Midtown Lunch

It’s time for the 4th Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

Considering how great a bagel town New York City is it’s kind of shocking how terrible the bagel selection is in Midtown.  We did, however, get a few new options this year to go along with a couple of mainstays.  Here are the nominees for Best Bagel in Midtown:

• Best Bagel & Coffee
• Daniel’s Bagels (on 3rd btw. 37+38th)
• Ess A Bagel
• Montreal bagels at Marketa
• Times Square Hot Bagels
• Vic’s Bagel Bar

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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With the exception of the occasional DOH brush up, we’ve never really written about Bombay Palace (on 52nd btw. 5+6th), mostly because their all you can eat lunch buffet is way outside the ML price range.  But clearly somebody eats there and to show their appreciation this holiday season they’ve decided to give away free servings of their signature chicken biryani on Wednesday (12/21) from Noon to 3pm.  It’s eat in only, but they say you don’t have to order anything else.  They’ll have a station set up with the chicken biryani, and you’ll be able to help yourself to as much as you want!?  Seems too good to be true… but the price is right!  Freeloaders, prepare to engage.

It’s time for the 4th Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

For the previous 3 years we’ve called this the “Japanese Soup” category, because we only had 3 ramen places in Midtown and needed to pad the nominees with udon and soba. But with the opening of Hide Chan and Totto Ramen this year, we not only have enough places to make this a straight up battle between ramenyas, but Midtown now arguably competes with the East Village for the title of Best Ramen Neighborhood in all of NYC. Menchenko Tei has dominated the soup category for the past two years in a row, but with the crop of challengers will they be able to hold on to the top spot? Here are the nominees for Best Ramen in Midtown:

• Hide Chan
• Menchanko Tei
• Men Kui Tei
• Sapporo
• Totto Ramen

Vote for your favorite, after the jump…

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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 Steve, an ad man who hates salads and wishes he worked in Chinatown.

Name: Steve

Age: 24

Occupation: Advertising copywriter

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 42nd btw. 2+3rd

Favorite Kind of Food: That’s such a tough question. Id say that it goes in cycles. Right now I’m on a real big asian kick, pho soups, bahn mi, dumplings, and pretty much any meat in a sauce over rice. Im also a sucker for bar food. Nachos, wings, burgers, sliders, you name it, its its greasy or fried usually its for me. Love a good burrito, with fresh guac and sour cream, and salsa.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Salads are usually a no go for me. Why waste space when there are proteins to be had? Im also not a big fan of tofu or the “vegetarian option” that pretends to be a real protein.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: The spicy pork over rice or seafood ramen at Woorijrip (32nd between 5 and 6). Cant beat the daily specials at The Wharf (39 and 3rd): 30 cent wing mondays, dollar taco (fish/beef/chicken) tues/wed and 5.95 mussles fra diablo tues. The XPL that is on the corner 44th and 2nd (Lots of white sauce, dab of hot sauce) or the chicken and rice cart on 40th and 3rd. He surprises me with falafels and french fries in my street meat sometimes. Whatever the daily specials are at The Blarney Stone (45 and 3rd), and I love the Bayou Beast and the Dude slices from Two Boots (Grand central food court). I know its not technically midtown, but Ive waited 2 hours for Shake Shack (in Madison Sq. Park). I don’t regret it.

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It’s time for the 4th Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

It’s hard to believe it, but there was a time when it was impossible to get Korean fried chicken in Midtown during lunch.  We practically flipped out when the Bon Chon on 5th btw. 31+32nd opened for lunch in Feburary on 2009… how silly was that!?  Now Midtown is home to the U.S. flagship of Kyochon, two Bon Chon locations (with a third on the way), and that original Bon Chon has gone through two name changes.  And there still is a question as to which places makes the best Korean fried chicken.  Our many Clay attempted to do a taste test, but this is clearly a job for you guys!  Here are the nominees for best Korean fried chicken in Midtown:

• Bann Next Door
• Bon Chon
• Kyochon
• Mono + Mono (formerly Mad For Chicken)

Vote for your favorite, after the jump…

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The Year of the Taco is rolling over into 2011, as another Korean inspired taco truck is set to open sometime in the new year. Back in October Fork in the Road reported that The Kimchi Taco Truck would be launching within 2 or 3 weeks, with Chef Youngsun Lee at the helm (formerly of Annisa, Craftbar, Momofuku, and the BR Guest Group.  That obviously didn’t happen, but we just heard recently (thanks to a tip from Lunch’er Felicia) that they’ve been doing some serious menu testing and are planning on hitting the road in January once everything is perfected.  Youngsun was also the Chef/Owner of Persimmon, a joint that I frequented in the East Village and thoroughly enjoyed (especially their homemade kimchi) before their premature demise. I’m excited to see if their sophisticated, yet authentic Korean flavors carry over to this mobile venture (i.e. will they give the Korilla truck a run for their money!)

We’ll be sure to keep lunchers updated on an exact launch date and menu, but in the meantime you can follow their progress on twitter, facebook or on their website.

It’s time for the 4th Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

Don’t know about you, but when 3pm hits every day we start craving a little something sweet. And there are a whole host of food trucks that have done a great job satisfying our craving. Here are the nominees for best food truck that sells the sweet stuff:

• Cupcake Stop
• Joyride
• Kelvin Slush
• Sweetery NYC (formerly Street Sweets)
• Treats Truck
• Wafels & Dinges

Vote for your favorite, after the jump…

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Last week the yellow Desi Food Truck decided the time was right to brave the streets of Midtown proper, and proceeded to move one of their trucks to 50th btw. 6+7th. We knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for them, but we thought it would be the cops not the other vendors to give them trouble. From Lunch’er Austin: “Just snapped this photo of the Desi Food Truck in Midtown today (50th btw 6th & 7th), they’re being hotboxed by two hot dog vendors for no apparent reason. Thought you could let people know, in hopes of rallying some support/business for them, so they don’t leave mid-town for good.” It’s been awhile since we saw some hot dog cart blockage. We’ll keep an eye on this one, and see how it plays out…

It’s time for the 4th Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

If you are a fan of burgers it probably felt like Christmas came every single month of 2010. It was truly insane how many burger places opened in Midtown this year. Last year Burger Joint beat out Five Guys for the title, but a lot has happened since then. We finally got our own Shake Shack, and MePa transplant Bill’s Bar & Burger took over the old Tuscan Square space in Rock Center. Add to that the craziness of 4Food, and Schnipper’s switching to LaFrieda beef and what you have is an onslaught. Will it end in 2011? Probably not. The Counter opens today in Times Square. Here are the nominees for best under $10 hamburger in Midtown:

• 4Food
• Bill’s Bar & Burger
• Burger Joint
• Carnegie John’s
• Five Guys
• Frites N Meats
• Goodburger
• Prime Burger
• Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen
• Shake Shack

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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