Midtown Lunch

The owner of Gourmet 53 (the great lunch spot in the basement of the building on 3rd Ave. btw. 52+53rd) checked in the other day to tell us about a great special they’re having tomorrow (November 18th)… in honor of their 15th Anniversary, Gourmet 53 will be rolling back the prices to 1994.  That means their “Classic Lunch” (aka anything they’re serving tomorrow) will be $3!  Hors d’oeuvres will be served (hello free coconut shrimp!) and there will be a lottery for one month of free lunches. The special will be from 11:30 to 3pm, limit one $3 lunch per customer, and it’s CASH ONLY. Can you say pandemonium?

Related:
Gourmet 53 is One of Those Places I Should Have Mentioned Years Ago

Sit down restaurants are not really what Midtown Lunch is all about.  Sure, the $10 price cap disqualifies most of them, but even so… ML is about adventure, and value, and finding something different.  Everybody knows that if you are willing to shell out the cash, and have a couple hours to spare, there are tons of delicious lunches to be had in New York City.  This site is about finding the less expensive options that save you from eating boring turkey sandwiches and build your own salad every day for lunch.

But every so often, a deal comes along from a fancy sit down restaurant that is just too good to ignore (like Del Frisco’s $9.95 steak tips bar menu loophole- since closed.)  So when I read about Fishtail’s new October $5 menu, I had to go check it out.

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Last week Yushi (on 47th btw. Lex+Park) introduced a new bento specifically aimed at the Midtown Lunch crowd looking to get more for their money.  They call it the “Greatest Hot Hits”, and it’s got a mix of some of their more popular items all in one box.  Chicken teriyaki, 2 scallion and chive dumplings, edamame and fried rice all for $8.  I’m all about variety, so this thing is right up my alley.  The white meat chicken was not surprisingly a tiny bit dry (although I heard that they might be switching to dark meat) and the edamame could have used some salt… but overall it’s not a bad deal for $8 (especially for Yushi, where some of the bentos can leave a guy like me pretty hungry.)

Still worried it might not be enough food for $8?  Well fear no longer… Yushi has decided to offer Midtown Lunch’ers a buy one get one free deal on the “Greatest Hot Hits” box for one week only.  All you have to do is print out this post, and take it to Yushi during lunch any day this week, and you get two “Greatest Hot Hits” bentos for the price of one.

The fine print is after the jump…

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I have never been to Foley’s (on 33rd btw. B’way+5th) and I know this is a stupid marketing gimmick… but any spot that wants to glorify Toots Shor (and by transitive property Frank Sinatra) is all right in my book.  Tomorrow (Weds 10/21) is Foley’s 2nd Annual Toots Shor day, celebrating the famous Manhattan restaurant with a special menu of Toots Shor’s dishes at their original 1959 prices.  That means an $8 “Sinatra” Sirloin steak, $4 “Mickey Mantle” corned beef and cabbage, $4 “Jackie Gleason” fried scallops w/ fries, and more.  Mamacita wrote about their Happy Hour, but only tried the pizza and onions rings.  Anybody eaten at Foley’s before?  It’d have to be really bad to not be worth it at these prices…

Related:
Midtown Happy Hour: Mamacita Loves the Balls at Foley’s Pub

After my Monday post on the Naples 45 2pm Pizza deal, I got a lot of questions about other late lunch specials in Midtown.  If you can wait until after 2pm, there are countless deals to be had by restaurants looking to pick up their afternoon business, or unload their lunch stuff before the deadness of Midtown dinner.  Like I said before, I’m pretty ill-equiped to answer this one.  It’s a miracle if I even make it to 12:30pm before eating lunch (nevermind getting to 2pm or later).  So I’m going to need your help…  If you know of a late lunch special, post it as a comment below. 

Nevertheless, here are the few that I have written about:

• Ho Yip (45th btw. 5+6th) – After 2:15pm, the price of the by the lb. buffet at this Chinese place drops to $3.75.
• Naples 45 (45th btw. Lex+Vanderbilt) – After 2pm, the price of all pizza drops to $1.25 a slice.
• Cucina & Co. (Multiple Locations) – It’s different for every location, but Cucina drops the prices of a lot of their items at different times.  I posted a list in August, but I’m not sure if it’s valid anymore. I guess it’s not surprising, but these places are owned by the same company that owns Naples 45.

There also was a late sushi special at Pranza, but apparently that doesn’t exist anymore.

I think early bird specials are more my thing.  If getting somewhere before Noon got you a deal, I would be all over it!  The only one of those I know about is Men Kui Tei (on 56th btw. 5+6th) which has a special set menu or Gyoza for super cheap before 12:15pm.

Do you know of a late lunch special in Midtown Manhattan?  (Or an early special for that matter…)  Post it as a comment below.