ingredients) and half lunch spot.

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If you were away for the Holidays, and missed the end of the year Readers’ Poll, today is your last chance to vote for your favorite steak, soup, street cart, pizza, saddest closing, Indian buffet, sandwiches, sit down Chinese, chicken parm, Mexican, Japanese, street meat, sweets, Latin food, Chinese fast food, Indian, falafel, Korean, and burger. Winners will be posted tomorrow.

A lot of restaurants seem to choose the dead time around Christmas and New Year’s to make changes, so reports like this one are no surprise… Big Bowl Noodles (on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th), a Readers’ Poll nominee for best sit down Chinese food, is now Main Noodle House.  But before Big Bowl Noodle fans get too upset… the menu, owners, and food are exactly the same- with a 25-30 cent price hike on the lunch specials (of course.)

Main Noodle House, 1011 6th Ave. (btw. 37+38th),  212-869-0888

Photo by nycblondieandbrownie

Sugo e Basilico (on 5th btw. 44+45th) was one of the Readers’ Poll nominees for “Saddest Closing of 2008” but even sadder is what it’s being replaced with:  another Europa Cafe.  Blondie and Brownie have the full report, along with a New Years resolution to boycott Cosi. Now, while I can surely get behind any boycott of a non-Midtown lunch’ish corporate chain, at least Cosi bakes their bread fresh in a brick oven right in front of you.  If I had to choose one of the crappy chains to save, it would probably be a toss up between Cosi & Pret a Manger. Cafe Metro, Europa Cafe, Pax, Chop’t, Chipotle, and Qdoba on the other hand…

Last September it was reported that the shuttered Teriyaki Boy (on 46th btw. Lex+3rd) would become a Japanese noodle shop, and surprisingly it has happened in the time frame they specified. Udon West has opened in the old Teriyaki Boy space, serving up 13 different bowls of Udon under $10. They also have teriyaki, curry, and combinations (although the combinations are all over $10), and I believe they are the same Udon West with locations in Flushing and on St. Marks in the East Village. It will be interesting to see how this place competes with Menchanko Tei, one block over on 45th btw. Lex+3rd…. but at least while the  weather is still cold I’m guessing there is room for both. Let the soup wars begin! Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

A shot of the pretty nice interior is after the jump…

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2008 was the year of the price hike, and if the state of the economy is an indicator, there is no reason to think 2009 will be any different.  And yet, Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) starts off the new year with some great news, sending out an email to their customers last week announcing that they are going to decrease their prices now that food costs have gone down:

“First and foremost, we would like to thank each and everyone of you for another great year. The last sharp increase in prices of ingridients such as flour and butter caused by the commodity boom had severely affected our business and we unfortunately had to raise our prices. Most recently though, prices have dropped to a more sustainable level and ingredient pricing has been stable as well.”

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