Midtown Lunch

As I type this the finishing touches are being put on Rock Center’s brand new Jacques Torres!!! I made a quick stop by at lunch today and the place is looking great. Peeking in from the window I could see an espresso bar and a few tables for eating in.  And I’m pretty sure I spied Mr. Chocolate himself, doing some hands on lifting and set up. They are officially opening tomorrow and JT will be there from 10 until noon. So excited to see the Godiva space taken over by superior chocolate.  Dessert win for Rock Center! 

It’s a tried and true and idiot proof formula – offer tasty food made from quality ingredients, with sufficient portions at a fair price and the people will come. Then why do so many places in Midtown screw up the equation? I digress. On the other hand, Mooncake Foods has always scored an ‘A’ in this subject in my opinion, at their locations in Chelsea and SoHo. So I’m very excited that they’ve brought their low hanging fruit to the grateful lunchers of Midtown West.

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Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) is at it again!  After a few months off, they’re back with another special sandwich of the month.  Got this message from the restaurant on Friday: “The February Sandwich will begin on Monday, January 31. “The Wangen” Braised Beef Cheeks With Marigold Apples Crispy Sea Salted Cabbage Melted Mountain Gruyere On Finnish Ruis Bread With Coleman’s Mustard $8.95. Sounds good, right??” Yes. Yes it does. And what do you know! Today is Monday, January 31st. Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Thanks to Lunch’er Patrick for the photo

• Dave Cook checks out Cafe Niagara [Eating in Translation]
• The Mul Nang myun at Food Gallery 32 is really good [Bionic Bites]
• Midtown’s branch of Otarian might be closed [Zagat]
• Financier Patisserie’s macarons are excellent [DessertBuzz]
• Another look at the Counter in Times Square [At the Sign of the Pink Pig]
• B Bap is not a bad lunch option [Feisty Foodie]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. This week Mamacita has the week off, so Blondie handled the drinking duties. (It’s a tough gig, but somebody had to do it!)

You can do many things during the happy hours in Midtown: play Big Buck Safari Hunter, shoot pool, throw darts, hang out with Miss Australia, and now you can also go (expensive) bowling at Bowlmor. Being the bowling-lover yet bowling-challenged person that I am, I’ve wanted to stop by and work on my ball throwing skills for awhile. Plus, we should applaud David Burke’s attempt at moving away from his Hawaiian Tropic Zone days. Then I saw they had happy hour specials from 3pm to 7pm and I knew I had to at least go for $4 beers.

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At long last, the enigmatic ChaPa’s Noodle and Grill (52nd between 8th & 9th) has opened to the public. Until only yesterday, the actual theme of the restaurant (aside from being about “noodles and grill”) was a mystery, and when we found out that these noodles and grilled food would be Vietnamese, we got really excited. So excited that I sloshed through some seriously crummy weather to check it out after work. I was, for the most part, pleased with what I saw and tasted. However, since this was their first night of operation, it would be unfair to comment on the food. Instead, here’s a preview of what you might get for lunch.
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