Midtown Lunch

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 »

The WORKS Breakfast Sandwich. Photo courtesy of Ashley Muir Bruhn/SENY

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. Read more »

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

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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. Read more »

I happened to walk by Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen last night, and noticed that they posted a sign stating that they’ve shut down their breakfast service. This is a darn shame, for as much as we’ve enjoyed their burgers; we’ve never had a chance to try their breakfast offerings. I guess we’ll have to stick with Tri Tip Grill or ‘wichcraft for gourmet breakfasts.