Midtown Lunch

While Omar’s Kitchen & Bakery has been technically opened for a few weeks now, we received an email announcing their official Grand Opening next Wednesday, June 8, when they’ll be selling every meal, including a soda and pastry for just $5 (cash only) all day long. Sounds like an amazing deal.

Donny reported last month about the great Mediterranean food at Omar’s, which is owned by Cowgirl Catering, the same folks behind ML favorite Gourmet 53. I stopped by to snap some photos and check out the scene. And since I’m always up for eating, I figured why not sample one of their pita sandwiches.

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Congrats to Ryan K, he picked up the $100 gift certificate to SeamlessWeb simply for buying a ticket to our 5th Birthday Party happening next Saturday (6/11) from Noon to 3pm at City Winery’s outdoor patio. In case you haven’t heard, buying a ticket to the party doesn’t just mean a donation to the Street Vendor Project.  It also gets you food from some of the best Midtown Lunch spots (Ma Peche, Food Gallery 32, Kwik Meal, El Rey Del Sabor, Biryani Cart, Wafels & Dinges, Rolling Cones, Momofuku Milk Bar, Cer Te, Tri Tip Grill), free beer from Brooklyn Brewery, free soda from GuS’s and free slushes from Kelvin Slush. It also enters you to win a ton of birthday presents!   For this week’s big giveaway, how does a $100 gift certificate to Bon Chon Chicken sound?  Everybody who buys their ticket before June 6th will be entered in a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate to Bon Chon Chicken.  Have you gotten your tickets yet? Because there’s only 9 days left.  And we have another big food announcement coming tomorrow, so you might not want to wait. Get all the info and buy your tickets here>>

In my failed attempt to track down the Marrakech Chefs Truck (yes I’m still hunting this truck down and it sucks that they’re not on Twitter!), I found myself walking into Pro Hot Korean. I have passed by this tiny Korean place few times now and was meaning to try it some day. I wasn’t sure what to order from this place. The Bibimbap was very tempting and so were the tacos. But I wanted something hearty so I ordered the chicken tofu jigae ($8.50). While waiting for my food, I was wondering how good the tofu jigae would be from a fast food joint.

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Ever since they launched in 2009 and ultraclay gushed over their mixed grill platter, the question on everybody’s mind concerning the Vendy Award nominated Bistro Truck is when will they join the truck shuffle and come to Midtown. Up until two weeks ago, they were comfortable staying at their usual location in the Flatiron District on 17th and 5th Avenue. But as we previously announced, they’ve added four new locations to their roster and Midtown East got lucky on Thursdays when they’ve been showing up on 55th between Park and Lexington.

Besides a tasting at the Vendys, I had only tried the Morroccan truck once before. So last Thursday I was pretty excited they’d be nearby. I arrived at 1:00pm and was surprised to discover no line. While it was refreshing not to have to wait an hour at a food truck, I feel like a bigger Midtown welcome is in order for these guys.

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If you walked by 51st Street yesterday or today, you may have noticed that the Jamaican Dutchy cart has been M.I.A. If you follow them on twitter you know that they’ll be closed all week and will return next Monday with a new and improved menu. What you may not know is that the owner, O’Neil, has been working on a Jamaican Dutchy truck for the past year and it’s finally ready to launch.  The truck will hit the street on Monday giving them the opportunity to offer more menu items. But fans of the spot on 51st and 7th shouldn’t worry.  They don’t plan to move around the city like most of the other gourmet trucks.

As for the cart?  A Downtown lunch’er spotted the cart yesterday in the Financial District (near William and Pearl). It’s being run by O’Neil’s sister Jillian, and plans to operate permanently on William Street between Beaver and Pearl from 6am-4pm (which means breakfast is back!)  Let’s hope the recent crackdown of food trucks both in Midtown and Downtown doesn’t affect the newly expanded Jamaican Dutchy operation. His oxtail and jerk chicken would be sorely missed.

Photo courtesy of Gothamist

Really?  Famous Famiglia Pizzeria! That’s the best you can do?  Urgh…

Ever since Momofuku Má Pêche opened back in 2009, they’ve done an admirable job of giving us good reasons to come back time and time again, whether it’s for their sandwich specials, avant-garde croissants, or ever-changing line-up of tasty sweets.

And last week, they unveiled two new sandwiches, a lamb neck banh mi and a braised beef hero with bone marrow.

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