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 Janet, a PR consultant who loves Asian food and is looking for a good cup of coffee.

Name: Janet

Age: 30

Occupation: PR Consultant

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 7th Avenue between 40th and 41st

Favorite Kind of Food: All Asian – Korean, Thai, Japanese, Sushi, Vietnamese, (more or less anything that involves noodles or rice), Italian, Indian, french fries, pulled BBQ pork sandwiches, any kind of seafood – especially oysters, mussels, lobster and crab!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Not going to lie – Mexican. I don’t hate it but it’s definitely not my go to choice of cuisine. Also, I don’t really have a sweet tooth so all those cupcake/dessert places…can definitely do without.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Kati Roll (on 39th btw. 5+6th), Woorijip (on 32nd btw. B’way+5th), Duke’s, Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th), Hale & Hearty, Lazzara’s Pizza (on 38th btw. 6+7th). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada where the only street food is hot dogs and there are no buffet/salad tables in delis so I’m in love with the abundance of street food options and delis here.

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Just a friendly reminder that “Delivery Week” has begun, Seamless Web’s clever take on Restaurant Week. $12.09 gets you an app, entree, and dessert or drink from a number of different places in Midtown, and just like the real Restaurant Week the arguments discussions have already begun over whether or not its worth it. This was posted to the ML Forums by Lunch’er “hightemp”:

I was going to order “Delivery Week” for lunch today but perusing the options in my neighborhood I opted against it. Seems a lot of places are switching out “dessert” with “beverage”. And in one instance <> pop burger <> the savings add up to a grand total of …. wait for it… 41 cents. Anyone tried delivery week yet? Any good deals to be had or things worth trying?

$12.09 for a burger, 1/2 an order of shrimp dumpling pops, and a drink from the Volstead is still a pretty good deal (although I was hoping in vain for lobster roll sliders!) And just like Restaurant Week, Delivery Week actually lasts two weeks (through October 31st). Anybody else found any keepers? Post them to the thread in the forum>>

File this one under “Knew That Was Gonna Happen”. The generic deli “Cafe du Monde” (on 37th btw. 5+6th) was forced to change their name to Cafe Amande. Apparently the name Cafe du Monde is already in use by, oh, I don’t know… the most famous fried dough maker in the country. The funny thing is, I don’t think the owners of the NYC Cafe du Monde even knew about the New Orleans institution. Yesterday I asked one of the girls behind the counter if they had to change their name because of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Her response: “Yeah! How did you know?” She was completely surprised to hear it was a pretty famous place.

Related:
Cafe Du Monde is Coming to Midtown
New Orleans Jazzfest 2007 Weekend Wrap Up

The overhyped by the press, but underwhelming from a food standpoint, La Cense Burger Truck announced on Twitter yesterday that they’d be hibernating until Spring. Winter is traditionally a slower time for street food sales, but for most vendors it’s still worth coming to work (as long as you don’t sell ice cream.) So why is La Cense closing up shop? Who knows for sure, but I say good riddance. I know it’s mean, but I feel compelled to be against any street vendor that simply seems to be using their truck for marketing purposes. After the initial lines, the demand for La Cense seemed to die off pretty quickly. But they can afford to stay on the street whether they make money or not because they’re owned by a large mail-order company, who in my estimation is just using the truck to promote their line of gourmet beef. And, sadly, it’s worked. Despite the mixed reviews by the public, they’ve been included in tons of street vendor trend pieces.

So why does this bother me so much?

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If you make a burger in this town with meat from Pat La Freida’s you are pretty much guaranteed some automatic hype from certain bloggers.  But apparently now you also get this nifty bumper sticker!  I spotted this one on the front door of HB Burger (on 43rd btw. B’way+6th).  Clearly the La Freida bumper sticker holds far less gravitas than, say, the “Recommended by Midtown Lunch” stickers you might have seen- but I suppose it couldn’t hurt.

Related:
HB Burger May Not be a “Midtown Lunch” But It’s a Damn Good Burger
Apparently It’s Not La Freida’s, It’s What You Do With It

Photo courtesy of Lunch’er Stephen

Reports poured in from Midtown Lunch’ers trying the Kwik Meal pasta cart for the first time today (on 45th and 6th), and despite early concern that Muhammed wouldn’t be able to pull off pasta from a cart- the reviews seem largely positive!

Lunch’er FileEditView is the first to comment:

Just went, Rahman was there in the pasta cart creating the orders and asking customers to sample before they left so he could get their feedback. Got the chicken w/ vegetables — fairly delicious, no visible sauce but definitely a bit of a kick. I would probably get it again, but if they had other options besides angel hair it would be better.

Pasta photos and more, are after the jump…

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A couple weeks ago I kind of flipped out gushed over the new fried burger being sold at the Schnitzel & Things Truck.  I got pretty excited after eating the grease soaked monstrosity- not just because it tasted really good, but also because its unabashed grossness was quite simply unmatched by any Midtown Lunch I have ever had (and I have had quite a few.)  Well, in a surprising turn, the schnitzel burger’s reign atop the grossest-sandwich-in-Midtown heap was short lived.  Because last week I tried Cer Te’s October entry in the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge, the “Tuscan Cheesesteak” ($8.95), and it is without a doubt the most deliciously gross, out of control gut bomb, I have ever had in Midtown, in sandwich form.

Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) has had a long history of creating sandwich craziness for the ML Sandwich challenge.  But the “Tuscan Cheesesteak” takes the cake.  So much so I devised a list of reasons why you shouldn’t eat this sandwich.  That list, plus a closer look at the madness is after the jump…

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Just got word that from now until 2pm future Celebrity Apprentice contestants Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Osbourne, and WWE Diva Maria are all working the lunch shift at the Burger Heaven on 62nd and Lexington.  Not sure if you can sit or just take burgers to go, but the lines are already forming and their phone has been re-routed to a different Burger Heaven location where they have they no idea what’s going on.  Thankfully Midtown Lunch’er Scott is sending us updates from the line (including the photo above.)  As soon as he finds out what’s going on, he’ll hopefully let us know… or you can throw caution to the wind and just head over now!

UPDATE: “Cyndi is my waitress!! She just served me.” Photo and live updates from the scene are after the jump…

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