Midtown Lunch

Roast pork from El Sabroso. Photo courtesy of Tien Mao/Gothamist

• People are still discovering El Sabroso every day [Gothamist]
• A Nutella truck will be in Midtown this weekend giving out free samples [Gothamist]
• Ramen Takumi is coming to Midtown East [Grub Street]
• Ivan Orkin eats in the Grand Central food court!? [Eater]
• Your guide to drinking at Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant [Eater]
• Eggstravaganza makes a great grilled cheese with Chorizo [SENY]

When I first heard via Fork in the Road that Boomer Esiason had decided to try his hand at the restaurant business, good old next door neighbor Guy Fieri was busy completely and utterly overshadowing the former Jets player Esiason in the media and blogosphere. Although I’m never first in line at restaurants where celebs use their star power to draw in crowds (lame!) I figured since I didn’t even know who Boomer Esiason was, that it would be OK. Plus, Blondie wrote a review nearly two years ago about the former Times Square Bowlmor Lanes (44th btw. 7 + 8) bar before Boomer took over, and I thought I would investigate to see how it had changed.

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I must be honest and admit my Meatless Monday adventures have turned into more of a meatless-one-meal-a-week kind of thing as of late. With all this talk about rising meat prices thanks to the Midwest drought… and now rumors of a worldwide bacon shortage surfacing (oh horror of horrors!), I’ve been meatin’-it-up wherever the opportunity arises and with no shame. Maybe I shouldn’t believe the hype… but I keep buying roast beef cold cuts in place of my usual cheese snacks just in case it all gets too expensive, so that blows my meatless days to smithereens. That said, I’m still trying to get a vegetarian meal in my belly here and there for some food variety. And we also gotta give some ML love to Lunch’ers like LuxeSmurf, and others who are looking for vegetarian options from time to time.

I had heard rumors a month ago via Gothamist (who reported from the Zagat blog) about a Zen Palate opening in Midtown. This vegetarian restaurant has had rough times with closures in the past, but still seemed to have a decent following. I checked out the online menu to see if Zen Palate’s prices are under the ML price threshold of $10. Some soups and sandwiches made the cut… but I was skeptical and frankly really scurred after I encountered some serious snark about Zen Burger from way back when, which was a short-lived Midtown offshoot from the same folks.

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Yesterday, we received word from a Lunch’er via twitter that Yagura, hailed as the best deal among the Japanese grocers on 41st between 5th and Madison and a favorite of Midtown Lunchers, is closing TODAY. In deep confusion and sadness we must ask with urgency, What is the meaning of this? Our source says Yagura will be closing indefinitely, and it sounds like it could be lease issues although we don’t know for sure. In this short time frame we’re drawing upon our readers to shed any light on the situation, as this could possibly be the last day of Yagura awesomeness for a while, or perhaps forever! Any tips, inside knowledge, or dirty rumors would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: It appears as if the news is true.  Check out the sign after the jump…

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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.

So last spring, I couldn’t help but spend every day of Mad. Sq. Eats’ opening week stuffing my face with a multitude of dishes. This past week, I have spent a good amount of quality time at the market, but I found that with only a handful of newcomers and the overall prices have prevented me from really going to town. But I gave it my best shot! And now I am going to hit you with it.

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It looks like Burger Joint is the only Midtown Lunch spot having a celebration on Monday.  Go Go Curry (on 38th btw. 7+8th) will celebrate having 55 locations worldwide by offering a single size katsu pork curry plate for just $5.50.  Plus all customers will get free topping coupons every day of the celebration (although you can’t use them on the $5.50 pork katsu curry special.)  The whole thing starts on Monday (October 1st) and goes until the 15th.

Kim’s Aunt Kitchen (or Kim’s Aunt Kitche according to their sign) on 46th and 6th has been well covered by Midtown Lunch over the years. It’s one of those spots I’ve been dying to go, but I was waiting until there was ample time since the last article. Clay stopped by earlier this year, but since it has been several months and my friend really wanted to try it, I thought I would join her and write a post to remind Lunch’ers about the cart.

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After taking a comment walloping in my overuse of “authentic” (which, after hopeful negotiations, I will replace with proper qualifiers of opinion/experience as applicable from here on out) in a review of Taco Bite’s Mexican fare (which is authentic in my opinion – is that better?) I figure I may as well stick to things that by definition defy authenticity to avoid the verbo-sociological pitfalls therein. Hence, when Domo Taco, which I liked but other contributors, not so much, announced on their Twitter feed that they were bringing in kimchi tempura tacos, I could think of no better opportunity to continue down the great altar of Comida Mexicano-japonésa at their latest visit to 38th and Broadway. This time, Taco Bite wasn’t there to cause a block war to break out. Are we looking at a new paradigm of fusion (“Sure, guys, let’s go for four distinct nationalities – Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Korean”) or a mad scientist’s cobbled-together nightmare?

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Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (We’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Totally not kosher wonton soup at Ho Yip downtown. Photo by Andrea.

Clay headed up to Harlem to photograph cuchifritos for Edible, Brian’s surrendered on his search for the best local beer, Brownie made funnel cake at home while I ate a roasted pig at Hurricane Club, and I bet you $10 Rachel is wishing she had another plate of roasted chicken right now (keep up the faith, the sun’s almost down!)

Elsewhere in the ML universe…Andrea found out you get a mixed bag of wontons in your soup from Ho Yip downtown, Jamie tried Philly’s Lil Dan’s truck’s new creation: Oreo-crusted chicken, and Zach came out about LA’s lunch shortcomings.