Midtown Lunch

Okadaman, the relatively new Japanese truck specializing in okonomiyaki and other homey delights, started offering Japanese breakfast a few weeks ago. Ever since I saw them tweet about it, I’ve been dying to make a detour on the way to work to check ‘em out, and I finally got there on a slow summer Friday. As I walked up to the truck, I noticed the breakfast menu was not posted, so make sure you ask what the options are. I had the choice of two equally awesome-sounding egg-on-toast breakfasts … and, honestly, I almost ordered both.
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File this one under breakfast for lunch. A while back, I wrote a post about breakfast sandwiches that are also great (and available!) for lunch, and the responses in the comments showcased that I’m definitely not the only one jonesing for eggs at noon. I realize I might get some flack for writing about the savory food at Dean & Deluca — we all know the sweets are worth the trip (hello, apple fritters!) — but this upscale spot can get pricy, often teetering over the ML price limit. Still, I really like the quiche at D&D.

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Is “your” Starbucks the one on 47th and 6th, in the 1185 6th ave office building? We’ve been tipped off to a new spot for your morning ritual that is in the same building, but tucked away. In fact, you’d most likely never know this 2-week-old coffee bar existed if you didn’t work there.

Simon Sips has set up a small shop in the back of this office building. If you don’t work there, walk to the pedestrian area behind the building, and enter through the revolving door across the walkway from Ustav. Immediately turn left (which is the only direction you can go if you don’t have building access). There you will find Simon Sips, an unassuming place to grab your morning joe from staff who are just the kind of people you want to interact with in the morning: calm, extremely nice and helpful.
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This should make the Pie Face coffee lovers from the forums very happy: I saw this sign advertising dollar coffee with any morning purchase on my way to work this morning. Pie Face is also advertising $5 for an espresso and any pastry, if that’s more your style. Either way, these deals are great for the area — nearby morning coffee competition includes Europa, Cosi, Caffe Bene and about a zillion Starbucks, all of which are pretty pricey options and frankly not so amazing.

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As a certifiable Dough doughnuts addict (this Brooklyn upstart has now eclipsed Doughnut Plant as my ultimate doughnut in New York), I was sad to learn from Lunch’er sugoodsweets that Culture Espresso was no longer carrying the mammouth frosted doughnuts. There was a silver lining though, through Lunch’r sugoodsweets’ comment I learned that you could still get Dough doughnuts in midtown just a couple blocks away, at “the shop” at Andaz but there are a few catches. Read more »

Sometimes all I want for lunch … is breakfast. Surprisingly, finding a good breakfast sandwich in the afternoon can be challenging, because many places stop making eggs at 11am. It makes me nuts. So, in case you’re like me, and you need some standby egg-making lunch spots in your back pocket, here are some of my go-tos.

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It’s not all that uncommon that I run out the door without something to eat in the morning so I was pretty excited to see that Potbelly in Rock Center is now serving breakfast. And even more excited to see that they had steel cut oats. I’m a big steel cut oatmeal fan and I usually splurge for the oatmeal at Jamba Juice, so I had to see how Potbelly stacked up.

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I may have once griped that midtown is where authentic ethnic food goes to die. With all of the generic delis, weak sauce dumplings and ‘Momofuku meets Chipotle’ concepts, I breathe a sigh of relief when an institution like Alfama (52nd between 2nd and 3rd) graces midtown with their presence. But Alfama, a fairly well regarded Portuguese transplant from the West Village, is certainly beyond our price range at Midtown Lunch. However, they’ve recently rolled out a line of inexpensive, fresh savory and sweet baked goods, which they start serving at 7am in the morning – perfect for a breakfast on the go, or an afternoon snack.

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In late May I blogged about the new breakfast service at Big D’s Grub truck. On my first trip I enjoyed the jalapeño corn cakes. But on a second trip I took Lunch’r beastegrl’s suggestion ordered the cakes with cheese (which Lunch’r beastegrl called “a MUST to balance sweet with salty”). Delicious. Sweet, salty, spicy, this makes for a killer breakfast. Adding the cheese will cost you an extra $.50 on top of the base $3.50 price but it’s totally worth the extra quarters. My only complaint is that they utilize the typical midtown fast breakfast technique of sandwiching the cheese between the hot cakes and wrapping it, thereby using the residual heat from the hot cakes to melt the cheese–if you tend to be eager to tear into your breakfast immediately, you’ll have to remember to wait for optimal melted cheese enjoyment.

Big D’s Grub Truck serves breakfast until 10ish (lunch service starts at around 11), and they should be on 53rd and Lex tomorrow (Friday), but as always check the Twitter Tracker before heading out.

There are plenty of generic coffee carts in midtown where you can grab a quick breakfast, and so far few of the gourmet food trucks have ventured into this territory. When I saw a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of the ML Twitter Tracker, that Big D’s Grub Truck had started serving up some AM grub, I had to go check it out. Read more »