When I saw that the old standby Cafe Charlie (40th btw Mad+5th) had added seafood pizza to their menu, I stopped in to see what it was all about. They have a decent mandoo bar-the only such one in that area of Midtown-so I wasn’t too scared about trying seafood from them. I was also intrigued by their sign of “gold” or “white” seafood pizza. What exactly would “gold” pizza entail? Answer: every Italian’s worst nightmare… yellow cheese on seafood.

The pie is your regular 8″ personal pie, with a very thin, unimpressive cracker crust. I was definitely put off when I realized they don’t make the pizza fresh. In other words, before they warm it up in the oven, it’s been sitting around for who knows how long. When eating a regular cheese pie, that’s okay. When eating seafood, that’s shades of wrong. The seafood on top is shrimp, calamari, and fake crab meat, tossed with olives and slivers of mushroom. The seafood had mozzarella and American cheese sprinkled on top, which might be a no-no for some of you. Underneath was a small layer of generic marinara sauce. Nothing tasted off, but it would have definitely tasted better fresh and hotter. As a fan of the clam pie, I know that seafood can work on pizza, but this wasn’t exactly it. Luckily, I did survive to tell the tale.

Cafe Charlie, 9 E. 40th Street (btw. Mad+5th), 212-725-1420

For Korean dumplings (or mandoo) there is the well known “Mandoo Bar” on 32nd btw. B’way+5th . But the other day I read something in the forums about a new mandoo bar in Cafe Charlie, an otherwise generic Midtown deli on 41st btw. Mad+5th. Clearly an investigation was in order.

Cafe Charlie’s “Mandoo Bar” has no connection to the actual “Mandoo Bar” in Koreatown- but in many ways it’s interesting they decided to call it a “mandoo bar”. I love how Korean owned delis have started offering Korean food right along side their pay by the pound salad bars and standard pre-packaged sushi. But you have to wonder whether using the word “mandoo” is going to interest the average Midtown office worker (who probably has no idea what the word mandoo even is.)

I worked on me though. I might have been interested in a “Dumpling Bar”, but “Mandoo Bar” sealed the deal. Mandoo is just the Korean word for dumpling, and they can be served boiled, steamed or pan fried. The kind you see at the actual “Mandoo Bar” in K’town are more round and plump than say a Japanese gyoza- which tend to be thinner and longer, and the mandoo skin is on the thick and chewy side (but not as thick as some of the 4 for $1 Chinatown options.) Cafe Charlie’s version are only served boiled, and they have four options to choose from: pork, shrimp, chicken & vegetable. You get 8 pieces for $7 ($6 for the vegetarian) or you go for the combo of all 4 (12 pieces for $9).

I’m all for variety, so I want with the combo. Each of the dumplings are shaped and colored differently according to filling. Square white = shrimp. Long white = pork. Square green = chicken. Long green = vegetable. (I think anyway. They all kind of look the same in the photo!)

Pork and shrimp were my favorite (obviously), but if you’re looking for something a little more healthy tasting the chicken is the way to go. The vegetarian was ok, but the filling was more vegetarian mush (think standard veggie burger) than having any real discernable vegetables. In fact, all of the dumplings appeared to have some kind of non-meat filler. It wasn’t as noticeable when they were hot, but as they cooled down the consistency became less and less enjoyable (of course, that problem is easily fixed by eating them fast!) As for the wrappers, they were fine- although some were cooked a little bit better than others. And if you like your dumplings pan fried, you probably won’t be in love with these.

All in all I still enjoyed them. (I’ve never met a dumpling I didn’t like just a little bit.) Not as good as the Mandoo Bar (although I did like their shrimp dumplings a little better than M.B.’s weird seafood dumplings), but Cafe Charlie is a little cheaper and surprisingly filling. Plus if you work in the 40s it’s a lot closer than Koreatown, and for a generic Midtown deli I’ll take these over an $8 turkey sandwich any day of the week.

Cafe Charlie, 9 E. 40th Street (btw. Mad+5th), 212-725-1420