Midtown Lunch

Stopped into Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) yesterday just to see what was going on (I can’t resist whenever I’m in the area), and noticed a couple of things.  First off, they’ve moved all the check out registers to the new coffee/shave ice/frappe/ice cream area (where the Beard Papa used to be.)  I don’t know if it was my imagination, or the fact that it was a slow Monday, but things seemed to be a little less hectic.

I also spotted a sign for their latest offering, which seems perfect for winter… warm ice cream!?!

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Got this email last week from Lunch’er Andrew: “Had a great lunch at Zaiya today [on 41st btw. Mad+5th], though I had to go online for a tutorial on how to open those damn plastic wraps!”  Wait a second… there are online tutorials for how to open those shrink wrapped triangular rice balls? “But of course there are!!”

The onigiri mystery unlocked on video for confused westerners, after the jump.

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For me, the fun of Cafe Zaiya has always been to wander around aimlessly marveling at their wonders.  The selection can be overwhelming sometimes, and the crowds unforgiving, but there are still few places I enjoy more than this fast food Japanese wonderland on 41st btw. Mad+5th.  But if you’re one of those regulars who knows exactly what you want, but hates pushing through crowds to get it, you’ll be excited for this news. Cafe Zaiya has just added an online ordering system to their website. It looks like the system only works from 10am to 2pm, and as of right now you can only order sandwiches, bento boxes, and rice balls (I’m assuming baked goods, sushi, salads, and everything else will be added soon.)

I’ll probably stick with suffering through the crowds, and fighting to snag whatever fresh bento boxes they just brought out.  It’s part of the charm of the place.

Related:
A Food Porn Guide to Navigating Your Way Through Cafe Zaiya
Cafe Zaiya: Original Post (8/16/2006)

A few things have happened since Kathy YL Chan (from A Passion for Food) compiled her Food Porn Guide to Navigating Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) for Midtown Lunch. Beard Papa is now gone, replaced by a coffee and dessert bar.  Since Kathy is our resident coffee, dessert, and Cafe Zaiya expert we told her to go whole hog on their new offerings and report back.  Here is what she found…

Since you’ve already had a first look at the menu and set up of Cafe Zaiya’s new coffee and dessert station, let’s just get straight to the point. The best thing on Cafe Zaiya’s new drink bar menu is SHAVE ICE. It’s near impossible to find shave ice in this city, much less a decent bowl of shave ice. It’s a terribly painful fact for someone who grew up in Hawai’i, consuming shave ice bowls on a daily basis. Zaiya’s shave runs $3.79 for a small and $4.29 for a large, and comes in one flavor: Green Tea. Unlike most places which fill the cup with shave ice and then put on the syrup, Zaiya fills half the cup with shave ice then pours on green tea syrup and plenty of condensed milk. Then more ice, till it forms a decent mound, and then more syrup and condensed milk.

How about the toppings?

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Photo courtesy of Kathy YL Chan from A Passion for Food

It looks like Cafe Zaiya’s new dessert and drink bar has opened (where the Beard Papas used to be) and Kathy YL Chan is already on the scene.  She laments the loss of the delicious cream puffs, but the black sesame frappe she posted about on Serious Eats New York looks pretty amazing.

A look at the complete menu of drinks (and shaved ice!?) is after the jump…

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Beard Papa fans shouldn’t be too upset about Friday’s news that they’re leaving Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th). Not only is Beard Papa going to look for another Midtown location to sell their cream puffs, but Cafe Zaiya will be converting the extra space into a dessert/drink bar. From the GM of Cafe Zaiya:

“We will be creating a drink/dessert bar as time comes. A big store like us and all we serve is hot coffee/tea? We just got a nice state of the art machine as well. Our plan is, sometime in June, to offer a full service drink bar w/ a japanese touch just like the one down the street in the bookstore.”

Oh… and that includes bubble tea.

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Tina (aka The Wandering Eater) passed along this sad news yesterday: The Beard Papa counter inside Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) will be closing up shop on the last day of May. This means that unless you want to be coming into Midtown over the weekend, today is the last day for a Cafe Zaiya beard papa. No word yet on if they are going to use the space to sell something else or open it up to make more room (it gets pretty crowded in there during lunchtime!)

Speaking of Cafe Zaiya, lunch’er “Linda” was kind enough to send along a photo of the CZ fried fish sandwich being discussed in the forums the other day. The sandwich, in all its cheese topped glory, is after the jump.

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