Midtown Lunch

Last summer we spotted construction on 43rd street for Crave Sandwiches, and now the sandwich (and salad) spot is open for business. The menu is divided into classic and traditional sandwiches — which seems kind of redundant, if you ask me — but all of these substantially-sized sandwiches are under $10.

The interior is extremely clean and inviting, with most of the ingredients out in the open for customers to ogle over. I found it difficult to choose which of the many sandwiches to try first, but I finally settled on the crispy chicken ($7.50).

The breaded chicken breast is shaved thinly with fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, onions and balsamic. Served on french bread, this and most sandwiches on the menu can be upgraded to a hero for an extra dollar. I made the mistake of having mine toasted, assuming the bread would warm the other ingredients and slightly melt the mozzarella. In reality, on my walk back to work, the bread only hardened. So, I suggest not toasting the french bread if you’re returning to the office to eat. Besides that one misstep, the sandwich was very tasty.

The pastrami sandwich ($7) comes on rye with New York pastrami, Swiss and brown mustard. I upgraded to the hero, which made it $8. Unlike most delis in the area, the meat was like ribbons, extremely thinly sliced. Still, I’d call the sandwich average.

Although I didn’t have the most fantastic experience thus far, the reviews elsewhere have been pretty good. Midtown Lunch’er Spaghetti Betty wrote this in the comments of a previous posts:

It’s open! And delicious. You can tell they paid a lot of attention to detail using fresh meats and beautiful breads. I literally almost had an eney-meney-mino-mo moment before placing my order, everything looked so good! I paid $9 for a sandwich I’ll eat for 2 days!

The reviews on Yelp so far have also been positive. Any other early adopters have something to say? Maybe certain ‘wiches are better than others.

Crave Sandwiches, 1120 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd St.