Midtown Lunch

Now that we’re starting to return to normal eating here in Midtown, I finally made it to the Bryant Park Holiday Shops last week, which had closed for a time due to Sandy but are back open once again. On my initial walk around the park, I was surprised to find that Crepe Cafe, which I would assume to be a pretty self-explanatory booth, also offered a menu of Asian noodles. So, I changed my eating plans (I had been anticipating a lovely savory crepe) and decided to check out the potentially bizarre. Actually, it ended up being a very healthy portion of food in the end, and a fairly decent bowl of noodles on a cold day.

Still bewildered at the idea of ordering noodles at a crepe joint, I stared at the menu for longer than usual. Finally, I ended up ordering the Japanese curry potato noodle soup ($8.25).

The amount of food you receive is pretty massive — a much taller container than anything I’ve seen in Midtown. I tried leaning my chopsticks against the container for scale, but I don’t think it really gets the point across as well as I had hoped.

The nicely chewy Chinese noodles sat at the bottom of the container, topped with assorted veggies and thick Japanese curry with potatoes. Broth then filled the container up to the brim. Don’t expect this dish to be a typical thick Japanese curry, a la Go Go Curry — this is still a soupy noodle dish so the curry becomes more of a soup flavoring than a sauce. Hearty and pretty tasty, the curry noodles weren’t the best noodles I’ve ever had, but they definitely hit the spot on a cold day. That said, next time I hit up Crepe Cafe, I think I’m going to go for the crepes, as planned.

Bryant Park Holiday Shops, http://theholidayshopsatbryantpark.com/