Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of @ronwechsler

In what should be a surprise to nobody, the line for King of Falafel & Shawarma Express’ first day in Midtown has been a long one. The good news is, Freddy himself is there and serving up shawarma (in addition to his award winning falafel). The bad news? Two of his guys didn’t show up for work, and Freddy admitted he wasn’t ready for the onslaught. (Nobody ever is!) As of 1pm, the wait was a little over 40 minutes. Did you brave the opening day lines? Let us know what you thought in the comments.

Last week, Rachel announced the March specials at Certe and Pizza by Certe. This month’s pizza comes topped with spicy lamb meatballs, fava beans, goat cheese and sautéed minted cherry tomatoes. Certe, you had me at spicy lamb meatballs…but clinched it with goat cheese. Everything seems great on paper, but did the execution stack up?

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We don’t normally post anything on the weekends, but this news is so big we just couldn’t wait on it… Remember when we told you a few weeks back that Vendy Award Winner Freddy (aka the King of Falafel) would be bringing the food that Astoria residents rave about to Manhattan with the launch of his second cart. He was just hush hush on the exact date and location. Well, the time has finally come and it turns out all our campaigning paid off! Instead of testing the waters in the FiDi or Soho, the “King of Falafel & Shawarma Express” is coming straight to us in Midtown. He plans to set up the cart starting tomorrow (Monday) on 53rd and Park. He’ll only be serving falafel to start off with, but based on the menu he posted to his new Facebook page, the cart will be offering his delicious shawarma soon enough.  Let’s get out there with a warm welcome and show him he made the right decision by choosing Midtown lunchers as his royal subjects.

Of course first days in Midtown can always be a crapshoot, so you’ll probably want to check his twitter or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

UPDATE: Scratch that part about only falafel… it looks Freddy brought the shawarma today! Check out the menu after the jump.

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Photo courtesy of Leslie Albrecht/DNAinfo

• Goat seen eating at a Midtown pizzeria… [DNAinfo]
• … and apparently it’s not the first time the goat’s been in Midtown [Daily Intel]
• Get 57% off 12 year old Profiled Luncher David’s book [KGB Deals]
• The Rock Center Blue Bottle is very close to opening [Eater]
• Who eats Lazzara’s with a knife and fork!? [SENY]
• Are you scamming your boss using Seamless? [Fast Company via Eater]

A belated Happy Purim to those who celebrated! A side trip to Grand Central yesterday revealed that Chocolate Hamantaschen are back. At $3.25 each, they don’t come cheap, but they are sizable (and sharable, I suppose). Zaro’s also sells the more traditional apricot, prune and poppy hamantaschen, but the chocolate ones have always been my favorite, the cookie part is like a light, slightly lemony shortbread and the filling has a similarly shortbready texture but it’s nice and chocolately. Even though Purim has ended, the lady at Zaro’s in Grand Central promised they would have these today.

Back in August, Brian posted about Comme Ci, Comme Ça Truck’s new tilapia special. At the time the dish was served “over a bed of greens and soft rotini pasta, that’s been tossed with cherry tomatoes, black olives, fresh basil, and crispy pieces of cooked tuna fish” and was decidedly Mediterranean in flavor. Brian had hoped that maybe one day it might be available over couscous or rice. Well, that day has come! Read more »

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.

If you’re like me, you are constantly looking for good Mexican food that falls in the happy middle ground between:

1. Overpriced and obnoxiously nuevo Mexican

2. $5 Nacho Places. You know the ones…nothing over $5, all have the word Taco in the title. Taco King, Super Taco, Fresh Taco, New Taco, New Fresh Taco, Taco Express, Taco Taco, Taco Bandito (actually, that last one has caught my eye, perhaps just because the name is fun to say, but if it is any good, you might see it here on Flatiron Lunch in the future.)

3. Chain fast-food Mexican.

But if reasonably priced, quality Mexican food, is what you’re looking for than you might want to check out Rocking Horse Café.

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