Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday we 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 Liz, a dessert obsessed money person who loves eating outside.

Name: Liz

Age: 27

Occupation: “The Financial Services Sector”. It’s incredibly unrewarding for others to understand what I do for a living.

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Bryant Park

Favorite Kind of Food: Dessert; desserts posing as breakfast. I love that what’s ostensibly cake is a reasonable thing to eat at 7:30AM.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: “Salads” whose binding ingredient is mayonnaise. Come on.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Anyone who doesn’t respond “Margon‘s Cuban sandwich” (on 46th btw. 6+7th) to this question is a heretic who must be regarded with suspicion. The Cravings Truck, naturally.

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Japanese bento haven Washoku Cafe has apparently undergone a change in name and management – and it looks like it happened a while ago. You wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but it’s is now called Negi-ya.  Although everything looks more or less the same, including the awning- which still says Washoku.

According to the Negi-Ya website, they have been in the space since April, which is about the time that we noticed the addition of ramen to the menu. The menu still includes the sushi and bentos that Washoku was known for, but it looks like Negi-Ya’s focus is on tonkotsu ramen. It’s about soup season, so I expect to be stopping in to try it out in short order.  Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Negi-Ya, 9 E. 37th St. (btw. Mad+5th), 917-515-0238

Blondie and I have tried nearly every treat to come off the Treats Truck. Still every now and then Kim manages to surprise us with a new addition to the menu. Last week I happened to glance at the specials menu and noticed carrot cake. Being a big fan of their pumpkin cake, I clearly had to give their carrot cake a try.

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It was always up for debate where K! Pizzacone is a revolutionary concept in pizza eating or a sad, stupid gimmick to relieve tourists of their money. What’s clear at least for the moment is that it is not open for business. At least today. There’s no sign up one way or the other, but what’s also been absent in the window is a DOH Letter grade. We know they didn’t make the Filthy 15, but maybe a B just wasn’t going to meet their high standards.

A few months ago, Lunch’er “mewantfood” tipped us off in the forums about a new Korean restaurant called Danji currently under construction on 52nd btw. 8+9th.  I reached out to Chef/Owner, Hooni Kim (formerly of Daniel and Masa) who let me know that they’ll be open for lunch on weekdays and will offer rotating, seasonal lunch combos of “dup-bap’s”, which is an “over rice” dish. Every day, they’ll offer one meat dup-bap and one vegetarian dup-bap, which will be served with a daily soup and 2 side-dishes (banchan). However, prices are currently TBD (come on under $10!!!)  And yes, there will be Korean tacos as well.  According to their blog the grand opening is scheduled for December 15th.