Midtown Lunch

Every Friday our man UltraClay goes south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

Most people wouldn’t consider doughnuts to be lunch, but we here at Midtown Lunch understand wanting nothing more than to scarf down a half dozen of the treats from Doughnut Plant in one sitting. Honestly, I can’t stop going there. After a lifetime of the faux-nuts at Dunkin, I was actually angry when I discovered what real doughnuts tasted like. Bob’s Donuts in San Francisco and Randy’s in Los Angeles more or less ruined me for the mass-market variety.

Over the years, I’d heard about Doughnut Plant, but the one time I’d tried it (at an out of town location) it was stale and disappointing, so I gave up on having a good, proper doughnut in New York. Then they opened up a Chelsea location a few weeks ago and I had to give it a try.

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• Is ex-Shendy’s the weak link in the Famous Halal Guys empire? [Midtown Eating]
• There’s a new Thai place in Midtown East [Midtown Eating]
• Help! I’m in Soho and need a quick lunch rec [Downtown Eating]
• Lobsters on a by the pound buffet!?  [Midtown Eating]

All those complaining about the size of Kyochon‘s wings, take note! The space age Korean Fried Chicken joint is celebrating their one year anniversary with a wing eating contest. According to Fork in the Road the competition is open to the public, there will be five rounds, and both hot and sweet wings are being served- so the competition will not only test speed but spice tolerance. The event will take place on Sunday, March 13th and the winner will get a $250 gift card, a mention in an Epoch Times editorial and (most importantly?) the title of King Kyochon. I guess they aren’t expecting the ladies to compete? First and second runners up get $100 and $50 gift cards, respectively.  According to the Kyochon Facebook Page the first 20 people who fill out this registration form and return it to the store  on 32nd and 5th will be entered for free (and as of Monday they still had spaces left.)  Good luck!

A new month means a new line up of custard flavors at the Shake Shack (on 8th Ave. and 44th). Today’s flavor is Mint Chocolate Chip, tomorrow, Coffee & Donuts, with Chocolate Chuckles (Mon), Banana Bread (Tues), and Pineapple Nut Brittle (Wed) rounding out the week. If you happen to be in the Shack’s vicinity over the weekend they’re doing Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel on Saturdays and Afternoon Tea on Sundays. And from now until Sunday, 3/13 you can get the CAR-MALLOW ANTHONY SHAKE, vanilla custard with caramel, marshmallow and malt. ($5.75)

Photo courtesy of speedygo

After reading Chris’ Taim posts I’ve been eager to check out the truck myself. I’ve been a fan of their West Village brick and mortar for some time, but I’ve had terrible luck with their truck. Every time I’ve dropped by for falafel there’s there’s either a crazy line that scares me off or their out of falafel. This Monday, however, rainy weather + late lunch equaled falafel success.

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Bian Dang, formerly known as NYC Cravings, has returned after a season of focusing on the brick and mortar world of Food Gallery 32. On Tuesday they hit my turf, the Flatiron District, in a brand new truck- but still serving up their usual menu (on 24th Street btw. Park+Mad). And yesterday they were in the Financial District.  Today?  They’re back in the fold, and planning to park on 53rd St. and Park Ave. (their old Thursday spot.)  But you’ll probably want to check their twitter account or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out just to be safe.

The recent winner of the 2010 ‘Best Coffee As Voted On By You’ (and my personal favorite cup of Joe), Financier Patisserie recently contacted us to give a heads up that they’re now carrying retail tins of coffee at all nine of their locations. The coffee is roasted daily in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is available in either their original blend, or their single origin fair trade espresso roast. Both flavors come in 8 oz tins ($8.50), and be purchased as either pre-ground or whole bean. Decaf is also available for the pre-ground versions.

To promote this new launch, they offered to give us free gift baskets to sample, but we’d rather hand these out to the loyal readers of Midtown lunch!  All you have to do is reply in the comments and tell us what goes wrong with your day if you don’t get your coffee fix?

The contest rules, plus a photo of what you’ll win is after the jump.
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Like many other Lunch’ers, my morning commute brings me right by a Dunkin Donuts (not all that surprising since it’s the most prevalent chain in the city). Yesterday morning, as I made my coffee run, I noticed signage for their new Big ‘N’ Tasty, a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich that appeared to be cradled between two slices of French Toast–$4.99 with a medium coffee combo–aka a bacon topped mass market knockoff of one of my favorite breakfasts at Shopsin’s, the So Good. Even though I knew that this 590 calorie monstrosity was likely to disappoint, I had to at least give it a shot. Read more »

The Best Sandwich Ever? Photo by Ultraclay.

Brownie was busy drooling over DQ blizzards, while Blondie was busy cooking brown butter brownies out of Bon Appetit Mag. Ultraclay was in Barcelona, where he tried a sandwich that Mark Bittman called the best sandwich he’s ever had. Donny tried the expensive and small but delicious media noche from Court Street Grocers, Chris H. found the vegetarian food at Balaboosta surprisingly exciting.

Around the rest of the ML Universe… Andrea was excited to discover Crosby Connection sandwiches inside a Downtown chocolate shop, Jamie had a Reading Terminal Market Amish sandwich showdown over on the Philly site, and I ate sushi from a car wash in Los Angeles.