Midtown Lunch

Alright.  We get it.  The best fast food chinese places in Midtown are dirty.  It’s ok.  WE DON’T MIND. Right?  I found this sad scene at Ying Du yesterday (on 38th btw. 7+8th) one of my favorite chinese places in Midtown.  It was certainly not a surprising sight (we all know it’s dirty), but it’s still kind of upsetting. Anybody who eats at Ying Du (or Hing Won for that matter) kind of knows what they’re in for.  We’re adults. Maybe we should move to the L.A. system of putting letter grades in the windows. If you are clean, you get a big A.  If you’re not, you get a B or a C (actually, I don’t know if I ever saw a C).  Then, let the consumer decide.  “How much of a risk do I really want to take eating lunch at this place?”  I guess what I’m saying is, can’t the Department of Health just let Ying Du be? Unless there was evidence of roaches in the food area.  Were there roaches? That’s just gross.

Oh no!  From Bossman: “I’m not sure why anyone would care but Printon 56 (on 56th btw. 5+6th) is closed due to ‘water line damage.'” Well that is terrible news!  Now Frogurt fans will have to trek all the way to Forty Carrots inside Bloomingdales.

UPDATE: I didn’t notice before, but Bossman included a photo with his email (I’ve posted it above).  Apparently “water line damage” is code for “A Visit from the DOH.”

This was posted in the comments on Friday about Milant, the sandwich shop that has been plagued by quality questions since they spent much of the past few months closed:

Before the “renovations,” I had been going to Milant at least once a week. No longer. On Wednesday, 8/27, I returned to Milant and ordered a sandwich and soup. Also purchased two “buttercrunch” candies to bring home for my wife. She wound up saving her candy to eat on Thursday. Last night, she opened the cello to discover the candy teeming with bugs. Definitely not from our home. Utterly disgusting. A complaint has been lodged with health dept.

Ouch. I had lunch there last week and thought my sandwich was good, but have always been skeptical about that candy in the window. We’ll see how effective Health Department Complaints actually are.  If you noticed Milant closed this week, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com

Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) re-opened for business on Friday after being shut down by the Department of Health for the second time in as many months.  You have to wonder how long this can keep going, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  for good Chinese food, I’ll deal with the dirty.

Unfortunately some sad news on the Midtown East sandwich front.  Just after finding out that Hing Won had re-opened, I got an email from a Lunch’er reporting that Milant has been closed for “renovations” until further notice.  No word on whether this is related to their DOH closing a few months ago, but either way this is a huge loss… not just on the sandwich front, but on the cold gazpacho front.  It’s been really freakin’ hot out lately.

Got any news to report?  Email it to zach@midtownlunch.com

Upsetting news from Midtown East… it appears as if the Department of Health paid a visit to Milant (on 39th btw. Lex+3rd) Friday afternoon, and shut them down. The “review” hasn’t been posted to the DOH website yet (their last one in March looks pretty stellar, aside from the fact that the DOH got their name wrong), but I talked to somebody at Milant who claimed it was a freezer temperature issue, which they immediately fixed on Friday afternoon. Now they’re just waiting for the inspector to return to give them the green light, which they hope will happen in time to open for lunch tomorrow (Wednesday).

I can’t help but wonder if this is related to the Food Trends DOH’ing that happened a month ago.  The post for that received a bunch of anti-Milant, pro-Food Trends comments that all came from the same IP address.  It certainly wouldn’t be unheard of for a competing deli full of internet shillers to call the Department of Health on a clearly superior next door neighbor.

But the real shocking news in this whole thing, comes after the jump… Read more »

I hadn’t seen this one before… the recently shuttered Hing Won on 48th btw. 5+6th pulled their gate down just far enough to “coincidentally” obscure the bright yellow DOH sticker (you can see the top sticking out a little bit).  This guy wasn’t fooled though!  You can’t see it in this photo, but the hordes of confused slack jawed yokels hovering around, asking “are they closed?” to no one in particular totally reminded me of the scene on the very same street almost 2 years ago when Variety Cafe was DOH’d.  That post spawned the creation of the “Closed by the DOH” category, and these clairvoyant words:

“EDITOR NOTE: We have created a new “Closed for Health Reasons” Category, which given our content, and location will probably have to be used more often then any of us would like. Hing Won, you’ve been warned.”

Still no word on exaclty why they were DOH’d, but it’s not hard to imagine.  They were in the process of “cleaning” up the place, and said if the re-inspection in the morning goes well, they’ll be back open tomorrow.

Also closed (but not by the Department of Health, and seemingly for good) is Le Croissant Shop on 6th Ave. btw. 38+39th.  Popular for their croissants (naturally) and Mexican food (huh?), they will certainly be missed on Cinco de Mayo (and Bastille Day?).

It’s not all bad news though… Read more »

Walked by a couple of shuttered establishments yesterday…

Super cheap Chinese steam table, Rong Bao Fast Food, on 38th btw. 7+8th, was mysteriously closed yesterday.  Not sure if this is permanent, but if it is, it’s no big surprise.  Given the choice between Rong Bao, and the newly renovated Ying Du directly across the street (formerly the 38th St. Restaurant and Bakery), I’d always go to Y.D.

How the DOH is pushing more business to the best sandwich shop in Midtown, after the jump… Read more »