Midtown Lunch

I know that most of you already know this, but sometimes it bears repeating for the new folks.  There are official ML boundaries that I do my best to stick to.  3rd Ave. on the East, 8th Ave. on the West.  32nd Street to the South, and Central Park South to the North.  I know a lot of you work outside those boundaries, but if I expand to 30th Street, then what about 28th?  And then from there, it’s only another 2 blocks to 26th.  In other words, you’ve got to have limits.

Occasionally, though, something amazing will come to my attention that excites me enough to cross those imaginary Midtown Lunch lines.  And those places we refer to as being “Out of Bounds”.  There are plenty of cheap Dominican/Cuban/Latin food options in Midtown, but none of them have what Papasito has (on 53rd btw. 8+9th).  A $6 lunch special.

For me, paying only $6 for a heaping plate of Dominican food makes it worth the extra bit of walking.  (Especially with Margon and Sophie’s Cuban costing $8+) But if the price isn’t enough for you, I discovered an extra little bit of incentive.

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Photo courtesy of Food in Mouth

Danny from Food in Mouth hit up Shilla (on 32nd btw. 5+B’way) last week, and was nice enough to report back. They are still running their lunch special, where $6 gets you a different soup or stew each day- plus a ton of banchan (the little dishes you get at the beginning of a Korean meal.) For take out they charge you $1 more. Here’s the daily lineup:

Mon – Kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew)
Tues – Sul lu Tang (beef knuckle soup)
Wed – Dwenjang jjigae (Korean bean paste stew)
Thur – Soon doo boo jjigae (spicy soft tofu soup)
Fri – Haejang guk (tradition Korean beef soup)

Danny went on Thursday, and got the Soon doo boo. You can check out his report here>>

Related:
Choong Moo Ro Introduces new $3 Lunch Special
Shilla Offers $5 May Lunch Special… If You Can Read Korean

I’ve only heard about this magical truck, but had never seen it until this afternoon… the “Time Warner Cable” $1 ice cream truck is parked on 40th btw. 5+6th right now selling $1 ice cream cones (all proceeds benefit charity.) It’s Mr. Softee style cones (chocolate, vanilla, or swirl), with your choice of chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. They’ll be parked in that spot until 9pm tonight (8/3). Enjoy!

Been getting a lot of emails about tonight’s “special” episode of No Reservations, dedicated entirely to street food.  My hunch is it’s a glorified “best of” episode featuring clips of street food that Anthony Bourdain has eaten over the past few years (but who knows?)  Either way it’s must see TV for anybody who loves the street food, and from the looks of the commercial there will be some NYC action. (I even spotted the King Tut cart on 6th Ave. in Midtown.)

Check it out after the jump…

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In case you missed it, on Friday I was grilled over at A Hamburger Today– giving them my thoughts on the almighty hamburger. Here were my picks for best and worst burgers in Midtown:

“Tough to say. Fast food, thin burger: Five Guys (on 55th btw. 5+6th). Fast food, thicker burger: Burger Joint (on 56th btw. 6+7th). Burger from a Cart: Carnegie John’s (on 56th & 7th). As for the more expensive, sit down burgers, I haven’t had very many. But HB Burger (on 43rd btw. B’way+6th) and Beacon (on 56th btw. 5+6th) are both really good. And the worst burger I’ve ever had in Midtown was at this place called Arome Cafe on 32nd between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Somebody twittered @midtownlunch that their burger was “$5.50 and bangin'”. Against my better judgment (Arome Cafe is one of those terrible generic delis that Midtown is famous for, and Midtown Lunch does its best to fight against) I tried the terrible terrible burger. Bad meat (not unlike what I got in my Jr. High Cafeteria), bad flavor, poorly cooked. Couldn’t even finish it. Damn you, Twitter!”

Check out the worst burger I’ve ever had, after the jump…

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Fans of Aroma Espresso Bar‘s UWS and Soho locations will be excited to hear that they have a third spot planned for Midtown (on 42nd Street btw. 2+3rd.) In addition to coffee they serve a menu of made to order sandwiches, soups, salads, and pastries.  You know how I feel about these generic soup, salad and sandwich places- but I’m a sucker for grilled haloumi.  And they’re serving it in one of their signature sandwiches.