Midtown Lunch

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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I don’t understand what is with all the banh mi backlash? Why would anybody get sick of a delicious Vietnamese sandwich? (Maybe we’re just getting sick of all the traditional media latecomers acting like these sandwiches are a brand new trend!) Anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of banh mi, but for those who are Metromix has put together a list of ten Asian sandwich alternatives to the banh mi– and 3 of them are in Midtown.  Their suggestions in our neck of the woods: the Vada Pav at Sukhadia’s Gokul (on 45th btw. 5+6th), the Indonesian Sloppy Joe at Danku (on 57th btw. 5+6th), and the Yakisoba Pan at Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th).

Last week Lunch’er Marisa asked for some strawberry shortcake help.  You responded with suggestions, and here is what she ended up with:

“We went to Café Zaiya. Honestly, the shortcake was fresh, but the whipped cream wasn’t real whipped cream and there were only 3 or 4 strawberry slices (so maybe one or two whole strawberries?) in the whole piece. It was enjoyable, but didn’t measure up to the real thing. Also of note, my boyfriend was absolutely shocked by how cheap everything is at Zaiya. I bought a edamame and bacon roll plus the piece of cake for under $5! He bought this delicious panko breaded chicken sandwich with a spicy mayo sauce for $3. Great place.”

Yes it certainly is. More strawberry shortcake porn, plus a shot of that edamame and bacon roll, and links to more Cafe Zaiya posts, all after the jump.

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Hello!  Lunch’er Sal spotted this at Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) and was kind enough to send the photo along. How can that be bad?!?! (No word on whether or not they’ve begun pumping cinnamon bun smell onto the sidewalk.)

Related:
A Food Porn Guide to Navigating Your Way Through Cafe Zaiya