Midtown Lunch

If there’s one thing that Midtown Lunch loves it’s the chicken parm sandwich. It dates back to when Zach ran the site, and from time to time, I feel the need to continue his search for best cheap chicken parm around. So when I stopped by to check out the newly-opened Tappo (24th btw 5+6th), I skipped the thin-crust pizza part of their menu–though there were some pretty awesome pies spotted–and went straight for the $9 chicken parm sandwich lunch special. And what I got was one high-quality sandwich that may not qualify in the “cheap” criteria, but is definitely going for the crown.

$9 for about a foot long sandwich stuffed to the gills with breaded chicken cutlets is my kind of lunch. My piping hot sandwich came out in about 10 minutes, not even enough time to ask the waitress for a cup of hot soup. The awesome bread was crusty and fresh, and strong enough to hold up the sandwich even after sopping up some of the sauce. Luckily there wasn’t too much sweet marinara, just enough to amply coat the chicken and soften up the bread. Both the breading and the sauce were lightly seasoned, giving you the nice Italian taste without being overwhelming. My only fault came with the cheese, there wasn’t enough of it for my liking. Most of it was centered in the middle of the sandwich meaning that both halves had good bites of melted mozzarella at the beginning of the sandwich half, but by the ends, there was nothing. A little more mozzarella spread out over the entire thing will definitely place this sandwich on few “best of” lists. But will the search for a good chicken parm ever be over? I say never!

Since my sandwich was so delightful, I decided to go out on a limb and get some dessert. The dessert menu is on the pricey side with almost everything being $6 and up, but it is all made in-house. I went with their apple pie, and wished I hadn’t. The crust wasn’t buttery or crumbly enough, and it could have used a far amount more apple to balance out the crusts. The whipped cream on top was the saving grace of the slice; I could have eaten a bowl of that and been happy. I’ll be sure to try something else next time because those pizzas definitely need to be in my belly.

Tappo, 49 West 24th Street, (212) 807-9200