Midtown Lunch

I finally got to try the Schnitzel Burger from the Schnitzel & Things Truck today.  It required me getting there at 11:40am (the line was already 11 people long, 30+ by the time a left at 12:05), but was completely worth it.  And after taking one bite… the music started loud and clear in my head:

At last… my love has come along
My lonely days are over, And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, at last, The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clovers
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine…. At last.

But what did I really think?

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The new Kosher Oasis Cart has had an interesting first couple of months. It first appeared on 44th street (btw. 6+7th) at the end of last year, but then like a mirage (or oasis?) it reappeared on 47th, only to disappear and reappear again a few times throughout August. It seems to have settled in over on 47th Street (btw. 6+7th), but it was forced to move somewhere else on Wednesdays (possibly related to the intimidation reported by the local news?)

But what about the food?  I headed over recently to sample a few of their menu items. (And by “sample” I mean stuff my fat face with pretty much everything they make.)

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I would never eat at Ted Montana Grill (on 51st btw. 6+7th).  What is this Mickey Mouse, owned by Ted Turner, we make bison burgers and are environmentally friendly BS. I’ve got much better places to eat lunch. What’s that you say?  They’re offering a $10 lunch special with mini burgers, meatloaf and more?  Well, I suppose I could check it out.  You know, for work purposes.

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In case you missed it, on Friday I was grilled over at A Hamburger Today- giving them my thoughts on the almighty hamburger. Here were my picks for best and worst burgers in Midtown:

“Tough to say. Fast food, thin burger: Five Guys (on 55th btw. 5+6th). Fast food, thicker burger: Burger Joint (on 56th btw. 6+7th). Burger from a Cart: Carnegie John’s (on 56th & 7th). As for the more expensive, sit down burgers, I haven’t had very many. But HB Burger (on 43rd btw. B’way+6th) and Beacon (on 56th btw. 5+6th) are both really good. And the worst burger I’ve ever had in Midtown was at this place called Arome Cafe on 32nd between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Somebody twittered @midtownlunch that their burger was “$5.50 and bangin’”. Against my better judgment (Arome Cafe is one of those terrible generic delis that Midtown is famous for, and Midtown Lunch does its best to fight against) I tried the terrible terrible burger. Bad meat (not unlike what I got in my Jr. High Cafeteria), bad flavor, poorly cooked. Couldn’t even finish it. Damn you, Twitter!”

Check out the worst burger I’ve ever had, after the jump…

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I completely dropped the ball on this one (thanks to Apikoros for pointing it out in the forums), and completely neglected one of the more interesting parts of last week’s New York Magazine’s Cheap Eats issue: their online only list of 82 Most Notable Hamburgers in New York City. I counted 12 of them in Midtown (although admittedly there may have been more): Bar Americain, Beacon, Burger Joint, Carnegie John’s, City Burger, DB Bistro Moderne, Five Guys, Flip, Good Burger, La Cense Burger Truck, Pop Burger, and Prime Burger.  Props to NYMag for including Carnegie John’s, but La Cense?  Too soon my friends.  Too soon.  See the complete list here>>

Related:
Burger Joint Offers Early Bird Special Thru Thursday

I fully admit that my Midtown Lunch pricing rules have always been a little vague. Under $10 is the rule, but does that mean with or without tax? Does it have to include a drink? And how much food do you have to get for your $10? The answer to all those questions is… uh… maybe? The truth is, it’s all about feel. You could easily spend over $10 at many of the places that are written about on this site, and there are places I refuse to write about that have items under $10. Sometimes it just comes down to instinct.

My original instinct about HB Burger, the newish Heartland Brewery owned burger spot on 43rd btw. B’way+6th, was thumbs down. Even though their burgers are well under $10 (in fact, they boast that everything on their menu is less than $9), it is a sit down restaurant where a burger *and* fries will cost you well over $10. I will occasionally write about sit down restaurants on ML, but the bar is much higher for those places, and the ideal Midtown Lunch spot is a place where take out is the norm or they have a free seating area for once you get your food at a counter. Heartland Brewery (and by transitive property HB Burger) is not one of those places. In fact, it’s the kind of place this blog was created to combat: the slightly-overpriced-for-what-you-get, tourist magnet, that might also appeal to the type of Midtown worker who doesn’t want to walk the extra few blocks for something more interesting.

But in the end taste and price can go along way to help me ignore a bunch of tourists, so when HB Burger decided to offer that $9.95 Midtown Lunch special for one this week only- I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. It’s only fair.

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Following in the footsteps of Time Out New York’s Feed Blog…  Thrillist, Citysearch’s The Feedbag, and New York Magazine have all filed reports about this new La Cense Burger Truck coming to Midtown sometime in the next week later in the month.  With all this PR, I’m starting to wonder if this truck is about bringing tasty burgers to Midtown Lunchers or about raising brand awareness for La Cense’s Montana bred beef (after all, NYC is the biggest food media city in the country.) We’ll wait to see if they park outside of Conde Nast before issuing judgment.

A few other important tidbits of important info I didn’t mention in the first post… the burgers will be made entirely from grass fed beef, and will be served topped with carmelized onions on a sesame seed bun for $7. And if you were wondering exactly what Adam Perry Lang’s (from Daisy May’s BBQ) role in all of this is, he created the burger recipe and the method of preperation.  It definitely could be good…