Midtown Lunch

Photos courtesy of the Lucy’s website

You know what was completely lost in yesterday’s MomoMadness?  Lucy’s Cantina Royale (aka Lucy’s Mexican Cantina) opened Wednesday on 34th Street and 8th Ave.  Anybody check it out?  I’m still thinking the menu might be a tad bit too expensive to be a Midtown Lunch, but I’m willing to keep an open mind and check it out.  They actually invited me to have lunch there today, on the house, but you know I don’t roll like that.

I will, however, accept free food on behalf of my readers!

Read more »

Ouch!  From the looks of this photo emailed in by Lunch’er Harry, Gulluoglu’s closure earlier in the week wasn’t self imposed.  The strange thing is, they had a DOH inspection less than a month ago and got a 7 (which is pretty stellar.)  Maybe they really did just have a “sprinkler issue”.  In any case, they plan on reopening tomorrow morning.

Related:
Your First Look at Midtown’s Güllüoglu

Keeping in mind that I hate hyberbole… TODAY IS THE GREATEST DAY IN MIDTOWN LUNCH’ING HISTORY. If you missed the news this morning, Ma Peche (aka Momofuku Midtown) is now serving a limited Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner menu in the Mezzanine of the Chambers Hotel (on 56th btw. 5+6th.) That’s right. Momofuku has finally arrived in Midtown.

I’ll be completely honest, when Momofuku announced they’d be opening a quasi-Vietnamese Midtown restaurant helmed by Chef Tien Ho, I was ready to blow up the Midtown Lunch $10 price limit. Fuck it. I love Momofuku, and I ain’t missing out on the Midtown restaurant opening of the century just because normally, for lunch, I’m a cheap bastard. The actual restaurant will most likely take another few months to build and open, but Tien, Cory and the gang were getting antsy to start making some food. So… enter the limited menu, served in the mezzanine of the hotel. All of the dishes on the Lunch/Dinner menu look amazing (hello pork & porcini terrine!), and they’re all over $10. But I was ready to splurge.

And then… the skies parted, and the sun shown down (even on this rainy day), and the MomoGods delivered a miracle that rivals turning water into wine… MomoMidtown (aka Ma Peche) has a $10 “Midtown Lunch” specials menu.

It’s only eat in for now (no takeout), so I headed over just before the lunch rush to order the entire menu.  Check out the four dishes after the jump…

Read more »

My love of Chinese buffets is pretty well documented, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a non-Asian buffet from time to time. In fact, you could say my buffet chops were sharpened over many trips to the now closed Sizzler on 104th Street and Dixie Highway in Miami (circa 1988). It’s my earliest memory of crafting a strategy for attacking a buffet, and also the genesis of my buffet onion ring obsession (aka I always eat at least one onion ring from every buffet, even if it’s Asian.)

So on Tuesday, when I stumbled across Greenhouse 36 (in the Wyndham Times Square Hotel on 36th btw. 8+9th), I was naturally intrigued. Situated in a hotel, Greenhouse 36 seems like any other crappy-hotel-lunch-spot-in-a-garden, except for one thing. From now through the end of the year (it expires on December 29th, 2009), they’re offering a lunch buffet for $9.50.

How could I not?

Read more »

Have gotten multiple reports this morning that the Midtown location of Piada, the Italian flat bread sandwich chain, is now open.  You may be familiar with their Lower East Side location (I’m not); their Midtown branch is in the basement of the Citicorp Building on 53rd and Lex.

Update… a good friend of mine checked it out yesterday, and her report is after the jump.

Read more »

Holy smokes Batman!  Ma Peche (aka Momofuku Midtown) has quietly started serving food in the mezzanine of the Chambers Hotel this week (on 56th btw. 5+6th).  And… wait for it… wait for it… there’s a freakin’ “Midtown Lunch Special”.  I am not shitting you.  A Momofuku restaurant, situated in the Chambers Hotel, in the most expensive, touristy, part of New York City, is offering a lunch special for the Midtown Lunch friendly price of $10.

If you can still move your trembling hands, the menu is after jump. (Spoiler Alert: The Momofuku Banh Mi is back!)

Read more »