Midtown Lunch

With standing room only and walls the color of your bright yellow pickled daikon, E-Mo (W.32nd St. btw. 5th Ave and B’way), which means “aunt” in Korean, serves up homestyle, made-to-order kimbap from a tiny storefront in Koreatown. E-Mo is by far the most popular place to get “Korean sushi” in Ktown. A cheap, hole-in-the-wall, you’d think it would be a Midtown Lunch classic, but surprisingly hasn’t had its own coverage… ’til now. And come on Zach, it’s secretly a caloric brick.

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I just grabbed breakfast from the Dag Hammarskjold farmers market this morning (on 47th and 2nd) when I passed by the newly opened Vic’s Bagel Bar (on 3rd Ave. btw. 36+37th). I love bagels, and can’t walk past a “Grand Opening” banner without wondering what I’m missing, so I snuck into the Pinkberry’ish looking space to grab a menu. It turns out they will freshly smash strawberries or olives or scallions, etc. into cream cheese right in front of you! (Cold Stone creamery anybody?) I’ll be heading back later to try their signatures, like the $6.50 (eek.) “Backyard BBQ bagel” which includes corn, cheddar, BBQ sauce, and red onion in cream cheese on whatever bagel you want. I”m pretty sure Zach would have hated this flavored cream cheese crap (he’s a bagel purist), but if it tastes awesome then I say long live Vic’s!

Check out the menu of mix-in monstrosities, after the jump.

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After closing for retraining on Thursday, Kyochon (on 5th btw. 32+33rd) is back open and the blog DelicatesseNY stopped by for a take out lunch the other day. Sadly the post is written in French, but we popped it into Google Translate and let the hilarity ensue!  It sounds as if the wings are still super small, but Stephanie seemed to enjoy them anyway.  She also seemed to be saying (and, granted we’re just going from google translate here) that Midtown Lunchers are hard to please, and not everybody wants to eat a whole chicken during lunch for under $10.  Also, Kyochon is fantastic and she will definitely be back.  Maybe the retraining worked? (Take that early haters!)

Related:
BREAKING: Kyochon Closes for Retraining!
The Really Early Word on Kyochon

• Midtown Lunch Happy Hour is tonight at Live Bait and Brownie might bring homemade pie! [Midtown Connections]
• And you’ll probably need this list of hangover meals afterward [Miscellaneous]
• Great, now I’ve got a huge hankerin’ for some chicken fried steak. Any place around here? [Miscellaneous]
• Is “booradley” a good spouse for soliciting advice for lunches in Hoboken or a bad one for letting his wife work there in the first place? [Eating in Other Areas of NYC]
• Did you go to Choice Eats? Share you favorite bites [Eating in Other Areas of NYC]

Great news for cheap bastards, who also like quality pizza. The newly opened 57 Napoli Pizza (on 57th btw. Park+Lex) has decided to add something to their lunch menu just for us… a 10″ plain pizza for $6, available before 3pm. Wood fire brick oven Neapolitan pizza, topped with fresh pulled mozz, made by a guy who used to work at L’asso and No. 28? For $6!?!? This could be good…

Check out the full (revised) lunch menu after the jump.

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Huge news just reported by Eater… the owners of Yakitori Totto (on 55th btw. B’way+8th) will be opening a ramen spot at an undisclosed location in Midtown in April.  Amazing.  Wait a second… isn’t the recently shuttered Bombay Eats (on 52nd btw. 8+9th) supposedly turning into a ramen shop.  If this is true, losing Indian pizza should hurt far far less…

Related:
Yakitori Totto is My New Favorite Midtown Lunch

Gotta love free cone day… lines are starting to get long at Rock Center, but they move quick (you can expect no more than a 20 minute wait.) Also, cup is the default this year- so if you want a cone make sure to ask for it. They’ve got 10 flavors to choose from this year, plus one sorbet (mango) and one frozen yogurt (half baked.) Sadly, only one of their brand new flavors is being given out for free (milk & cookies.) Although I’m not complaining (it’s free ice cream!) and word is there are shorter lines at the Macy’s Ben & Jerry’s but their flavor list kind of sucks. Feel free to post updates in the comments… and I’ll see you on line this afternoon for a second go around! (It goes until 8pm, or until they run out of ice cream.)

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 Antonina (aka Nina), a software boss who hates Chipotle but loves chopped cheese sandwiches.

Name: Antonina

Age: I turned 25 on Saturday

Occupation: I PM at a software company (That means I boss people around)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Just north of Herald Square, but south of Bryant Park.

Favorite Kind of Food: You could put just about anything in a dumpling and I will eat it, all kinds of pasta/noodles, Indian food, cheese, pizza, raw crunchy vegetables, ice cream sandwiches. If I am ever on death row, my last meal will be Mexican food. Also, “chopped cheese” sandwiches. If you ever do a Harlem Lunch spinoff this sandwich needs to be your first entry.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Salads from delis or salad chains, most sushi, raw tomatoes, anything pickled in vinegar, olives, fennel, chicken, cooked mushy vegetables, processed foods. I think Chipotle is an abomination.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: At my office, we get delivery as a group almost everyday, some of the places on our regular rotation are: Pongsri Thai (on 48th btw. B’way+8th), Washoku Cafe (on 37th btw. Mad+5th), Mooncake Foods (on 30th btw. 7+8th), Lan Sheng (on 39th btw. 5+6th.) I’ve had Szechuan Gourmet too but I personally think LS is way better, and they’re much faster for delivery. We also order Taiwanese-style fried pork chops from Chinatown about once a week. (Think NYC Cravings truck but with pork.)

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