NYMag to Midtown: “You Have No Good Cheap Eats”

The NYMag Cheap Eats issue has always had a questionable but somewhat forgivable view of what constitutes “cheap”… everything has to be under $25 (although Minetta Tavern’s $26 black label burger somehow makes the cut.) Despite the high benchmark, this year’s issue (which focuses on pizza, sandwiches, and burgers) stays pretty true to a normal person’s idea of what is considered cheap. Only one problem… where’s the love for Midtown!?! With the exception of the $16 croque monsieur from Le Cirque (how is that cheap!?!) Midtown is completely ignored. I can understand being left off the 20 best pizzas list (we don’t have a good enough slice of pizza to compete with that amazing collection), and the 9 best burgers are arguably better than anything we have in Midtown (although I haven’t tried HB Burger yet), but they couldn’t find one good Midtown spot to include?

Midtown does play a big part in their pizza timeline, which shows the evolution of New York style pies. Apparently in 1989 a particular kind of flatbread pizza (pizza robiola) was invented by a guy who now works at Da Ciro in Midtown, in 1993 grilled pizza was “popularized by Fresco by Scotto in Midtown”, and although the 1998 invention of pizza from a truck is credited to Staten Island- I’d like to think that Jiannetto’s had something to do with making it super popular. So I guess we have that to feel good about…

See the entire NY Magazine Cheap Eats Issue >>

Related:
NYMag Pushes the Boundaries of Cheap Eats Again

6 Comments

  • This is why I usually ignore this magazine’s “cheap” issue (and I’m sure that the N and Y in NY Magazine stands for Nothing but Yuppies).

  • I picked up a cheap eats issue once and was pissed that i paid for it. I knew of a gazillion cooler and tastier places to eat than the places they mentioned.

  • Indeed a travesty… how much stock can we put in a guide that ignores food carts and fails to include Shake Shack in the top ranks of a “cheap burgers” list?

  • This is the worst Cheap Eats issue I have ever read. Seriously. No serious leg work done to fine hidden gems (that haven’t already been talked about for the past 3 years on chowhound). Utter fail.

  • Oh but La Cense Burger Truck is 42 of their 82 notable burgers.

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    The cheap eats list that NYM puts out is ridiculous. By no means is $25 cheap. TONY does a better job at their cheap eats list but even then, they list a lot of places that only have 1 or 2 cheap items on their menu. I’ve been using http://www.cheapeatery.com lately and it’s treating me pretty well. They only list restaurants that mostly serve meals for $10 and under. There’s also a separate section in the advanced search that shows restaurants that serve meals for less than $6. Sweet. Here’s one of my new favorites:

    Hong Kong Station
    http://www.cheapeatery.com/restaurants/hong-kong-station/menu/

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