Midtown Lunch

It looks like Izakaya Moku has joined Arang in giving up on the lunch crowd. I passed by yesterday afternoon and noticed the curtains closed on the upstairs Japanese restaurant. I went in to check it out and found no one inside. The door was open, so I peeked in and it was a ghost town. Following up on the website, they now list their hours as opening at 5pm daily. I can’t say I’d been back since checking it out in the spring, but I still mourn the loss of any lunch service in the area… except maybe the Pizzacones.

The random swings in temperature over the last few weeks probably have a lot to do with the coughing and hacking I’ve been hearing up and down the rows of cubicles at work. It’s getting to be about that time when the office cold starts spreading. Hoping to preempt the first cold of the season, I headed to Negi-Ya (on 37th btw. Mad+5th), formerly Washoku Cafe, to fortify myself with noodles and rich, warm broth.

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Japanese bento haven Washoku Cafe has apparently undergone a change in name and management – and it looks like it happened a while ago. You wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but it’s is now called Negi-ya.  Although everything looks more or less the same, including the awning- which still says Washoku.

According to the Negi-Ya website, they have been in the space since April, which is about the time that we noticed the addition of ramen to the menu. The menu still includes the sushi and bentos that Washoku was known for, but it looks like Negi-Ya’s focus is on tonkotsu ramen. It’s about soup season, so I expect to be stopping in to try it out in short order.  Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Negi-Ya, 9 E. 37th St. (btw. Mad+5th), 917-515-0238

I headed to Koreatown for lunch yesterday hoping to get some of my favorite katsu in the neighborhood, only to find the door locked up at Arang (on 32nd btw. 5th+B’way). A quick phone call got no answer or voicemail. Judging by the Halloween decoration in the window, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been closed for very long. Has anyone heard about them closing up shop? Let us know in the comments.

Hide-Chan’s Hakata Ramen. Photo by J. Kenji Lopez Alt.

Oh how the tides have turned! Take that East Village! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! (Ok, scratch that last part.) When I first started Midtown Lunch we were perfectly happy with our ramen selection here in Midtown. Sapporo, Menchanko Tei, and Men Kui Tei were all perfectly acceptable bowls of Japanese noodle soup, but there was no question that the EV was where ramen aficionados longed to work. Minca, Rai Rai Ken, Setagaya, and yes, even Momofuku. We couldn’t compete with that. And once Ippudo opened, well, that was game over. Until today!

Serious Eats’ J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (the amazing Food Lab dude) has declared Hide-Chan’s Hakata Ramen the best bowl of Ramen in New York City (with Totto Ramen coming in 3rd, after Ippudo.) That’s right. Soak it in people. Midtown now officially has the best ramen in New York City!

Related:
Hide-Chan’s Black Ramen is a Garlicky Force to Be Reckoned With

I should probably admit off the bat that I never ate at Chiyoda Sushi (on 41st btw. Mad+5th). Of all the times I walked right by it on my way to Cafe Zaiya, I think I stopped in once and I still ended up going to Zaiya. Despite Zach’s strong recommendation to check it out, I just couldn’t get excited for what was described as a more refined (more expensive) version of the Zaiya experience. Admittedly I’m not sure why that was because I’ve definitely spent $10 at Zaiya before, so it’s not like that is usually a dirt cheap lunch for me. Now that Chiyoda has been reborn as Mai Sushi, I decided it was time to give them a try.

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A couple of weeks ago, a new cart called Grill & Noodle popped up on 50th btw. 6+7. The cart has an old school no-frills appearance and an odd Chinese/Japanese hybrid menu that ranges from lo mein to teppanyaki. That kind of identity crisis is often a bad sign. I found myself walking by the cart the other day and figured I might as well give a shot, especially when I noticed the mysterious Casanova steak.

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Back in the spring, Luncher ‘Steve” spotted the opening of Tokyo 11 just out of ML bounds (sort of in Flatiron Lunch bounds) on 31st and Lexington. We haven’t checked it out yet, but passing by this week, I noticed that they’re offering 15% off of the whole menu through the end of the month.
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Since my initial write-up of Totto Ramen, I’ve become somewhat of a regular customer. Customer may be too light of a word – ‘devotee’ is more like it. At the ever so slightly out-of-ML price range, this ever so slightly out-of-bounds restaurant has enraptured me, besting my former #2 ranked ramen shop, Minca in the East Village (Ippudo remains steadfast at #1… for now).

While I was previously constrained to the plain bowl of chicken paitan ramen ($9.25), in keeping with ML cost guidelines, I found true love in the spicy chicken ramen ($10.25), made even more tasty with the added crunch of kikurage mushrooms (+$1), and the opulence of a seasoned hardboiled egg (+$1). Impossibly decadent and deliriously spicy, this nearly perfect bowl of chicken noodle soup is worth the >$10 splurge. They say that perfection has a price, but for $12 and change, I’ll buck the trend of being a lunchtime cheapass and indulge.

Related:
Totto Ramen Is the Closest Thing We’ve Got to the East Village

I’ve been meaning to stop in for after work drinks at Sake Bar Kirakuya ever since I saw the shimmering curtain sign in the window months ago. By the end of the workday, though, my instinct is usually to get as far from the office as possible and I just keep forgetting to try it.

So, I was excited to find a good excuse to check it out during the day now that they are open for lunch. The other day a friend and I stopped in to see what these new Japanese options are all about.

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