Midtown Lunch

It’s time for the 2011 Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year we’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

After last year’s burger mania things settled down a bit in 2011. But the debate over who makes the best burger in Midtown is still as contentious as ever. Can Five Guys repeat their victory from last year? Or has the Shake Shack backlash died down enough for them to take their place on top of the heap? Or could one of the other contenders pull off a shocking victory. Only one way to find out. Here are the nominees for the best under $10 hamburger in Midtown.

• Bill’s Bar & Burger
• Burger Joint
• BV’s Burger
• Five Guys
• Goodburger
• Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen
• Shake Shack

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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• Pearl’s twice cooked pork belly is as good as Szechuan Gourmet!? [Food in Mouth]
• The fig and bacon sandwich at Num Pang is delicious [Feisty Foodie]
• 2nd Ave. Deli make the only Midtown latkes you need to try [Grub Street]
• French pasta chain Nooi has closed [Eater]
• The best eats at the Bryant Park Holiday market [Fork in the Road]
• The best eats at the Columbus Circle Holiday market [Fork in the Road]
• The tater tots at HB Burger are fantastic [Tasty Eating]
• Picolo Cafe makes a decent porchetta sandwich [Feisty Foodie]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so it seems only natural to have a happy hour column on 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.

For the final Happy Hour installment of 2011 we shall not descend into a dingy, dirty, vermin infested dive. No! This week we shall visit one of the most respectable and venerable bastions of boozing to be found in Midtown: P.J. Clarke’s. “But why?” You may ask. The answer is simple ‘tis the season’ and in that vein we might find ourselves this holiday anxiously looking for a storied pub with character to divert out of towners with touristy intentions. The menu will cost ya, drinks specials are hardly that, but steering away Uncle Tommy from the bar at Applebees by saying “I know a place where Sinatra used to drink?” Priceless.

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The newest special from our favorite Belgian waffle truck is De Bumpin’ Pumpkin. It seems a little late in the season for pumpkin, but I’m a big fan of squash desserts (no joke) and was totally pumped when I read about it on Twitter earlier in the week. I’m totally happy eating pumpkin ice cream in July!

I chased down the truck to give it a try. It’s offered on either a liege or Brussels waffle, although the guys recommended trying it on the lighter and airier Brussels style since the liege might be a little too sweet. The warm waffle is topped with a maple pumpkin spread, two mounds of whipped cream, and pecans.

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Just got word that Urban Lobster Shack, our favorite cheap lobster roll spot in a basement food court, is now serving a lobster BLT! For those of you keeping score at home, that’s lobster, lettuce, tomato and a giant slice of bacon.  It’s $18 for dinner or delivery, but at lunch time you can score this bad boy for just $14.  I know it’s a little bit above our price range, but considering that there are bacon-less lobster rolls in Midtown that are more expensive, we had to let you know about it.

Urban Lobster Shack, 805 3rd Ave. (btw. 49+50th) in the Basement. 212-888-4242

Every Friday we go 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.

The other day, I was feeling under the weather and in need of some hot soup. After perusing various menus, I settled on Bao Noodles (on 2nd btw. 22+23rd), which Clay recommended back in August for their lunch specials. Unfortunately, I ordered this meal on Seamless, where apparently the lunch special is not offered (so long, free starter). But I settled on Saigon Style Egg Noodle Soup (Mi Saigon): egg noodles with slices of pork, squid, quail egg, shrimp, garlic, chives, and bean sprouts in chicken broth ($9.95).

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In case you missed it on Eater yesterday, our very own Blondie & Brownie scored a book deal this week!  The project is tentatively titled “New York ala Carte” and will be a “guide to the city’s gourmet food cart scene, with more than 60 recipes from New York’s top vendors.”  We don’t want to give away all the secrets, but I think it goes without saying that many of our favorite Midtown Lunch vendors will be highlighted (and you might see the names of a few more ML contributors popping up to help with the project.)  As the project starts to come together we’ll be sure to fill you guys in before anybody else, but for now you can get a few more details about the book over on their blog, and make sure to congratulate them in the comments.

Outside of doner kebabs, I don’t know a ton about Turkish food. That’s a shame because the last time I tried some was way back at Turkish Kitchen in Gramercy. So, when I saw in the forums that there was a Turkish stand in the Bryant Park holiday market, I decided to check it out.

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