If you’re paying under $10 for steak, you’d expect to get a not so tender piece here and there. But apparently Tri Tip Grill, the “best thing in [the] Rock Center” concourse, doesn’t operate like that. From Lunch’er “John”

Hey guys–

I normally don’t do anything like this but figured you might be interested since I remember reading a good review of the Tri Tip Grill in Rock Center about a month back (the reason I tried it in the first place, actually).

I work in the area and have gone a few times, just getting the usual thin-sliced sandwich, because after all who can resist a delicious steak sammich on fresh bread? Anyway, went this past Monday with a few friends and tried the Roadhouse Buck, which is thick-sliced with bleu cheese, fried onions, the whole deal. Looked awesome.

Only problem was, I got a super-tough piece of meat that was impossible to cut with a knife, let alone chew. Too lazy to bring it back but just not lazy enough to type for 30 seconds, I fired off an email saying just how sad it was to look at such a beautiful and sweet-smelling sandwich but not be able to eat it. I wasn’t even expecting a response back.

But instead I got this:

John,

My name is Dave and I am the owner. I can’t tell you how awful this makes me feel. You definitely had one of the rare bad experiences at our store, and I want to make it up to you. Can I bring you lunch tomorrow to your office on us? Usually, if there is something bad like this going on with our meat we catch it and it never makes it out the door. I can promise that this is an extremely rare occurrence, and it will not happen again. If I can bring you lunch tomorrow, I can hopefully help to prove this to you.

We care deeply about our guests and want them to have the best possible experience. If you let me know where you are, I will gladly bring you a roadhouse buck and a couple of other goodies.

Thank you very much for writing to us, hearing about problems and the rarer negative experiences allows us to continue to improve to provide our guests with only the best experiences. Please accept our apologies!

Dave Kassling

So now the owner is delivering sandwiches for me and a few of my co-workers today. Pretty awesome customer service (to the point that I’m willing to shill on their behalf). -John

Tender, delicious, steak sandwiches… or your next lunch is free?! It’s like win win… until somebody lies for the free food, and they stop responding to their emails.

Related:
Tri Tip Grill May Be The Best Thing in Rock Center

Following yesterday’s post about Jamie excellent falafel building technique at Maoz, Lunch’er “Chunk” chimed in with this comment:

“I haven’t been able to go back to Maoz since I observed the following a couple of weeks ago. As I was waiting for my bowl of balls, I noticed that a guy who seemed to be an off-duty employee, or at least a friend of the employees, was engaged in some major double dipping. I mean, he would take a bite and then go back to the bar, get more fixins, and then use the tongs to tamp them down on the just munched part of his pita. The on-duty employee definitely noticed.”

“Anyone else seen this kind of thing? My Israeli friends tell me this is standard practice, which to me is neither here nor there.”

If that’s “standard practice” I need to move to Israel! I feel like the Midtown location (on 40th and 7th) is way too small to allow for this kind of thing… but the Philly location looked huge. What do you guys think? Is falafel bar topping double dipping an acceptable (possibly fundamental) right, or gross misuse of the communal tongs? Let us know in the comments.

Related:
Maoz Tastes Good, But Proves That The Best Falafel Pita is Built By Professionals

After I posted about the not so great $5 burrito I had at Mi Nidito last month (on 8th Ave. btw. 51+52nd), I got this email from Lunch’er Jill sticking up for them.

We had our office Christmas party at Mi Nidito a few weeks ago. I had suggested the place to my coworkers because, since Chipotle moved in next door, I have been worried that the restaurant would close and I wanted to provide some financial support. As I was sitting with the group, I glanced over at the bar and noticed a guy waiting for his takeout order. Wait, is that Zach from midtownlunch.com? It couldn’t be. He never eats here. Well, apparently it was you, waiting for your not-very-good food.

I was so sad to read your piece about Mi Nidito. (especially the face that Chipotle is having such an impact). I thought maybe since Mi Nidito served drinks their happy hour would tide them over financially. Apparently not. As a long time fan I have to suggest a few dishes that I think are really great and you should try sometime.

The chicken tortilla vegetable soup, PKs black bean soup, beef flautas, the santa fe burrito. The soups are especially good. I was wondering, too, why at some restaurants you try just one entree before writing a review, and at other places you try multiple dishes. Is there a formula for that or does it just depend how hungry you are at the time?

Thanks for the email Jill.  At all the restaurants I eat at, I utilize an ordering algorithm that is so complex I couldn’t even begin to explain it to you. Unless you are an M.I.T grad who also graduated from medical school with a degree in gastroenterology. You literally need to be that good.

In the case of Mi Nidito, nobody had ever recommended anything to me… and I was just super curious about the $5 burrito lunch special. So I bought it, and wrote about it. Now that I have some recommendations, I’ll have to go back with a team of “experts” (aka fatties) and test out the rest of the stuff. Anybody else have any thoughts about Mi Nidito? Feel free to post them in the comments…

After I proclaimed Aura Thai’s duck soup one of the best in Midtown last week, Lunch’er MikeNYC pointed something out in the comments that is hard for me to deny:

It’s strange: If one were to go by this site alone, one would think soup is pretty much an asian food. Try clicking on that food type “soup” link above. The resulting stories skew about 80% or more to asian soups. (I made up that ratio, but it’s a high number) That is not even close to the asian/non-asian ratio of soup sales or consumption, based solely on casual observation in places I go. Which is my long winded way of bitching about the lack of non-asian soup coverage on ML. BTW, anyone got a good chicken pot pie soup near rock center? Bistro does a good one, but not every day. Also, burning question: Pot pie soup – bits o’crust, or no? Maybe I should take it to the forum….

You are so right.  I’m completely prejudiced again non-Asian soups, and it’s not right.  Although, in my defense, a bowl of ramen or udon seems more like a full meal than anything you could get from Hale & Hearty.  Chicken pot pie soup does sound good…  so, I’ll do it!  My next 5 soup posts will be non Asian.  Got any suggestions for me?

Related:
Lunch’er Grace Reports: The Ultimate Midtown Soup List

Last week somebody posted about the price hike at Sophie’s Cuban in the forums, and the comments lit up with general complaints about the Peruvian owned Cuban chain.  From the sound of things, the once great Latin food mainstay might be losing a step at its remaining few locations…

From mkim1206:

funny you mentioned Sophie’s.  I went for the first time yesterday and ordered their cuban sandwich. it was pre made in the fridge. anyway, it was one of the worst thing i ate in a while.  The pork was dry as hell and there was no flavor what so ever.  I was so disappointed.

But wait… there’s more.

From tyler:

I will second that Sophie’s has gone downhill…I used to go 2-3 times a week for the ML Sandwich challenge entry, as well as oxtails, spicy chicken, pork chops, and their various stews. However, I’ve had more than a couple mediocre meals there in the last few weeks. It’s disappointing, and I hope the owners can take their eyes off of the $$$ and focus a bit more on their food quality again…

From mghu777:

You aren’t the only one. My first cuban from there was slightly above average, but the pickle was paper thin. He made it in front of me though. I just got lunch from there and the rice and beans pre mix tastes really odd. It has a slight minty taste to it that I didn’t notice from the times before. The register girl didn’t even put their famous sauce in the bag till I asked her for it. It’s only one packet. If you ask for extra sauce, it’s a quarter extra. Maybe I just woke up on the hater side of the bed. But I was looking to satisfy my pork fix, but I think it might be an off day for Sophie’s.

Isolated incidents or signs of a restaurant chain trending downwards? We always have Margon to fall back on, but it’d be sad to lose Sophie’s as an always dependable Midtown Lunch’ing option.

Related:
Sophie’s Cuban Takes Another Step Backward
Sophie’s Cuban (a full review… in pictures)

The Baja Fresh Opening Soon on B’way & 41st. Photo courtesy of Lunch’er Harry

Zach,

I’ve had enough, I like you too much and I can’t stand for you supporting Baja Fresh anymore. Friends don’t let friends support Baja Fresh. You’re making a fool of yourself. I told you long ago that this is not the “west coast Baja” you’re used to. I told you, that they’d been in Jersey for years now running a sinister operation of 9$ flaccid burritos, where they push the envelope of rice to meat ratio every time, probably just to test a customer’s breaking point. I would never in a billion years succumb to openly compromising my foodie reputation and associating myself Baja Fresh as a fan. However, just for you, I did [last week], and for the sake of being a cheapie who likes deals that rip off my arch nemesis (i.e. my failed attempt to win a free Yushi lunch). I tried printing the page at work but it would have been about 5 pages long since the stream of comments was so long. I decided to just bring in my phone and show them evidence that I actually went through the hassle of becoming a fan and writing a comment.

I went to the Baja on Lex and they turned me down because I didn’t have a printed piece of paper, which the manager sheepishly replied was mandated by corporate. I can’t stand store managers without common sense. After the KFC debacle you would think managers would just go with the let’s just make customers happy and not be a stickler for rule that startsriots part of the promotion. I understand that they wanted the paper as evidence, but it’s not like each Baja branch is going to send 500 pieces of paper to corporate for some mail room boy to perform some sort of audit. In the name of customer service and some common sense couldn’t have just taken my name down with some manager override, just to entertain me and leave me with renewed hopes for Baha. Now I will forever be a vigilante working the viral food scene against the evil forces of Baja Fresh. There, now I feel better.

Nick

I believe I have said everything that needs to be said about NYC Baja Fresh here. As for your coupon fiasco, I’m guessing the ML community will have some thoughts about this. Thanks for the email!

Photo of a Random Mr. Softee Vendor (Not the one being complained about)

Here’s a particularly bad email I got yesterday from a guy who was ripped off by a Mr. Softee truck yesterday, and on his birthday of all days!

“So yeah, the guy at 36th and 7th in the Mister Softee truck is a monster prick. I went up to him, asked him for a small cup. He hands it to me and I thought to myself “wow, that’s a huge small” – he didn’t tell me how much it was, but I gave him a 20. When he handed me $13 back, I said “$7? For a small?”

He claimed that he showed me the large cup and I said that’s what I wanted (that NEVER happened). I said “well, do you have a small cup?” and he showed me the smaller (presumably much cheaper) cup. I said “that’s what I wanted. I asked for a small cup.”

He then proceeded to get in my face about it…”

“I didn’t want to get hit in the face on my birthday (yeah, it’s my birthday), so I paid frickin’ $7 for mediocre ice cream. Would’ve been cheaper to order ice cream from room service at the Plaza!

But bottom line, this guy is a prick and should not be representing Mister Softee. I say boycott the bastard!”

That suuuucks.  Although this lesson might be about how to pay for something, rather than how to order.  The same thing happened in Midtown to a friend of mine who ordered a Gatorade, and gave the vendor a $20 bill without asking how much it was.  He had already opened it and started drinking by the time he got his $15 in change- so it was too late to complain, or try and get his money back. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy jacked up the price the minute he saw that cap come off.

So let this be a lesson to all of you… make sure you ask how much somethig is *before* paying.  And whatever you do, don’t crack open a drink (or take a lick of ice cream) until you’ve been quoted a price.