Midtown Lunch

The space that used to be occupied by the cheap Chinese food place East Ocean (on 55th btw. Lex+3rd) has finally been filled by Apna Taj, an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet. I’m willing to go up to $11 for an all you can eat buffet, so this one (for $10.50) just makes it under the cap. It’s kind of ballsy to open up another Indian buffet 2 doors down from the upscale Darbar Grill (which is only 45 cents more expensive), and a ML reader has already sent me an email crying out for a head-to-head.

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New York Magazine singles out the double burger as a “trend” in their latest issue.  While Five Guys (on 55th btw. 5+6th) is a legitimate entry (their regular burger is a double), the inclusion of City Burger (on 39th & B’way) is kind of a reach.  I don’t know anybody who would order a double at that place (and even NYMag admits that the patties are too thick for that treatment.)  Plus saying “not since the advent of Bob’s Big Boy in 1937 (and its copycat Big Mac in 1968) has the double burger been so popular” omits a pretty popular burger known as the In N Out Double Double (which you could argue was inspiration for Five Guys.) The whole piece seems like a stretch to me, but I’m not against looking at some nice double burger porn.  [NYM]

Boi Sandwich (on 3rd Ave. btw. 44+45th) has just sent word that they will be introducing a “Chicken Meatball Sandwich” today as their entry in the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. I’m guessing this will be a Vietnamese version of a meatball sandwich, and while their banh mi aren’t considered the best in the city- they are better than most of the sandwiches in Midtown. Early adopters, let us know what you think.

Related:
At Lunch Now: Boi Sandwich is Now Open on 3rd Ave.
Boi to Go (aka How I Learned to Love the $7.50 Banh Mi)

I’ll bet that looked awesome puked up on 5th Ave. Photo by Blondie and Brownie

• If you think green cupcakes are as gross as it gets, than you didn’t see the green waffles from a former Midtown Lunch fave [TONY Feed Blog]
• Fay Da Bakery isn’t as good as Cafe Zaiya, but their red bean buns are good [Found Connections]
• Another positive review of the falafel at Crisp [Taylor and Dana]
• Wow.  Midtown Lunch commenters don’t just hide behind their computers all day! [Diary of a Manhattan Actress]
• There was a corned beef sandwich eating contest in Midtown this week… who knew? [NY1]
• Apparently Brother Jimmy’s is the place to be for the NCAA Tournament [NYT]
• Need more Texas BBQ porn?  Here’s a great post about Ironworks in Austin (with me) and Smitty’s in Lockhart (without me!) [Not Eating Out in NY]
• The guy who runs this great offal blog posted an audio recording of the Food Blogging panel I was on at SxSw in Austin, TX [Nose to Tail at Home]

Photo courtesy of Adam Prato

Via Eater: “Late yesterday afternoon… black smoke was billowing from the vicinity of West 55th. Today we discover one of the sad victims of the fire is the sweet two story French restaurant La Bonne Soupe, which will reopen after extensive renovations.”  This comes exactly two months after a fire on that same block shuttered Five Guys and Menchanko Tei.  Could there be a 55th Street curse?

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

I was having a hard time picking a place for this week’s ML Happy Hour until my friend Marrie suggested Russian Vodka Room (RVR) and their $3.50 happy hour of house made infused vodkas, $5 cosmos and $4 beers. Not only that, but a quick perusal of “Yelp” reviews garnered this recent gem:

“I’m not sure if you have to be Russian to appreciate this joint or what. Or British? there were some 50 something British folks getting sauced and raunchily flirting with each other right next to my date and I. One of these Englishmen actually stole my seat at the bar while i stood up 2 inches away from it! I witnessed another pinching the nipple of a gentlewoman through her fishnet top….”

Well I guess I better find out how classy this place really is! I put a call out to my only Russian-speaking friend Chandra and we headed over with some of our other pals. Happy hour is from 4 to 7pm and what we encountered was a dark, moody bar with a decidedly Russian feel and lovely waitresses quickly serving up some of midtown’s most interesting vodka shots.

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I’m pretty open about commenting on the site, but can’t stand when people try to praise their own business, or talk smack about a competitor- without being honest about who they are. It’s pretty obvious when this is the case, and I try to expose these comments as best I can, in true Eater fashion. Today I got perhaps the weirdest two comments ever, both from the same IP address (i.e. same computer), within 2 minutes of each other, on a post about the famous halal guys on 53rd & 6th:

WTF?  Possible explanations are welcome in the comments…

So, Yushi’s conveyor belt opens to the public on Monday- and to ensure that they are ready to go they had a free lunch yesterday to test it out and get customer feedback. 3 Midtown Lunchers won spots, and were allowed to bring guests. Here is what they had to say, complete with photos (of course keeping in mind that everything tastes better when it’s free! I wonder what they would have said, had they gotten a bill at the end of the meal):

From “Rosie”:

“I love food but I also enjoy being healthy so I do eat at Yushi often. I love Japanese food and sushi and think that although it is typically pricey, it’s worth it for what you get. I was very pleased to be a part of the conveyor belt experiment, and really enjoyed all the food. The salmon sushi and sashimi was very fresh and for about $5 you get four pieces of salmon (sushi, sashimi or a combination) with a side of seaweed salad. Not a bad price for the quality you get. There were the normal options they have with soups, dumplings and chicken teriyaki, and I have to say they were all flavorful and fresh. We enjoyed seared tuna sashimi as well with a side of seaweed salad, chicken teriyaki rolls, and even chocolate mousse dessert. The people who worked there wanted you to enjoy the experience, so we were also able to enjoy some sake with our lunch on the house. Very much appreciated it. I think all in all, it may be slightly over the $10 midtown lunch limit, but if you go with another person you can enjoy the variety and quality. Thank you for randomly choosing me as a yushi guest— my husband and I definitely appreciated it! Regards, Rosie”

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Who knew?

Just got this email from the guy at Yushi who set up the “testing out their new sushi conveyor belt” free lunch  thing for 3 lucky Midtown Lunch winners: “All done, geez they can eat!” I can’t believe you let them eat all they wanted… I hope you at least imposed a time limit, although considering that lunch was supposed to be at 12:30 and this email came in at 3:30pm- I’d say you may have taken a big hit today. Midtown Lunch represent!!! The photo was sent in by one of the winners, their full report will be posted tomorrow.