Midtown Lunch

The inaugural opening of the Korilla BBQ truck has come and gone, and like the launch of any splashy new food venue, there’s been significant hype, incredible lines, a few missteps in execution, and of course, plenty of dissenting opinions. Given the amount of hype that Korilla BBQ has received in the foodie blog-o-sphere over the past months, it was guaranteed that they would be victimized by their own successful marketing campaign. And having sampled the food, I agree with the general consensus on the ML commenters. However, all things considered, I’ll make a bold claim and state that the Korilla BBQ launch was for the most part, a roaring success.

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Remember how back in March we thought that Totto Ramen might take over Bombay Eats (the former home of Indian pizza on 52nd btw. 8+9th). Well, Totto Ramen did end up opening on that block, but in a different spot… and it looks like Bombay Eats is still becoming a noodle spot. Thanks to Lunch’er Andy who sent over this photo yesterday of the new sign that is now up on Bombay Eats. We have no clue what exactly Cha Pa’s Noodles and Grill is, but we’re excited to find out.

Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) has made some pretty amazing special sandwiches for us over the last two years, and their latest is a doozy.  They’re taking the Utica specialty “Chicken Riggies” (that’s chicken and pasta in a spicy, creamy, tomato sauce) and serving it in sandwich form (in a toasted soft focaccia roll.) Thursday is the first day you’ll be able to score the sandwich, but between now and then you can buy a voucher for the Chicken Riggies Sandwich, plus two cookies, for just $6 from InBundles.

Using food trucks as moving billboards is not our favorite thing in the world… unless there’s free food involved!  (What’s that about kicking a gift horse?)  Plus if a little corporate money is what it takes to keep our favorite food trucks in business, I suppose it’s a net positive.  This week Street Sweets is all over the place with 3 different trucks, giving away a ton of free stuff.  On Truck #1 (the original truck) they’ve teamed up with Capital One from October 19th through October 23rd to raise money for the NYC Food Bank.  Buy any item, get your choice of several of their signature sweets for free. Truck #2, a partnership with Seamless Web through Sunday October 24th, will be giving out fortune cookies that have a code in it that can win you great prizes like ipads and stuff. And finally on Wednesday and Thursday Truck #3, a partnership with Scharffen Berger & Food Network Magazine, will be giving away thousands of free cupcakes at locations all over Midtown.

Got all that? A schedule of Midtown locations for all the trucks, broken down by day, is after the jump.

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I was saddened to discover that the ING Direct cafe had closed their 49th street location, since my lunchtime travels rarely take me in the vicinity of their cafe on 58th and 3rd. But the other day when I was on the hunt for Omar and the El Kaaba Halal Food Cart, I walked right past the ING cafe and I couldn’t help but be lured in by their cheerful orange decor.

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Earlier this week, lunch’er Jill kindly tipped us off to a few new lunch items at Yakitori Totto (on 55th btw. B’way+8th). This fall line-up includes a Berkshire pork loin don ($10.50), eel don ($12), and a seafood mixed grill ($15), all of which unfortunately breach our self-imposed less-than-an-Alexander-Hamilton lunch rule. However, exceptions can be made on occasion, especially for a $10.50 serving of Berkshire pork and Yakitori Totto’s top notch food and service.

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Thanks to Lunch’er Kopper for tipping us off to this one in the forums last week…  Omar, the former operator of Little Morocco has opened his own cart. Apparently he didn’t actually own the Little Morocco cart, but as Kopper puts it, “it was his spices/mixes/garbage plates that made the cart as good as it is.” His new cart, El Kaaba Halal Food, offers some of the same stuff he did with Little Morocco with the promise of much more deliciousness to come.

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