Behold! Five Star Grill’s Israeli/Chinese Stir Fry Sandwich

Thanks to Lunch’er Tom for sending in this great report…

Across the street from Taam Tov, and one floor down from El Rincon Del Sabor, there’s a new Glatt Kosher Uzbek restaurant on 47th (in the space where Dougie’s BBQ used to be.) It’s $2 cheaper than its neighbor, the staff outnumbers the patrons, and the kicker? Mukpatz!

The regular menu is a carbon copy of Taam Tov’s and anything you order will look and taste exactly the same. What brought me in, apart from the lower prices, is that bizarre fusion of Israeli and Chinese called Mukpatz.

Really, it’s just an Israeli version of Chinese stir fry that ends up being pretty similar to the cornstarch-ed chicken and peppers in brown sauce you’d find at any bulletproof Chinese place. The difference with the Americanized version is that this is much more savory than sweet. And they put it on a baguette.

The sandwich won’t blow your mind with its amazing balance of flavors, top-quality bread, or any of that other crap. It’s a friggin’ stir fry hoagie. But if you’re hungry, and maybe just a little hungover, it’s kind of the best thing ever. At $7.50 with a side of fries, it’s not all that pricey either.

If you insist on getting something ‘normal’, they have Beef/Chicken/Lamb Kebab platters ($10), Uzbek Pilaf ($9), and the standby of Russian grandmothers everywhere, Golubtsy ($8.50). They’ve printed a couple different versions of the menu with prices varying by +/- 50 cents and some of the Russian names replaced with English ones. E.g. Mukpatz becomes “Chicken Sandwich”. Golubtsy becomes “Stuffed Cabbage”, and so on.

The restaurant itself is a small, overlit room across from one of the many jewelry repair and gold wholesalers that occupy the building. It doesn’t have a sign, or a bathroom, or more than one or two sit down customers at a time. If you’re by yourself you can eavesdrop on some interesting conversations (“Have some Diet Coke, no calories so you won’t get fat!” – said to the young, Chinese/Uyghur? waitress). To some this can be a little creepy, so you might want to get your Bakhsh to go.

Five Star Grill, 74 West 47th St (btw. 5th and 6th Ave) 3rd Floor

Posted by The ML Team at 11:45 am, September 19th, 2011 under Five Star Grill, Kosher.
14 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post

14 Comments

5DollarQueen:

Oh wow! It’s been so long since we’ve had these kinds of posts. The first pic is really creepy looking too. I like it.

Sep 19th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
- Tom:
  
  Thank you! And creepy was definitely the intended effect.
  
  Sep 19th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Ike:

Fascinating! I wonder how their pilaf is. That Uighur guy in the short-lived Roosevelt Food Court in Flushing had *amazing* pilaf. But apparently he went to Turkey or something. Sigh.

But please, I beg you not to violently misuse apostrophes. There definitely shouldn’t be an apostrophe in “grandmothers” (fifth paragraph). What is that DOING there? Be a mensch and delete that poor thing out of its misery!

Sep 19th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
- Tom:
  
  We apologise for the fault in the apostrophe’s. Those responsible have been sacked.
  
  ….
  
  We apologise again for the fault in the apostrophes. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
  
  Sep 19th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
  - CheeeeEEEEse:
    
    Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yer?
    
    See the løveli lakes
    
    The wonderful telephøne system
    
    And mani interesting furry animals
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
  - Ike:
    
    I applaud your delightful Python reference, but “grandmothers” in the original article is still not fixed, so those responsible for sacking those responsible for sacking the people who were originally sacked also need to be sacked. Or double-sacked. Or something. How many layers of sack do we have now? Wait, don’t answer that.
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
  - Zach Brooks:
    
    Alright… enough kvetching. I fixed it.
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
  - stevenp:
    
    I will pick a further nit and point out that the punctuation (period, comma) should go *inside* the quotation marks.
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
  - Tom:
    
    Yes. It should change from
    
    E.g. Mukpatz becomes “Chicken Sandwich”. Golubtsy becomes “Stuffed Cabbage”, and so on.
    
    to
    
    E.g. Mukpatz becomes “Chicken Sandwich,” Golubtsy becomes “Stuffed Cabbage”, and so on.
    
    Sent from my iPhone
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
  - Ike:
    
    Thank you Zach! You are a true friend of the apostrophe. Sorry for all the mishegas.
    
    Sep 19th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
  - bowloframen:
    
    The Rise of “Logical Punctuation”.
    http://www.slate.com/id/2293056/pagenum/all/
    
    Sep 20th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Mamacita:

Excellent job Tom!

Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
vdubjb:

I wouldn’t touch that sarnie with a 10 foot Pole, but these are the types of posts sorely missed here!

Sep 19th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Harry:

I checked this place out. They didn’t have the Mukpatz. I tried the Golubtsy and it was amazing. It’s the most homemade tasting meal I’ve ever had in midtown. It is cabbage stuffed with ground meat, rice, some other stuff. I think there was some dill on the top. There were four stuffed cabbages. I can’t recommend this dish highly enough.

Dec 5th, 2011 at 2:05 pm