Midtown Lunch

At this point, I’ve come to terms with the maddeningly inconsistent schedule at Café Duke’s Korean counter (on 51st btw. 6+7th). As far as we can tell, their daily specials ($8.95) usually jive with the given meteorlogic conditions, and if you haven’t noticed, it’s getting nippy outside. So it should be no surprise that on a particularly bitter cold day, I stepped into Café Duke and found that they were serving a soup special that bites back. Yuk gae jang is a fiery, tangy, yet refreshing Korean soup, rich with slices of beef flank, crunchy bean sprouts, earthy fern shoots, and pungent scallions. This dish’s raison d’être is to warm the body and soul. Halfway through the peppery bowl of soup, I had loosened my tie, rolled up my sleeves, and had a sheen of sweat on my brow despite the blustery conditions outside. A side of adequately steamed white rice provides relief to the sting of the broth, and the obligatory side of kimchi is the ultimate cure-all for any and all ailments (sez my Grandmother). Baby it’s cold outside, but boy, this yuk gae jang has got me feeling warm inside.

The only downside? You never know when they’re going to have it!

Related:
Café Duke, Give Us Our Bulgogi Tacos!
Korean Food at Cafe Duke

Café Duke is such a tease. Ever since initial reports that bulgogi tacos were being haphazardly offered as a daily special at their Korean entrée counter, I’ve been fascinated by these tacos. After all, Bann Next Door took on the Korean taco concept and hit a home run, so I don’t see why Café Duke couldn’t replicate this success (and it’s a few avenues closer to work.) Besides, assembling a competent Korean taco is laughably easy in concept – just jam Korean meat into a taco (no double entendre intended), and you’re the next Roy Choi.

Café Duke has always been a staple in my weekly lunch rotation, given that it‘s a smorgasbord of wallet friendly options that appease my co-workers’ finicky spectrum of palates. But for weeks, I’ve bolted straight to the back counter, only to see a non-bulgogi taco special coquettishly playing with my emotions. We even sent ML contributor, Jeremiah, on a wild goose chase to hunt down these tacos at the 41st Street location, to no avail. However after weeks of speculation, my dumb perseverance and gullibility was finally rewarded.

I came. I saw. I conquered the elusive Café Duke bulgogi taco.
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Bold (and often ridiculous) food claims are what NYC Food Guy (aka Lunch’er Lawerence aka Superman) is all about, so we’ll take this one with a grain of salt.  Apparently the spicy chicken pizza from Cafe Duke (on 51st btw. 6+7th) is the best non-restaurant pizza in all of Midtown. Now, you know we love their Korean food…. and their fake shrimp… and their occasional soft shelled crabs.  But is this really the best we can do for pizza?  Feel free to defend or refute his claim in the comments.

Last October, I was pretty excited to find soft shelled crabs on the by the pound buffet at Cafe Duke (on 51st btw. 6+7th).  Well, soft shelled crab season started up again last month, and Lunch’er “David” reports seeing them at the 41st and Broadway Cafe Duke yesterday.  I stopped by the 51st Street location today, and they were nowhere to be found.  Please report positive sightings in the comments below (preferably before lunchtime.)

Uh… yeah.  You heard me right.  Soft shelled mother f’ing crabs on a Midtown by the lb. buffet.  That is what I discovered at the Cafe Duke on 51st btw. 6+7th yesterday. I’ve already written a bunch about how much I love their by the lb. buffet, but this just put it over the top.  Soft shelled crab! I’m still giddy thinking about it.  This could be the biggest money item to ever show up on one of these generic Midtown deli buffets (the ones that cost under $10 a pound anyway).  And, they don’t even weigh that much (especially compared to other stuff like fruit and bone in chicken).  It really is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen at a by the pound buffet.

At $7.79 a pound, Cafe Duke by the lb. is on the high end of these kind of crappy Midtown options… but for the quality it is definitely worth it.  The food always looks fresh, every choice looks damn tasty, and the sauce they put on their fake jumbo shrimp makes me not mind that they are trying to fake you into thinking you’re actually getting shrimp. 

How they were, a shot of my lunch, and the one big downside- after the jump…

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I try my best not to be too negative on this site, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to vent. Every once in awhile I’ll share some of the more angry useful emails I get in a post called “Airing of Grievances”. (If the Eater Complaints Dept. would like royalties, I’ll be happy to pay up…)

“I just went to Cafe Duke yesterday and I bought a mini black forest cake for $5.50!! I went home and wanted to surprise my husband with a little cake for dessert and what happens?? We bit into the cake and it tasted like sour bleach! The whole cake layer inside was alive with greyish blue mold! Needless to say, it not only ruined my evening but it spoiled my appetite for anything Duke in the future!!”

Ooops. Not sure if this was the Cafe Duke on 51st btw. 6+7th (which is one of the few generic Midtown delis I will eat in) or the one down on Broadway and 41st, but either way, it may be a good idea to stay away from their baked goods. If you’re headed to the one on 51st, stick to the by the lb. buffet, and the Korean food in the back left hand corner.

After the jump, a Tad’s complaint you knew would come eventually… Read more »

Despite my extensive report on fake shrimp at by the lb. buffets, the word is not entirely out on this NYC deli tactic.

From commenter “Leo” on the post about Cafe Duke (51st btw. 6+7th):

Got fooled by the fake shrimp.

Called them to complain and the lady that picks up the phone had an attitude.
She said that 1. I had to ask — Ask who, there is no one you can ask around the food buffet. 2. Nothing is labeled  3. They make the fake shrimp same shape and size as real shrimps.

Would not offer me a refund after I spend $10 on cheap fish instead of what looked like shrimps…

They are so busy have like 10K people there during lunch, there is no need to cheat customers… Will not go back unless given real shrimps of refund.

I was fooled too, but I only took a few of the fake shrimp, and I really liked the way they tasted- so I wasn’t too upset.  The lesson to take from this-  when eating at a by the lb. buffet, never take a full tray of something you’ve never tried. 

For more rules of by the lb. buffet eating, you’ll want to read this post.

Most people like to go to fancy lunches for their birthday. Me? I wanted buffet by the lb. so I loaded up at Cafe Duke (51st btw. 6+7th) with no guilt about the price (it ended up being $9.79 before tax). Fake shrimp, noodles, 5 dumplings. Screw the rules- today’s my birthday!

Everybody in Midtown has a goto lunch, and although I try to eat at new places every week, my wife and I usually fall back on Cafe Duke.  Last week, we hit up Cafe Duke for a quick lunch, and I decided to forgo my usual Bi Bim Bap in favor of a few things from the buffet by the lb.  I don’t normally do the whole by the lb. thing, because although I love the variety, I can’t stand feeling the need to hold back.  Scooping tiny portions, all the time worrying that my lunch is going to end up costing $17.  While loading up with my normal items, something amazing stood out to me.  They had these amazing looking Jumbo Shrimp that had me wondering “How they hell can they afford to serve Jumbo Shrimp for $7 a lb.????”

I got two, and discovered one of the greatest scams I had ever fallen prey to.  They’re not real shrimp!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  Actually, I could believe it.  It reminded me of this thing I once learned about Professional Gamblers.  There are teams of gamblers who when a new table game opens up anywhere in the world, they find out about it, and run the numbers, trying to find a single wager that will beat the game.  While most are games are tirelessly tested before being put into a casino, every once in awhile a game’s creator will make a mathematical error that leaves the game open to being “broken”.  The team will fly to his location, bet the one wager for hours and hours, until the casino realizes their mistake and shuts the game down.

I guess that’s why I wasn’t surprised about the shrimp.  Can you imagine if the Jumbo shrimp were real?  For $6.99 a lb?  Hoards of fat guys (like me) would be crowded around the buffet, loading up on jumbo shrimp… trying to ”beat the game”.  Thankfully, the fake shrimp were delicious so I wasn’t too upset about being duped.  I’m not sure exactly what they are made of, but I’m guessing it is a rice cake type of mixture (or imitation crab meat… although it didn’t have that fake fishy flavor that imitation crab has).  The best part about the scam… the “shrimp” are not only colored and shaped to look like shrimp, they even have the indentation where the tail was pulled off.  Such detail.  It’s like art.

The Midtown Lunch guide to eating at a Buffet by the lb… after the jump.

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If you read this blog every day, I’m sure you get the general idea of my taste.  I’m not really into those delis that litter midtown with their “choice”.  Choice to me is
“Do I get my combo with the pork fried rice, or lo mein?”.  I consider most sandwiches kind of boring, and I never imagined I could eat a salad for lunch.  That is, until I met the Variety Cafe… and I let my guard down.  I allowed myself to fall in love with this Variety Cafe place, and their wonderful salad bar for fat people… only to have my heart ripped in half by their disregard for serving said salad without rodent droppings.

“I’ll never eat at a deli/salad bar place again” I said to myself (I use slashes when I talk- that’s pronounced “deli slash salad bar”), that is, until I found Cafe Duke.  From the outside it looks like your typical Manhattan lunch place.  The name, the decor, the salad bar, buffet by the pound, rotisserie bar, sandwiches and paninis, wraps and of course the sushi bar.  But, hidden in the back left hand corner is the real gem of the place… The Korean Food station!

That’s right, Bi Bim Bap, Bulgogi and Korean soup, being served in the back of a Midtown deli.  Bastards!  I can feel myself falling in love all over again…

The food porn, and +/- after the jump… Continue to the rest of the post…