Midtown Lunch

When it gets hot outside, I get in the mood for really hot, spicy curry. It might sound counterintuitive that eating spicy food cools you off. For all I know, it might even be a myth. I just use it as an excuse to eat more peppers. So when I passed by Curry Dreams (39th btw. 5th + 6th) where Zach tried back in 2008 when it was Curry Dream, and I saw that they had a $4.95 lunch box special, I thought I’d give it a shot. I mean, you can’t beat $4.95 for a Midtown lunch, right?

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If you missed out on the Rock Center restaurant days in May, no worries, you have another chance tomorrow. Tuesday, July 10 through Thursday, July 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Rock Center restaurants will set up tables with special lunch offerings on Rockefeller Plaza, 49th and 50th Streets between 5th and 6th Avenues.  Participating restaurants include Bouchon Bakery, Tri Tip Grill, Bill’s Bar & Burger, Ben & Jerry’s, Del Frisco’s Grille, Morrell Wine Bar & Café, Harry’s Italian Pizza Parlor, Godiva Chocolatier, The Sea Grill, Blue Bottle Coffee, Rock Center Café, Brasserie Ruhlmann and Magnolia Bakery. As in years past, ‘wichcraft, is offering up a special signature sandwich for the event, this year it’s a shrimp salad on a buttered potato roll.

I guess there are very few trendy restaurants in Midtown because it seems like all the new hot spots around the city that are vaguely under $25 made NYMag’s cut on their annual Cheap Eats issue and barely any are in Midtown. It should really be called Cheap(ish) Eats (That Opened Within the Last Year or Two and Are Already Hugely Popular).  Sure, we got the inclusion of Don Antonio’s $23 (!) racchetta pizza, an interview with Danji chef Hooni Kim, a mention of the steamed buns on Oceana’s bar menu and Ma Peche’s lobster bun, but the only place we get real true cheap love (I’m talking the under $10 type) is with the $.75 cent slice from 2 Bros. Pizza, a pretzel from a cart on 43rd and Sixth, and street meat from La Baguette Café truck in the section where Adam Platt rates dirt cheap food. This is what we do all year long, thank you very much!

Check out the entire Eat Cheap issue over on New York Magazine’s website>>

I love walking by Blarney Stone everyday just to read all their handwritten specials on the chalkboards. Most of the time they’re just regular old pub foods like chicken tenders, sliders and their “Midtown best” burger. Though sometimes, you spot something out of the ordinary that’s worth checking out. One time I saw fish and chips and just few days ago I saw jerk chicken. Yes jerk chicken, from an Irish pub in Midtown. I had already gotten my lunch on that day, so I had to pass on trying their version of the jerk chicken, which I totally regret. So when I walked by the pub the other day and saw Shang Hai Japanese Chicken as a special I knew I couldn’t resist…

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I started loving tamales when I worked in Corona, Queens, near Tortilleria Nixtamal. The folks there use the traditional nixtamalization process on their corn and make their own masa dough (the dough used to make tamales, tortillas, and other fun stuff) right in front of you! By the way, they now have a smaller downtown location, Nixtamalito, and they also provide ingredients to the food trucks Mexico Blvd and Kimchi Taco, according to their website. I used to have lunch there 2-3 times a week sometimes, and I really missed my tamales!

So I’ve been jonesin’ for some tamales, no lie. They’re cheap, tasty, and very filling–think 6 bucks to feel like you have big ol’ corn brick in your belly. But I hadn’t seen many places around midtown. But one day I looked through the window of Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine (the one between 45th St btw 5th + 6th) and I noticed they had some corn husk wrapped tamales for sale! So I grabbed a few of what I now know is a Cuban-style tamale.

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Fried Pizza from Don Antonio. Photo courtesy of Ramen & Friends.

• Don Antonio’s pizza is so good [Ramen & Friends]
• Steak N Shake is good because it’s cheap [Food in Mouth]
• Grand Central Oyster Bar is getting a makeover [Crain’s via Eater]
• A look at the Munchie Mobile Truck [SENY]
• Shake Shack makes one of the ten best hot dogs in NYC [Gothamist]
• Bouchon Bakery is one of the ten best pastry shops in NYC [Fork in the Road]
• Go Burger is now serving a sriracha milkshake!? [Fork in the Road]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts 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.

I’d like to tell you about my pleasant experience at Gabby O’Hara’s (39th btw 6th + 7th) since it doesn’t look like it’s been covered. That may be because “happy hour is all day every day” according to the bartender with $5 domestic drafts, $6 imports, $6 wines, and cocktails starting at $8… I know, I know, not shockingly good deals, but also not gonna break the bank compared to other Manhattan prices.

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For anyone who’s a fan of Eddie’s Pizza Truck, I wanted to send out a reminder that they’ll be in Midtown by the New York Public Library on 40th and 5th on Fridays, coinciding with the library’s new Lunch Hour NYC exhibit. I’ve worked in Midtown since April, and I had never seen the truck around. According to their website, they’re mostly hanging out downtown or in the Upper West Side these days, but they usually make it to Midtown on 46th between 5th and 6th on Wednesdays. Last week, I took my break to check out the exhibit, which has a lineup of food trucks outside that rotate daily as part of the experience. I hit them up since I’d never gotten a chance to try their “bar pies” before.

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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.

Hey there lunchers, Sarah’s out of town this week, so I took a trip down to my old stomping grounds to see what’s new in the old Flatiron bounds. Sarah had mentioned a new truck, Comida Mexicana that she hadn’t checked out yet, so I decided to see what it’s all about.

When I came across it on 28th street, I realized it was just around the corner from the delicious options at both the no name cart on 6th Avenue and the hidden Korean/Mexican gem that is New York Bakery. I got excited. If this truck was nearly as tasty and I testing as those two places, I was in for a great meal.

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