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.

Let’s just say it was a big disappointment.  I’m guessing that someone at Potbelly must have misread the recipe because instead of a pinch of salt these oats were crazy salty. How salty? Let’s just say I’ve had cheap ramen with less sodium. If I had tasted this on the premise I would have demanded a refund on the spot, but I was already back at my desk and soon too wrapped up in work to return my oatmeal. Aside from the saltiness issue, I found that the Potbelly oats were just generally overcooked and lacked the toothsomeness that I’ve come to expect from steel cut oats.

While I’m not the biggest Jamba Juice fan, I do think if you like steel cut oats they do a great job. The oatmeal is available all day (a plus for if you’re looking for a cheap afternoon snack or if you’re like me and enjoy breakfast for lunch) and the staff at the Rock Center does a good job cooking it so that it’s never been gloppy, runny or dry in my experience (and the oatmeal texture doesn’t seem to vary as much based on time of day at the Rock Center branch).  And it’s never ever tasted like a salt lick.

Has anyone else tried the oatmeal at Potbelly? Was my experience isolated? Should I give them another shot?

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.

When asked for a recommendation, the hostess immediately guided me towards the Pão de Deus ($3.50), or ‘heavenly bread’. “I eat one of these every morning”, she explained. Indeed, they make a perfect breakfast – they’re substantial enough to keep you going until lunch time, but unlike a doughnut, they’re not overly sweet or greasy. Rebecca Marx’s description over at Fork in the Road does this pastry justice, “faintly sweet, brioche-like crumb, working in concentric circles until you strike gold”. The gold being a tangle of toasty, not too sweet shreds of coconut. I’m not sure about the ‘heavenly’ moniker, but at least Alfama is keeping authentic Portuguese food alive and well.

Alfama, 214 East 52nd St (btw. 2+3rd), 212-759-5552

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.

When I went the menu wasn’t posted on the truck so I wasn’t able to get a pic, but I grabbed this courtesy of their website:

BREAKFAST BURRITO
with eggs, peppers, and onions ($3.50)
add Spam, Bacon, or Sausage (+$0.50 each)
add Cheese (+$0.50)
add Corn Cake (+$1.50)

SPANISH OMELET
with tomatoes, peppers, and onions ($3.50)
add Spam, Bacon, or Sausage (+$0.50 each)
add Cheese (+$0.50)
add Corn Cake (+$1.50)

Two Corn Cakes
(Jalapenos optional) ($3.50)
add Spam, Bacon, or Sausage (+$0.50 each)
add Cheese (+$0.50)

PORTO RICO
FRENCH BRAZILIAN SANTOS ROAST
Small $1.50/Large $2

I decided to try the Breakfast Burrito with cheese and bacon ($4.50) and the Jalapeño Corn Cakes ($3.50). The breakfast burrito didn’t strike me as terribly large, but it was a fairly decent size and the made-to-order eggs were perfectly fluffy. My only complaint here was that the bacon sort of settled in one half of the burrito, so half the bites were bacony and the other half were bacon-free.

The corn cakes were also on the small side (you can see from the pic that both the burrito and corn cakes fit side by side in a standard takeout container), but big on flavor. The ‘cakes were light and the sweetness of the cornmeal was a nice match for the jalapeños spicy kick. These were the first jalapeño corn cakes I’ve ever had, so I don’t have a point of comparison, but if you like corn cakes and enjoy just a little bit of heat, these would be a good bet.

Unless you have a small appetite, I don’t think that going with just the burrito or just the corn cakes will be enough for breakfast. That said, I think even those with a big appetite would be more than sated by ordering both and the happy medium might very well be ordering a breakfast burrito with the $1.50 corn cake add on (an option I didn’t know that I had).

Here’s what I’d love to see on the menu…breakfast tacos. Austin, Texas-style breakfast tacos. Who’s with me?

Big D’s Grub Truck serves breakfast until 10ish (lunch service starts at around 11). Today they should be on 50th and 6th, but as always check the Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Chris H. didn’t love his first lunch at Piccolo Cafe, the Gramercy lunch spot that now has two locations in Midtown (one on 40th btw. 7+8th and one on Madison btw. 37+38th).  But here’s something we didn’t notice… they serve their breakfast sandwiches all day long, and they come with a free coffee.  Most of them are actually more expensive than the lunchtime panini ($8-10) but Serious Eats New York has a handy guide to help you decide which of the breakfast sandos is right for you.

Two weeks ago, I issued a challenge to Tri Tip to out toasty Dunkin Donuts’ new Big ‘N’ Tasty , and they hit back with the Midtown Toasty– 3 strips of bacon, a fried egg, melted cheese on 2 toasted pieces of challah bread for $3.99 . Tri Tip owners promised if they sold 100 of these sandwiches they’d add it to the menu. Despite Ash Wednesday and a Lenten Friday potentially driving down demand for this sandwich, the Midtown Toasty prevailed and according to the cashier I spoke with, it is now a permanent part of the menu. Seeing as I lay down the gauntlet on this one, I hit up Tri Tip to see how the Midtown Toasty stacks up.

Much as I’m a New Englander through and through (ergo a Dunkin lover–Butternut donuts, represent!), they didn’t really have a prayer against a restaurant that would cook your sandwich to order.

Starting with the bread, Tri Tip’s challah was fresher and didn’t overwhelm the filling the way that Dunkin’s Texas Toast did. The egg was fried up to order and the bread was grilled on both sides to order as well with plenty of butter. The bacon was crisp rather than floppy and the cheese was gooey and actually melted–takeout egg and cheese sandwiches where the cheese is a last minute afterthought that they expect to melt in transit are a pet peeve of mine, what if I want to dig into that sandwich stat?

Yes, you can get other bacon and and cheese sandwiches from lots of corner delis, but again the quality of the ingredients at Tri Tip stands out. I just went for the classic Toasty, but if you’re so inclined you can substitute Tri Tip for bacon; a win for beef lovers.

That said…there’s still some room for improvement. I don’t shy away from the salt shaker, but this is one salty breakfast. I’m not 100% sure, but it seemed to me that bread may have been grilled in salted butter (plenty of salted butter) on both sides. Add in the salt from the bacon and the cheese and it kind of overwhelms an otherwise very tasty experience. And this may be solved easily enough by just grilling the bread in unsalted butter. If you’re seriously into salty food, you won’t have a problem, but for others it may be an issue.

I still not so secretly would love to see a bacon egg and cheese on French Toast (that’s what initially lured me to try the Dunkin sandwich in the first place–I thought it was on French Toast). I recognize that they would probably have to charge more for a “French Toasty” since an order of two slices of their Bourbon French Toast goes for $5. But that would be a pretty unique breakfast sandwich. What do you guys think? Anyone else pro-French Toasty? Maybe I should enter it in the Certe Sandwich Challenge…

Tri Tip Grill, Rockefeller Center Concourse, North Side, (212) 664-1003

Last week we challenged Tri Tip Grill (in the Rock Center concourse) to introduce a kick ass breakfast sandwich. They answered the call this week and said that if they sold 100 of the sandwiches they would add it permanently the menu. Well they just informed us that 73 have been sold, so tomorrow morning is our last chance to hit the 100 mark. The sandwich is available until 11am.

When the Joyride Truck first hit midtown last summer for a short spell they were parking near Rock Center, close-ish to my office . As a froyo lover/caffeine addict, it seemed the truck seemed destined to join my truck favs, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. They pulled up stakes and moved to Midtown East and elsewhere in Manhattan. Last week courtesy of the ML Twitter Tracker I saw that Joyride had added oatmeal to their menu and I knew I had to make a special trip to check it out

The oatmeal ($3.50) is organic and steel cut and served until noon. It was toothsome and not too soggy or overdone. Just right. Best of all you can top it with any of their frozen yogurt toppings. Like the frozen yogurt the price includes as many toppings as fit. I went for strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, but I suppose I could have had Oreo cookies, M&Ms, chocolate chips and slivered almonds. I had to ask if anyone gets their oatmeal with dessert toppings and they lady on the truck said that occasionally she has customers request chocolate chips. Hmmm….maybe next time. One nice benefit of the Joyride Truck is that you can earn loyalty stamps on froyo and coffee purchases (buy 10 get one free) and when I got my oatmeal that lady gave me a punch for that, too. One punch closer to the free one. As far as oatmeal goes, if you’re pro-steel cut, this is a great find. I have feeling I’ll be returning to earn some more punches soon.

The Joyride Truck spends Thursdays on 52nd and Lex but check the ML Twitter Tracker or their account twitter before heading out.

Last week I issued a challenge to Tri Tip Grill to outdo Dunkin Donuts’ Big ‘n’ Tasty (the new bacon, egg and cheese on Texas toast), and it only took a few days for them to accept our “suggestion”.  From the owner of Tri Tip:

Let me introduce to you, the aptly named “Midtown Toasty.” 3 strips of bacon, a fried egg, melted cheese on 2 awesome toasted pieces of our challah bread. After checking out the Dunkin’ toasty, there’s no doubt that we are going to be anointed the king of the toasties. The best part is it’s bigger, better, freshly made and is only $.50 more… you can also substitute the bacon for tri tip, if you so choose.

TriTip will be serving the Midtown Toasty ($3.99) all week, and they promise “if we sell 100 of them, we will add it to our breakfast menu permanently.”

Tri Tip Grill, Rockefeller Center Concourse, North Side, (212) 664-1003

Like many other Lunch’ers, my morning commute brings me right by a Dunkin Donuts (not all that surprising since it’s the most prevalent chain in the city). Yesterday morning, as I made my coffee run, I noticed signage for their new Big ‘N’ Tasty, a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich that appeared to be cradled between two slices of French Toast–$4.99 with a medium coffee combo–aka a bacon topped mass market knockoff of one of my favorite breakfasts at Shopsin’s, the So Good. Even though I knew that this 590 calorie monstrosity was likely to disappoint, I had to at least give it a shot.

Before I received my order I asked if the sandwich did indeed come on French toast. The guy behind the counter manning the warming box thing said it was “like French toast.” Well, this was Texas toast and not like French toast at all except that they both have “toast” in their name.

Upon examination the toast actually appeared more toasty on the inside of the sandwich than the outside. And for a sandwich that included 2 eggs, 4 slices of bacon and cheese, it was remarkably bread and dry (I suppose that’s Texas toast done Dunkin Donuts style for you.) Suffice it to say that the eggs were spongey and cooked through and the bacon lacked the delicious crispiness that you see in the ad. Like last week’s Reverse Boston Creme this is another skip. But it did get me thinking…Tri Tip grill with their bourbon French toast, fried to order eggs and crisp bacon could do this concept up right. Consider the gauntlet thrown, Tri Tippers!