Midtown Lunch

Kwik Meal vs. Fahima, bumper against bumper, brother against brother, the side by side street cart family feud on the SW corner of 45th Street and 6th Avenue rages on! Yet in the black cloud of this Greek tragedy is there perhaps a silver lining? Out of this great turmoil might there be great rewards? With some new additions to Fahima’s menu, I certainly hoped so. Bear with me people; I’m inspired by Halal not Homer. Ehem, So then, here’s my first take.

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It’s a little out of bounds, and you know most of us aren’t really down with the vegetarian stuff (save for Zach’s weird obsession with the now shuttered Zen Burger) but if you are a vegetarian or vegan you’ll be excited to hear that a branch of the international vegan chain Loving Hut opened on 7th Ave. btw. 29+30th a few months ago.  Everything on the menu is under $10, and “all dishes are free of animal ingredients. NO MSG. NO MILK. NO EGGS. All items are 100% vegan.” [via GirlieGirlArmy]

Loving Hut, 348 7th Ave. (btw. 29+30th), 212-760-1900

The Village Voice seems to be in Midtown a lot these days… on Tuesday Robert Sietsema posted a not terrible review of Oaxaca Grill (even though “there’s zero Oaxacan about the menu”), and in yesterday’s issue of the paper Sarah DiGregorio reviewed the newly opened Izakaya Moku on 32nd btw. B’way+5th.  From her review you don’t really get a sense of what the place might be like for lunch, but it sounds like the food is pretty good.

Related:
Izakaya Moku Continues the Japanification of Koreatown
First Look: Oaxaca Mexican Grill (A More Americanized Chipotle!?)

The New York Post gets more details on the actual Ma Peche, which is hoping to open on 56th btw. 5+6th in late winter. Apparently the food being served in the Mezzanine of the Chambers Hotel won’t necessarily make it to the final Ma Peche menu, but at least we’re getting a Milk Bar in the front of the restaurant (which will hopefully serve the ML-friendly-under-$10 pork buns and volcano available in the East Village location.) The Post’s critic also weighs in on the food being served in the Mezzanine, but proves he doesn’t know shit about clean Vietnamese flavors by comparing the absolutely delicious squid salad with something you can “get on a good day at China Grill”. [via Eater]

Related:
Your First Look at Ma Peche’s “Midtown Lunch” Specials

I’m excited to welcome our newest contributor Clay, from the blog Ultraclay. (You might have seen him on NBC4 this morning!) He’s a great photographer, and a big eater… and is responsible for introducing me to Little Italy Pizza– which has just opened up a new branch on 7th Ave. Here’s his report. -Zach

Little Italy Pizza (on 33rd btw. Mad+5th) may not be the cheapest in the area, now that a new 99 cent place has popped up on the same block. And according to some, it may not beat out Squisito (on 34th btw. Mad+Park) for best slice in the area, but I’m a big fan of their margarita pizza– and the owners recently opened up a new, almost identical location on 33rd near 7th ave.

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Photo courtesy of Blondie

The ML Twitter Tracker is looking like a school cancellation list… Cravings Truck, Jiannetto’s, Rickshaw Dumplings, Street Sweets,  Treats Truck, and Wafels and Dinges have all “called in sick” today.  But for a lot of the old school vendors it’s business as usual.  The Biriyani Cart (on 46th and 6th) and Kwik Meal (on 45th and 6th) are both working today, and when we asked O’Neill about his Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st and 7th) he replied “Ain’t no snow going to keep us from working!”  Gotta love it.

If you actually made it into work today, and can stand to be outside for an extra few minutes- support your street vendors today.  And let us know who else is out in the comments…  these vendors are busting their ass for us, and the fact that they are out today shows you that every penny they make is super important. Let’s show them some support.

UPDATE: via Twitter… “The tamale lady in front of the Mexican embassy (oft lauded by Midtown Lunch) is so hardcore. She’s still out there, even with all the snow! “