Lobster Roll Sliders, from The Volstead’s Free Lunch (Every Tuesday in May)

• In anticipation of the Free Lunch at the Volstead, Lawrence posts about a Dinner he had there [NYC Food Guy]
• You snooze you lose. This Midtown Lunch fan missed out on the free lunch…  [C.O.A.S.S.]
• … but this one managed to snag a reservation, and post photos of her lunch[Grace is Full]
• Jay Z Gets Special Treatment at the Midtown Pop Burger [Eater]
• Big Bowl Noodles is Not as Good as Szechuan Gourmet [Food in Mouth]
• The Line at the Treats Truck this week almost overtook the Kwik Meal Cart! [Blondie & Brownie]

In the comments today about Indus Express, the fairly new Indian “Deli” on 48th btw. 5+6th:

Zach - you missed the really ass-kicking deal at Indus Express. At the front of their store they have a sign for “All you can eat buffet.” Last night my friend and I inquired, and to our great joy, the buffet consists of ALL of their meat and veggie curries, PLUS naan, for $8.99 (it’s not a self serve buffet, but who freaking cares). The guy who seemed to run the place said that deal was available anytime, any day. Service was great, food was excellent, and the price really is phenomenal for what you’re getting. And I didn’t even make it to the chaat or the naan-rolls yet…

I managed to contain my excitement enough to call up Indus Express and confirm that they do have an $8.99 buffet special, but it is only M-F after 4pm, and all day on the weekends.  Eat in only (obviously) and you’re allowed to take as much as you want from the steam table (including pakoras and samosas).  I’m bummed that it’s not for lunch, but still a great deal if you need a big (but cheap) dinner after work, or you’re stuck in the office on the weekends.

Indus Express, 48 W. 48th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-221-7952

Related Posts:

• Snapshots: For those about to chaat…
• First Look: City Market Cafe Becomes Indus Express Serves Giant Kati Rolls

Making Downtown office workers jealous is something this blog has been doing for awhile now. To even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food), and seems to be particularly fond of Chinatown (my dream lunch location).  This week Daniel hits up one of the best deals in the city… the $1 Jumbo Hot Dog on Canal St. in Chinatown.  Coincidentally enough, the same little stand popped up on Ed Levine Eats Wednesday- leaving me to wonder if there is something in the air causing bloggers to crave giant Chinatown weiners… 

The price of food is going up everywhere, but there are still good deals to be had in this city. If you happen to have spent your last $15 on a bootleg Gucci bag, or on a Fung Wah Bus ticket to Boston, you can probably still scrounge together a buck, which in Chinatown will get you one HUGE hotdog. If you’re near the entrance of the Manhattan bridge, you can find this window located at 149 Canal street next to what else… a Pawn Shop.  Read more »

The “Boulangerie” attached to Brasserie Cognac, a 3 week old, mid-scale French restaurant from the owners of Serafina, is now open- and as promised, they are selling rotisserie chicken to go, at lunchtime. *Sigh* rotisserie chicken. Is there anything you can’t do? I am no history-ologist, but this is how I imagine rotisserie chicken was invented. A really really really long time ago, somebody took a chicken, and held it over a fire for awhile. And it was good. And all was right with the world.

Then, for some reason, and who knows how or why (but thankfully it happened), another guy said, “What it we take that same chicken, cover it in egg and flour, and drop it into this incredibly hot oil.” And he did. And what came out, was pure magic. Nobody had any reason to eat that other kind of chicken anymore. Why bother? (Nobody cared about being healthy when all this was going on.) This newfangled “fried chicken” was the greatest invention in the history of man. (Yes- better than even the wheel, whose sole purpose, as far as I can tell, is to get us from our homes, to somewhere where we can buy fried chicken.)

So then, the original guy, who put the chicken over the fire (I’m sure he was still alive, or maybe it was one of his great grand-kids), was like “Nobody is eating my chicken anymore! I’ve got to come up with something better! What if I stacked all the chickens on top of each other, and then, as they cooked over the fire, all the chicken fat from the top chickens will drip down onto the ones below. Then, we’ll turn this whole contraption (with that wheel thing mentioned before), so the grease, and fat will just keep moving from chicken to chicken.” And that is why fried chicken isn’t the only chicken we eat today.  Oh to be alive when these magical things happened in our worlds history!

And now, you can get a slightly overpriced, Midtown version, on Broadway btw. 55+56th.  Read more »

At the end of March, there was a little bit of craziness when the owners of Abitino’s Pizza opened City Burger on 39th & Broadway, serving patties made with meat from Pat LaFrieda’s, the much praised butcher who supplies the Shake Shack with their beef. It also helped that the place popped up in a particularly burger starved part of the Midtown Lunch’ing landscape. Crowds were large, wait times were long, and the result, was a not so happy Midtown Lunch’ing public (although Lauren over at AHT called it a “decent burger for the neighborhood“). As with any new place, judging them on day 2 is a huge disservice (especially when they’re slammed), but after 5 weeks it doesn’t look like much has improved. This was posted yesterday in the comments:

I tried the newly openend City Burger on 1410 Broadway at 39th street. I ordered a cheesburger with the works - cooked medium and an order of Onion rings. Total cost was $10.95. Cheeseburger was overcooked and dry. Onion rings were cold and burnt. This place is awful for food. I will never go there again. Also - the wait for ordering is about 15 -20 minutes for an overcooked, burnt and cold food. I would not recommend this food establishment to anyone.

You may notice some other comments referring to City Burger as “the best burger”, but suspiciously they all came from the same computer, despite different names. (We don’t take kindly to shilling here…) How long do you give a place to get their act together before writing it off? I *really* wanted to have a place where I could get some buffalo wings with a hamburger!  If you had a good experience at City Burger, and your IP address doesn’t match “Mario’s” or “Ashley’s”, post about it in the comments below.

Despite reports saying that Hallo Berlin Express (9th btw 50+51st) will not open until lunch tomorrow, they are saying everything is ready to go and it may open today sometime after 4pm. Anybody up for an afterwork beer and brat? If the answer is yes, check back here this afternoon, and I’ll confirm as soon as the first sausage comes off the line…