Midtown Lunch

I heard about Johny’s from my Flatiron Lunch Predecessor, Jason. It had been on his radar, but he wasn’t so into it on his first visit. When I looked at the menu, I had a little trepidation myself. Johny’s apparently takes what seem like the most random of ingredients and pack them into heroes, wraps and sandwiches.

It definitely sounds interesting, but is it good?

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Last month’s Flatiron news post mentioned that the East Village’s Michelin-starred Thai restaurant, Rhong Tiam was opening an express branch in the Flatiron/Gramercy area. As of last week, it’s here and serving up plenty of Midtown Lunch-ranged options. With just a week under their belts, there’s a lot they still need to work out. So, today we’re going to take a first look instead of a full on +/-.

Check it out after the jump.

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or to make it easy: Flatiron Lunch.

We’ve seen Sagaponack‘s kalbi tacos here on Flatiron Lunch, Chris wrote about the new options at Bann Next Door this week and the new Koreatown Bon Chon has bulgogi tacos on their entree list (although they aren’t serving them yet). So, maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising to walk into New York Bakery and find Koreans selling Mexican food.

Just blocks away from Koreatown, surrounded by flower shops and wholesale stores, New York Bakery is a tiny shop run by a Korean couple that caters to the local latino workers, taking orders and greeting customers in fluent Spanish. I later found out that Danny checked it out last year and found myself even more intrigued.

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Today’s lunch spot has to be credited entirely to Blondie. As soon as it started getting warm she emailed me about meeting up to check out the outdoor cart in front of Tabla (on Madison and 24th.) Every summer since 2008, the otherwise well out of ML price range Tabla opens up a “cart” in front of the restaurant selling ‘Bombay-style’ street food for take out. Being directly across the street from Madison Square Park, it’s remarkably convenient for a quick and easy quality meal in the park without having to hit the Shake Shack line.

The other day, Blondie and I met up to see what it’s all about. Check out the food and some dessert after the jump.

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or to make it easy: Flatiron Lunch.

My lunch hour travels rarely take me to the western edges of Flatiron Lunch boundaries, but earlier this month Robert Sietsema’s tweet about Soul Fixin’s reminded me that I’ve been meaning to try this place out for years. When it was on 34th Street and 9th Avenue, I was never willing to brave the tourist and shopping crowds or –shudder– the M34 to get there. The not-so-new location on 28th Street near F.I.T. may not be closer, but it’s a much easier walk without all the foot traffic in the way.

There aren’t a whole lot of options for soul food in the Flatiron Lunch boundaries, so I decided to check out some American-style Fried Chicken for a change of pace. See what I got after the jump.

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All the Shake Shack chatter had me craving a good west coast style burger, but without all the waiting in long lines.  A few days ago, there was a deal posted for Fresh and Fast, the “In n Out Ripoff” that opened last year . I’m a fan of originality just as much as the next guy, but you’ll have to forgive me if I wasn’t put off. Usually, Five Guys would be my go-to spot for this kind of burger, but there aren’t any branches between 42nd Street and 14th Street, so I’ll take what I can get.

See what I found after the jump.

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Today’s Flatiron Lunch is going to be a little different than usual. There’s been a lot of news on the food scene in the area lately and I wanted to catch us all up on the new and upcoming food options.

Upcoming Thai food, Barbecue, Classic Brooklyn Pizza, free desserts and more after the jump.

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Between the wholesale suppliers, flower shops and textile businesses, there’s amazingly little to eat in the space between Koreatown and Madison Square Park. If you look, though, there are a couple gems. The first time I walked into Punjab Palace, there was a posting in the doorway with a list of the new rules for taxi drivers being implemented by the TLC. Clearly, this was a good choice. See the wealth of options after the jump.

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.

Chinese food is everywhere in NY. It’s in tourist shops, it’s in generic deli buffets, it’s even kosher. But Indian Chinese food?  Well, that’s completely new to me.  I’ve walked past Chinese Mirch, in the middle of Curry Hill, dozens of times without thinking much of it. It’s actually been mentioned a few times on the site… but it wasn’t until Luncher ‘Steve’ told us recently about their $5.95 lunch special, that I finally made it over there to check it out. I didn’t have very high expectations, but was happily surprised with what we got.

Details on the special and food photos after the jump.
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