Midtown Lunch

Last week Lunch’er Christene floated the idea of a banh mi tasting in the connections section of the forums. Yesterday 7 Midtown Lunchers gathered in Grand Central to turn her dream into a reality. Here is Christene’s report…

With open minds and empty stomach, 7 Midtown lunchers gathered to rate 7 different banh mi-style sandwiches in a head-to-head competition. To ensure nuance and balance in the competition, representative banh mi’s were to include Chinatown (Paris Sandwich, Banh Mi Saigon), East Village (Nicky’s), Gramercy (Baoguette) and, of course, Midtown (Ma Peche, Yushi, and Boi To Go). We rated the sandwiches with 5 points assigned to each of 6 categories: bread, pork, vegetables, overall taste, authenticity and value. To ensure purveyors and/or price-point did not prejudice the taste ratings, we labeled sandwiches A-G and provided price on the flip side of post-its, so that tasters could self-reveal price after eating the sample and thus rate value independently.

The results are after the jump…

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The Michael “Baoguette” Huynh train continues to plow across New York City.  O Bao, his Pan-Asian noodle shop moving into the old Bunchberries space on 53rd btw. 2+3rd, was supposed to open yesterday but it’s been pushed back to next Monday, 11/9 (apparently there is something about Mondays being a lucky day.)  It will be the first of four spots he’ll open in four weeks (the rest all are Downtown.)  But that’s the not the end of the “Huynhews”.  He told me yesterday that there are plans to open a Baoguette in the Grand Central Terminal food court (on 42nd and Park). Now we won’t have to walk all the way to 25th and Lex for a top notch banh mi (sorry Boi Sandwich, but you just can’t compete with these guys.)  No date has been set for that opening, but he said that putting anything in Grand Central “takes a long time”. [Photo courtesy of Eater]

Related:
Midtown Proper is Finally Getting a Bao-Something
Baoguette’s Out of Bounds Banh Mi is Worth the Extra Walk

Sure, there is a Baoguette on Lexington btw. 25+26th that is worth walking out of your way to. But I always hoped we’d get a branch a little closer to Midtown proper.  Well, my dreams of a closer Baoguette have not been completely answered- but this is pretty damn close (and arguably even better!)  Eater is reporting that Chef Michael Huynh is planning on opening O Bao Noodles and Grill on 53rd St. btw. 2+3rd in October. (I’m thinking maybe it’s going to be in the old Bunchberries space?) It will focus on “grilled and barbecued Vietnamese food and a slew of International noodle offerings from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand.” Between this and the new Midtown Momofuku, the end of the year could make my head explode with excitement.

Related:
Baoguette’s Out of Bounds Banh Mi is Worth the Extra Walk