When Leña Latin Grill opened up in June (on 35th btw. 5+6th), we pegged it as a “Latin Chipotle” (yes, South American would have made more sense) and comments were mixed. Since then I’ve stopped in several times and to be honest… I keep going back for more. See why after the jump.

As Mamacita pointed out in the comments of our first post about Leña, they use a wood-burning stove in the kitchen here. The Colombian chef, Ronny, worked under Mario Batali for years at Lupa and has high hopes for Leña to be a dinner spot as well, once they get their beer and wine license – and the scaffolding comes down from in front of the shop. Given the quality of the food, I think he’s on the right track.

On my initial visits, I tried out the wraps. First it was the steak ($8.95), then the grilled chicken ($7.75). Both of the meats are great, but I was underwhelmed by the wraps in general.

The wraps are so packed with lettuce and corn, it’s pretty much a bundle of salad, which might be your thing, but doesn’t get me too excited. The sauces, particularly the garlicky chimmichurri, do work well in the wraps, permeating the veggies and the meat, but still.

I gave up on the wraps after a while and have since stuck with the plate lunches which come with two sides and a good sized cut of meat. The fried chicken cutlet ($9.75) looked like it could be too dry when I got it, but had a juicy interior and a crispy shell that was very tasty.

The grilled chicken ($9.50) was similarly moist, and had nice char marks on it from the wood-burning grill in the back.

I ordered the side of coconut rice as an afterthought, but ended up absolutely loving it. Usually ‘coconut’ dishes have shavings that could very well be made from sawdust, but this rice had actual chunks of toasted coconut inside that really propelled the flavor throughout the dish.

If you don’t mind splurging outside of ML range, the steak is still a good deal. $12.25 gets you a skirt steak cooked to order with two sides. My only complaint with this particular meal was that the tostones were too dry and not salty enough for my taste, but I grew up with sweet plantains, so that may just be me.

Speaking of splurging, the juices are pricey at $4 each, but taste amazingly fresh and are so good I rarely manage to have any left before receiving my food. With flavors like mango, passion fruit, watermelon and guava, they are ridiculously refreshing.

Leña also offers fish and tofu as protein options for wraps, salads and plates, but despite my recent tofu revelations, I haven’t been tempted to try it out here.

The + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• It’s great to get some higher end Latin flavors than the steam trays at Tina’s and K Foods Pizza.
• Skirt Steak, cooked to order for lunch, is awesome. (And I don’t mind spending the extra couple of bucks)

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I want more from a wrap than a bundled salad.
• Those juices are expensive, but so good!
• Come to think of it… everything is a bit pricey

Lena Latin Grill, 34 W 35th St (btw. 5+6th)

Lena Latin Grill, the new South American lunch spot on 35th Street btw. 5+6th, will soon be serving Latin breakfast. Starting August 2nd from 7-10am, they’ll be offering empanadas, arepas, cafe con leche and more. Too bad they don’t serve that stuff through lunchtime!  Check out the menu after the jump.

Photo courtesy of meltingnoise

Pizza Rustico 2, 25 W 35th St (btw. 5+6th), 212-736-1114

I was really really into Lunch’er Jamie’s profile last Tuesday… but probably for different reasons than some of you. My interest was particularly piqued by the mention of her choice for “best Midtown Lunch” around: the special noodles with brown sauce at Hyo Dong Gak on 35th btw. 5+6th.

I’m a big fan of the craziness known as Korean/Chinese food, mostly for the jjajangmyeon (or “noodles with brown sauce” as it is called in English.) While usually a restaurant that serves multiple kinds of Asian foods under one roof is a big red flag, Korean Chinese food is a different animal.  It’s a hybrid cuisine with certain dishes you can only find at Korean Chinese food restaurants (like jjajangmyeon.) Most people consider Shanghai Mong (on 32nd btw. 5th+B’way) the go-to Korean Chinese food place in Koreatown. But with this kind of endorsement from Jamie, I knew I had to check out Hyo Dong Gak.

The weird thing is I had actually walked by Hyo Dong Gak the other day, and didn’t see noodles with brown sauce. Turns out I was looking at the wrong menu.

The trick is, they’ve got two menus: a typical Chinese food menu, with dishes like beef with broccoli and wonton soup, and a “Korean” menu. If you are white there’s a fifty fifty chance they’re going to automatically give you the standard “Chinese” food menu.

Once you end up with the Korean menu, there are three choices of noodles with brown sauce- actually there are four if you include the seafood version. I, of course, prefer the standard version, which has pork. I’m not exactly sure what the difference is between the three standard versions (there was a bit of a language barrier), but from what I could understand, they put a ton of raw onions into the “special” Peking sauce. So it has a stronger onion flavor. Maybe there is more meat as well? But I can’t be sure of that… and I’m also not sure why it’s $1 extra. As for the “Special Brown Special Peking sauce”, I have no clue what that’s all about. It may or may not be a combination of ground pork as well as chunks of pork (the “special” only has chunks.) If anybody knows, put it in the comments.

Anyway, Jamie recommended the special, so I ordered the special (to go). Ordering this kind of dish to go is probably a mistake, because by the time we made it to the outdoor seating area in Greeley Square (5th Ave. and 33rd) the noodles had kind of congealed into a block. Of course that problem is easily fixed once you pour the brown sauce over and do some serious mixing. It comes with kimchee and pickled yellow radish (standard) but according to Jamie, if you eat in- sometimes you have to ask for it (and by “you” I mean us white people.)

I can’t say for sure if it’s better than the version at Shanghai Mong, but it’s definitely good- and for $7.75 the price can’t be beat.  Decent amount of pork, love the onions, and a really good amount of food.

I met Danny from the blog Food in Mouth there, and he ordered the Szechuan style tofu with beef, off the lunch specials menu ($8.95).  A huge portion, it came with rice, kimchee, and pickled radishes as well.  He also asked for it extra extra spicy, and they certainly delivered.  I don’t know if it was as good as the Ma Po Tofu at Szechuan Gourmet (on 39th btw. 5+6th), but it was pretty damn close. All in all a great lunch, really good lunch prices for Koreatown- and a great option for jjajangmyeon. Just make sure you get the right menu.

THE +

• I love Korean Chinese food and am looking for a new option besides Shanghai Mong
• Great version of jjajangmyeon (nooodles with brown sauce)
• Lunch specials for under $10 can be hard to find in sit down Koreatown restaurants

THE -

• I like Korean food.  I like Chinese food.  Keep them seperate!
• The noodles with brown sauce is not made to travel
• If you are white, sometimes you get the wrong menu- and have to ask for the kimchee

Hyo Dong Gak, 51 W. 35th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-695-7167