Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of Ramen & Friends

• Who could say no to a $9 lunch special at Uncle Vanya’s [Ramen & Friends]
• Luke Lobster and No 7 Sub are great additions to Todd English’s Food Hall [RG]
• Midtown Lunch’er Crazy Legs Conti reviews Guy’s American Kitchen [Grub St.]
• A look at wichcraft’s new fall sandwiches [SENY]
• Are people clamoring to make Virgil’s wings at home? [Fork in the Road]
• Biryani Cart makes one of the 30 best vegetarian sandos in NYC [SENY]

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 was meeting some colleagues for drinks last week, and the only criterion I had regarding locale was that it needed to be in or around Koreatown. I threw out a few options, including Kirakuya (32nd btw. Broadway and 5th), a Japanese sake bar also serving lunch, that Clay spotted in 2010. (He did a great write up on lunch there shortly thereafter, might I add.) One of my buddies mentioned she hadn’t been to a sake bar in a while, so Kirakuya seemed to be the obvious choice.

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Rio & You, a Japanese spot just out of bounds on west 45th street that has been in the neighborhood for a number of years, was mentioned in the comments of the Mark Bittman post a few weeks ago. I’d never eaten there, because the lunch specials are expensive, but the other day on my way to Schmackary’s I stopped to look at the menu outside and saw a number of regular dishes seemingly in budget. Ramen (or, “Larmen,” as it is written on the menu)? Udon? Donburi? Well, if you insist!

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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.

Not being able to attend the Yom Kippur break the fast I was invited to this year left me craving whitefish salad on bagel. It’s a combo I love, but don’t think to get unless it is placed in front of me. I remembered previously walking by a Kosher bagel cafe in the Flatiron, so I decided to take care of the craving. (Hey! You, reader, about to type, “Whitefish salad??? Are you kidding me?” in the comments section, don’t bother. We can agree to disagree on whitefish salad.)

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Do you have time during your lunch break for a six course meal?? Well, Chinese Mirch has challenged you to try with a new dine-in lunch menu. At $9.99 for vegetarian and chicken dishes (a total of 15 options, including Clay and Jason’s chicken hot garlic and chili cheese gravy from 2010), and $10.99 for seafood and lamb options. It might be worth taking an extended lunch. Don’t ignore the $10.99 options yet either. Chinese Mirch is offering a free meal after you eat seven…amortized over all your meals, all choices are now in budget! What does the six courses consist of? The special includes the soup of the day, appetizer of the day (vegetarian or non-vegetarian), choice of salad or bhel, two hand-rolled steamed or fried momos, choice of entrée, choice of steamed rice and dessert of the day. (I count seven courses if you include the rice. Am I right?) Considering Clay’s meal cost only $5.95 but only included entrée and rice, the new special seems more than generous to me.

If you can’t manage a leisurely six course lunch, don’t despair. Chinese Mirch also has a modified take out lunch box without the salad/bhel and dessert courses for $8.99 for vegetable or chicken, and $9.99 for lamb or seafood. Still very reasonable.

Chinese Mirch, 120 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street, (212) 532-3663

Out there in the Midtown Lunch readership, we hope that there are some of you who are involved in the restaurant industry (and if there are, can someone drop at least one food truck on 34th and 9th? Thanks in advance) and in this turbulent industry where something like 4 out of 5 new restaurants fail each year, there’s always room for improvement. Food Network is running an open casting call for restaurant owners and general managers to appear on a new TV show. Are you lamenting your fate and reading Midtown Lunch simultaneously? Reach out to Jessica Wendelborn (jwendelborn@magilla.tv) with your name, contact details, business name and location. They want to “help” with the assistance of a “well known celebrity restaurateur,” so you could end up with a famous British shouter as easily as Daniel Bouloud.

My unsolicited advice for your failing restaurant would be to retool it into a ramen shop or izakaya and Skycrane yourself over to 35th, but I’m sure that the Food Network viewership would love to see your suffering get turned around in a TV-friendly manner. Anyone gonna take them up on this? Feel free to spread the word!

Like so many seasonal pleasures, the Hot Soup Carts are back… or at least the one on 45th and 5th… is back in Midtown (are there more, or is this the same one moving around?). I’ve noticed the mixed reviews from both contributors and Lunchers about Hot Soup, I had the opportunity to taste a few of the soups this week.

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We don’t spend much time on this site talking about salads (sorry I even said the word), but many people in Midtown seem to like the green stuff. Case in point: a new Chop’t location is opening on 40th Street near Park Avenue. This will be Midtown’s sixth location and the only good news we think that can come from it is that when they finally do open, they usually offer a day of free salads. Free makes everything better, no?

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

Brownie gives us a look at past Burmese food she’s had at the Myanmar Baptist Church Food Fair. This year’s fest is coming up this weekend.

Brian completed his third and final year going through Time Out NY’s 100 Best dishes in New York, Rachel played hooky and had brunch at home, Blondie had fancy desserts at Gotham Bar and Grill, Brownie is heading to Queens this weekend to explore Burmese foodat The Myanmar Baptist Food Fair and I am planning another trip down to South America.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Andrea is psyched that pasteles have returned to the menu at Sandra’s Food Spot Cart downtown, Jamie checked out Asian fusion tacos in Philly and Zach perused the three new stone pot bibimbaps at Jeon Ju in Los angeles.