Midtown Lunch

The ML Team’s Cucina & Co Chef’s Table experience has been mixed. I enjoyed their pork tenderloin medallions with pasta, but Jeremiah had a less than satisfactory experience with their much hyped Friday sliders special. This week I noticed that the sliders were bumped to a Thursday slot in favor of a Tuna Burger special presumably for the Lenten lunch crowd.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Chef’s Table here’s the drill. Each day they run a lunch special from 11:30 until 12:30 for $9.50. The menu varies week to week, though I’m told that the Grilled Beef on Mondays and the Sliders on Fridays are constant. I first had the Tuna burger a few weeks back when I was stalking their homemade mallomars. It wasn’t even 11:30 yet and there was already a line of about 6 people waiting for that day’s special. When I saw that the tuna burgers were a good size and cooked to order to your specifications, I had to give it a shot.

The Yellow Fin Tuna Burger you see in the photo above came with slaw and wonton crisps. The two little sauce containers had a wasabi aioli and an Asian inspired citrus dressing. This week’s menu says it comes with “mesclun greens, wonton crisp and Lemon Soy Dressing” but I’m imagining it should be pretty similar to what you see here (let us know in the comments, if not).

The burger was flecked with little bits of scallion. I ordered mine medium rare and it was cooked perfectly–so often when you order tuna medium rare it ends up getting cooked through, but that wasn’t the case here. I was impressed that it was a thick burger as well, not a wee little thing. I typically don’t like to spend in the upper range of the ML price limit, but in this case it’s worth it for the quality and amount of food you get. All in all, if you’re a yellow fin tuna fan I would definitely recommend checking this out for lunch. If the line I encountered was any indication, it seems like this is a popular item, so you’ll probably want to arrive on the early side as the Chef’s Table only serves until 12:30 or when they run out.

Apparently Chef Juan has an email list (that I need to get on) that he sends out the weekly Chef’s Table menu to so if you can’t make it this week, you’ll be in the loop for the next time the Tuna Burger makes an appearance.

Cucina & Co, 30 Rockefeller Center, Concourse Level, (212) 332-7630