Midtown Lunch

Grilled peach sandwich from Num Pang. Photo courtesy of Robyn Lee.

• A comprehensive look at Num Pang Midtown [SENY]
• Franchises hop on the food truck trend [Entrepreneur]
• The Burger Joint is overrated [Food in Mouth]
• Cafe Zaiya’s bowls are a bit sweet, but still good [Feisty Foodie]
• Aoki’s three roll lunch special is still a great deal [Tasty Eating]
• Piccolo Cafe makes a good pesto pasta [Ramen & Friends]
• A look at the legendary Midtown restaurant Keens [Eater]
• If you don’t mind splurging for pizza, the newly open Pizzarte is Adam Kuban approved [Slice]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every Friday afternoon our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Yeah, I know… Another Irish bar! I hear you, but if it seems like every other write-up is an Irish bar it’s because every other bar in Midtown is an Irish bar. Seriously, they are thick on the ground here. It’s as if these people had a certain reputation in regards to booze. Now, I have nothing against a good Emerald Isle watering hole, but most are carbon copies of each other with little distinguishing factors. And that’s when Connolly’s Pub stumbles in. Established in ’67 it is part of a brood of other Connolly’s in midtown. Just off 5th ave they attract the local workers looking for a tasty burger or a liquid lunch to ease the pain of cubicle life. Read more »

Last year we had informed you that Comfort Diner (45th btw 2+3rd Ave) had lost their lease and was planning to relocate but then it didn’t. Then all was quiet until this May when fellow Lunch’er Maria told us that she had spotted the Comfort Diner opened in it’s old spot once more.

Comfort Diner has always been stuck in the back of my head because a coworker is pretty much in love with it. Recently I found few more coworkers saying positive things about it as well. I know what most of you think about Comfort Diner so I was hesitant in checking it out.

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Now that Cer Te has settled their issues with the DOH, there is nothing keeping you from trying their Texas Heart Attack (except caring about your general health and well being.) The sandwich was the July sandwich of the month, so today is the last day to get it before they introduce the August sandwich on Monday, the Montauk Hangover- featuring fried duck egg, creamed corn with pancetta, spicy lobster sauce, and crispy leeks, on a grilled potato roll.

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.

Way back in June, at the Midtown Lunch Birthday Party, I got to meet a few lunchers, including Goats, who gently (that’s code for drunkenly) suggested that I totally need to check out the Mexican food cart on Sixth Avenue btw. 28+29th. I had passed it before from time to time, but wasn’t sure what they were selling. You see, the cart has no sign, no menu and, besides the long line of folks speaking Spanish, there’s not much of a hint as to what kind of food they sell. But with the strong lunch’er recommendation, I obviously had to check it out.

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• Bistro 51 has good bagels with real butter [Midtown Eating]
• Anybody know what happened to the trucks on 37th? [Midtown Eating]
• Arguing the merits of Comme Ci Comme Ca [Midtown Eating]
• New Hong Wong and Asian Station have good General Tso’s [Midtown Eating]

Despite DOH vindication, Cer Te couldn’t help getting in one last upside down jab

It’s been one year since the DOH started giving out letter grades to restaurants in NYC, and to commemorate the milestone the Wall Street Journal has gone all Nate Silver on the data.  There are some interesting tidbits, and other sites are weighing in with their opinions, but we’re far more excited about the big DOH news that arrived in our inbox today.  “After a year of paying big bucks and sucking ass, we have finally received our duly earned “A” from the DOH.” Signed, Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th).  You might remember Cer Te from such wonderful movies as “I Turned My B from the DOH Into Lemonade” and “Give Us a C and We’ll Get Even Angrier”.

Those grades didn’t seem to act as much of a deterrent for hardcore Midtown Lunchers, but it’s good to see that Cer Te’s letter finally matches the quality of their food.

I love Japanese food, especially when the source is a hidden little restaurant in Midtown. So I was super excited when we got an email alerting us to a relatively new spot called Jukai. I was even more excited when I arrived at the address and discovered the restaurant was housed in a semi-secretive tranquil subterranean space. Many of my other favorite Japanese joints are hidden like this (Sake Bar Hagi, Yakitori Totto, etc.), so I had high hopes here.

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