Midtown Lunch

Please welcome our newest ML contributor the fold… Anna L.  She was profiled a few weeks ago, and we liked her so much we offered her a gig! Today, she lets us know about the new Mexican “inspired” sandwiches from Gourmet 53.

The coconut shrimp at Gourmet 53 is the stuff that Midtown Lunch dreams are made of, but did you know that they also have Mexican inspired sandwiches on the menu as well? They’ve actually had them for awhile but for some reason I haven’t bothered to try one until now. Carefully constructed with top-quality ingredients these are not, but they will certainly satisfy anybody looking for a cheap, delicious, and different sandwich (plus extras, but more on that later).

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• ‘wichcraft has dropped it’s gruyere grilled cheese!? [Midtown Eating]
• The ML October meetup/happy hour will be in Astoria [Connections]
• A look at the street meat from an Omar-less Little Morocco [Midtown Eating]
• Go Burger was spotted on 40th & 6th yesterday [Midtown Eating]

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. We had the privilege of meeting this week’s luncher at the Vendy Awards. She’s not only the daughter of the owners of the Chimichury Malecon truck, she’s also a Midtown Lunch’er!

Name: Monica

Age: 24

Occupation: Pharmaceutical Advertising

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 42nd between 2nd and 3rd ave (Daily News Building)

Favorite Kind of Food: Indian, Peruvian,Shawarma, Pork dumplings, Plantains, risotto (only when I make it), my moms rice and black bean, anything with bacon, Italian cold cuts, turkey burgers, chicken burgers, kobe burgers, Chimichury’s (I love burgers!), yam fries and yucca, cous cous, latkes, scallops, crab cakes, Almond butter, dates, popcorn.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Not a fan of clams or octopus. I want to give Korean another chance, but so far I’m not won over

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Naya Express (43rd and 3rd) I love everything on their menu especially their hummus, kibbe and beef kebab, Rickshaw Dumpling’s Chicken Thai Basil dumpling, Schnitzel & Things warm potato salad, Energy Kitchen turkey burger, Pio Pio on 44th and 10th, their chicken is ridiculously good and so is their garlic sauce and Daisy May’s for BBQ and sweet tea.

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Certé is mighty popular around these parts so I’m slightly embarrassed I’d never been by for lunch. I thought their lobster sausage at the ML Birthday Bash earlier this year was incredible, but somehow I never had a chance to make it to their actual location. When I heard their October sandwich was a beer glazed sausage in a pretzel roll, I knew my time had come. It’s creatively named the Octoberfist (which sounds much more violent than it is) and gives nods to both German comfort food and beer.

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It’s been a big month for the online food delivery company formerly known as Seamless Web.  They dropped the “Web” from their name and recently opened up nominations for the “Craved Restaurant Awards”, to honor the best restaurants that deliver via Seamless… information we probably wouldn’t have passed along, if they hadn’t offered to give two of our readers $20 gift cards!  (The things we’ll do to get you people free food.)   All you have to do to enter to win one of the gift cards is post your favorite lunch spot to order delivery from. (Don’t believe in delivery?  Just post any random comment and you’ll still be entered to win… although, it would make us wonder why somebody who hates delivery would want to win $20 worth of delivery.)   Limit one entry per person, winners will be chosen at random next Monday, October 17th at 5pm EST.

SCRATCHbread has quite a following in Brooklyn, but there are few places that you can get their goodies in Manhattan. Fortunately midtown has become one of them. Now in addition to good sandwiches, cold brew ice coffee, and awesome chocolate chip cookies, you can also get SCRATCHbread scones at Culture Espresso Bar (on 38th btw. 5+6th). Read more »

Please welcome our newest ML contributor the fold… Rachel G.  She was the one who tipped us off to the KFC freebies last week, and this week she’s got some grilled cheese news from inside the Viacom building on 44th & Broadway.

This week, the V-Stop (formerly The Outpost) in the Viacom building turned their “5 Subs” station into one offering grilled cheese. GRLLD CHZ, as they’re calling it — I guess no one wanted to buy vowels in this economy — offers four sandwich options, and the menu changes weekly. They range from your standard sandwich (choice of cheese, white or wheat, with or without tomatoes) to more elaborate options.

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