Midtown Lunch

Thanks to Lunch’er Matthew for sending over this one. It looks like the Menchanko Tei on 45th Street (btw. Lex+3rd) has been closed by the Department of Health. Hopefully they’ll be able to fix things and re-open soon, but looking at their record on the DOH website isn’t exactly reassuring. Back in August they scored a 65, before addressing the issues and getting a re-score of 16. That didn’t last long though. In December they were back up to 52, before scoring a 5 on the re-grade two days later. Flash forward to Monday, and their pre-Valentine’s Day score was a whopping 83! It doesn’t say how they got the score, but hopefully it isn’t anything too gross…

Last month, we announced that Cafe Today was moving in next to Chipotle on 52nd between Lex and 3rd Ave. I erroneously thought it was a Portland chain (thanks, commenters, for your diligence), but it turns out it’s actually a huge generic-ish deli serving, well, basically everything under the sun. We’ve got (deep breath): a hot sandwich station, a cold sandwich station, a salad bar, panini counter, soups, hot buffet, cold buffet, custom teriyaki bowls, stir fry, udon noodle soup, sushi, bibimbap, dessert, and probably much more. It was extremely crowded for its grand opening, but can a place with this many options do everything well?

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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.

I took the opening of Lillie’s in Midtown as I sign that I should head to the original Lillie’s on 17th Street to try their $10 lunch special- the same special that’s $13 at the location on 49th btw. B’way+8th. (Sorry, Midtown Lunch’ers!) Did I also mention that the special includes a beer? Who isn’t a fan of a greasy pub lunch with a beer?

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This week, I got sucked in by Hale & Hearty’s advertising. They started serving Thai chicken soup, and in theory it sounded pretty good. They described it as “hot, spicy, smooth and sweet – it’s a just like a vacation on the beaches of Thailand.” I love Thai food … I love chicken soup … maybe, just maybe Hale & Hearty could pull off this combination?!  (I’m sure most of you know where this is going.)

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Thanks to Lunch’er Mike for sending over this one…

“On my way to B&H I passed by this new looking establishment, Zoob Zib (on 9th Ave. btw. 36+37th), which made me think either it was Ewok cuisine or Bill Cosby might be the executive chef. No web presence yet, but it had tables and chairs on the inside and looks very close to launch. It’s literally right next door to Aura Thai, whose previous reviews speak very true about their noodle soups but mediocre to good for their Thai food.”

Just what 9th Ave. needs… another Thai restaurant! Although we guess the “noodle bar” part is intriguing? As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know- and if any early adopters manage to make it there before we do when it opens, feel free to let us know how it is in the comments.

In a sea of overpriced gourmet grilled cheeses (see: Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C), it’s easy for us to roll our eyes at a new contender. But here’s the thing: a girl still gets a craving for a good grilled cheese and tomato soup combo every now and then, and she’s gotta get it somewhere. On a recent dreary day, I noticed that Pret has a new Grilled Cheese Toastie on the menu, and when I saw that one of the rotating daily soups that day was Tomato & Basil, I knew what I was having for lunch.

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Mexico Blvd, the truck we told you about last month, is attempting to park in Midtown today. As of 20 minutes ago they were parked on 40th & 6th. Also, Gorilla Cheese is on 55th & 6th, Crisp on Wheels and Big D’s are on 50th btw. 6+7th, Morris Grilled Cheese is on Park btw. 51+52nd, Valducci’s is on 52nd & Park, Seoul Food is on 50th btw. Park+Mad, Wafels & Dinges is on 46th btw. 5+6th, lunch is free at 4Food if you download the Level Up app, and Cer Te has chubby chinese girl sandwiches. As always you’ll want to check the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

As we reported back in September, west coast chain Wahoo’s Fish Taco is coming to Park Ave btw. 24+25th… not exactly Midtown Lunch range.  But it is a bonafied Flatiron Lunch, and we’re sure there are number of lunchers in Midtown proper who will make the trek for some tasty fish tacos.  So with that in mind, we are pleased to report that Wahoo’s is officially opening at on Monday, Feb 20th! Check out the menu after the jump…

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Eclairs at La Maison du Chocolat. Photo by Donny Tsang.

Donny photographed behind the scenes at La Maison du Chocolat for Serious Eats, Blondie celebrated Pancake Month at Clinton Street Bakery, while Brownie made her own profoundly cute pancakes at home, Brian got love advice from Allison & Matt Robicelli, Rachel had a frilly cupcake from Crumbs, Chris wrote some haiku about his trouble with Teleflora and I went on a tour of brunch spots around town.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Zach shared his 21 best lunches in Los Angeles, Jamie had a coconut-scented banh mi at Iron Tower in Philly and Andrea found a fancy meatball banh mi at Mooncake Foods in a lunch dead-zone Downtown.