Midtown Lunch

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’m one of the last ML contributors to check out Food Gallery 32. The early reports looked good, but nothing really motivated me to schlep to 32nd street until until I read the Serious Eats review of Crêpe Monster’s Milk Toaster which they called “gloriously excessive and delicious.” Mmm, “gloriously excessive” sounds like my type of dessert!

Serious Eats and the printed menu both described the filling of the Milk Toaster ($5) as raisin bread soaked in condensed milk, but my experience was a bit different. As I watched them prepare the crêpe and filling I saw them butter and grill a slice of soft, fluffy Chinese white bread (from the glance I got of the bag, I think it came from Golden King Bakery in Chinatown). Once the bread was grilled and the Tokyo style crêpe was prepared they tore up the bread and used it for the crêpe topping, finishing it off with a liberal drizzling of sweetened condensed milk and a healthy dusting of cinnamon. There was nary a raisin in sight. I’m not sure if they just ran out of their regular raisin bread, but as someone who’s lukewarm on raisins at best, I didn’t miss them here.

The outer edges of the Milk Toaster were pure crispy crêpe, tender and mild. As you got closer to the center where more of the bread, milk, and cinnamon were concentrated the experience was more like a crêpe cinnamon bun. Warm, delightful and simple, this is just right sort of dessert to put a smile on your face if you need a good cheering.

Crepe Monster in Food Gallery 32 (3rd Floor), 11 W. 32nd Street (btw. 5th and B’way)