Midtown Lunch

Back in August Jeremiah posted about Cafe Niagara, the super unique Sri Lankan joint that took over Las Poblanitas (on 38th btw. 8+9th).  Sadly nobody seems to be going, and Lunch’er DC is afraid they are going to close.  From the forums:

Cafe Niagara is good. Good enough that I could go once a week. It’s cheap. It’s spicy. Great. Problem is I’ve been going twice a week, because it seems like it’s going to go out of business. No one’s ever in there. I took a coworker there today, and while he liked the food he said the place looked weird, like a sleeper cell/hotbed of food poisoning. Thing is, it DOES look weird. I can understand why someone wouldn’t go in. But the food is good. I haven’t felt ill once. But I don’t want to go twice a week. The best part about it is that it’s different. When you eat it twice a week different becomes the same.

Will you answer DC’s call? Sure, the weather sucks but if we don’t support little places like this on the outskirts of Midtown, who will? Don’t let this place become another Barros Luco…

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 Linda, a food loving diamond agent (!?) who spends a lot of time on 47th street (natch.)

Name: Linda

Age: Loving my 30’s! (That’s all I’m saying)

Occupation: Creator of Agent Diamond, a Personal Shopper for diamond engagement rings & all else shiny. Need help finding food? MTL is the place to go. Need help finding a diamond? Ask me. I promise not to bite :)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: I’m located all over the Diamond District (47th Street between 5th & 6th ). You can also find me twittering & online at www.agentDiamond.com

Favorite Kind of Food: I love them All! Being Asian, I tend to favor this category a slight bit more. Not only do I love the various flavors & textures, but it also warms my soul reminding me of my childhood. (Oh & Cheese! I love anything w/ cheese!)

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Can’t think of anything I don’t like. I’m a foodie & am pretty adventurous when it comes to food. I’ll try anything once. Well, almost anything.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: The Baby Okra/Sultan’s Delight at Akdeniz Turkish Restaurant (on 46th btw. 5+6th), Everything at Café Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th), The Bahn Mi Sandwiches at Boi Sandwich (on 3rd btw. 44+45th), K-town, Dishes (on 45th btw. Mad+5th)

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Part of my weekly produce pick-up at the slightly out-of-bounds Dag Hammarskjold Plaza involved checking up on the little house on the 1st Avenue side. A former home to burgers and shakes, it changed hands in the fall with signage going up that promised a new place called  “Eat & Go Istanbul”. The last we’d seen of Eat & Go was in Bryant Park during the ’09 holidays, and I was a little excited to have a new place to try out in Midtown East. Obviously there are bonus points for the park location (spring will be here, one day.)

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Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. 5+Mad) has never really struck me as an “unsanitary” place, yet it always seemed like their practice of storing food out in the open might get the attention of the DOH.  That day may have finally come as the Japanese eatery now has a C hanging in the window. We’ve been afraid for awhile that the DOH would ruin everything we loved about Zaiya, but there was only one major difference I noticed on a recent trip.
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Thanks to mother nature (and the fact that it’s Monday?) the newly open Juicy Wings Cart wasn’t a mad house today, but reading the first reports makes us think that might not last too long. From Lunch’er Matt:

Its right across the street from the OG and Sandwich Land Cart. WINGS! 4 flavors. “Tripple” X Fahrenheit is soaked in spicy naga chili and habenero. Texas Ranch is Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce, Sweet Wasabi is a honey glazed horseradish, sriracha is self explanatory. I went with the tripple x farenheit.

Photo and report, after the jump…

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We somehow missed the opening of a new Thai restaurant, Tom & Toon (241 51st St. between 7th & 8th), which launched with little fanfare in August of 2010. Our oversight may have been appropriate, given the predictable narrative of the restaurant. There’s an un-extraordinary menu akin to its neighboring Thai brethren in the ‘hood, such as Siam Inn two store fronts down, or the overabundance of Thai joints up and down 9th ave. However, Tom & Toon shouldn’t be easily dismissed, for it is the only Thai restaurant that has an all you can eat lunch buffet in Midtown. At $11.95, it’s a bit over our $10 lunch rule, but we’ve always be willing to stretch the price boundaries to $11 for buffets.  So what’s another buck when something as rare as Thai AYCE is involved!?

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