Midtown Lunch

At the end of March, there was a little bit of craziness when the owners of Abitino’s Pizza opened City Burger on 39th & Broadway, serving patties made with meat from Pat La Freida’s, the much praised butcher who supplies the Shake Shack with their beef. It also helped that the place popped up in a particularly burger starved part of the Midtown Lunch’ing landscape. Crowds were large, wait times were long, and the result, was a not so happy Midtown Lunch’ing public (although Lauren over at AHT called it a “decent burger for the neighborhood“). As with any new place, judging them on day 2 is a huge disservice (especially when they’re slammed), but after 5 weeks it doesn’t look like much has improved. This was posted yesterday in the comments:

I tried the newly openend City Burger on 1410 Broadway at 39th street. I ordered a cheesburger with the works – cooked medium and an order of Onion rings. Total cost was $10.95. Cheeseburger was overcooked and dry. Onion rings were cold and burnt. This place is awful for food. I will never go there again. Also – the wait for ordering is about 15 -20 minutes for an overcooked, burnt and cold food. I would not recommend this food establishment to anyone.

You may notice some other comments referring to City Burger as “the best burger”, but suspiciously they all came from the same computer, despite different names. (We don’t take kindly to shilling here…) How long do you give a place to get their act together before writing it off? I *really* wanted to have a place where I could get some buffalo wings with a hamburger!  If you had a good experience at City Burger, and your IP address doesn’t match “Mario’s” or “Ashley’s”, post about it in the comments below.

*** Since this piece was written, breakfast Has Been Discontinued at Goodburger***

As you know, I don’t really write about breakfast in Midtown, mostly because I don’t eat breakfast in Midtown.  Lunch is more my thing.  But occasionally something will come along that just demands to be written about.  Like this, which I noticed on Goodburger’s Breakfast menu:

Whaaaa???  Are you kidding me.  Seriously.  I mean… No you didn’t! Oh, and in case you were wondering, those *are* harsh browns underneath the burger.  Greatest breakfast sandwich of all time?  I’m trembling just thinking about it. 

The real thing, in all its glory, after the jump… Read more »

With so many quality burger places open in Midtown these days, each place needs it’s own special thing to differentiate themselves from the others.  The way I see it, Burger Joint has the sweet location, Five Guys is for free toppings and freshly cut fries, Pop Burger is the choice if you want sliders, and while the newly opened City Burger is still working out their kinks, it’s clear they’re working off the notion that you wouldn’t mind having some chicken wings or mozarella sticks with your burger.

Goodburger, on the other hand, has never done enough to get me back there on a regular basis.  There is no doubt it is a tasty hamburger, made from quality beef, but it’s always been expensive (the value meals are over $10), and the patty is just not that big.  With all the other options (and my willingness to travel more than a few blocks away from my office) I just didn’t really have a reason to go… until now.

At the beginning of March, Goodburger introduced the “Crabby Patty” to their menu, a deep fried Maryland crab cake sandwich for $7.99.  It’s not on the menu screen, and sometimes they forget to put out the little stand that advertises it, so make sure you ask for it specifically.  I stopped by last week to check it out, and was pretty pleased with the results.  Read more »

It seems like every day I’m posting one of these.  First it was the buffets, and then Del Frisco’s raised the price of their steak tips deal.  Now, the incredibly popular Burger Joint, “hidden” in the lobby of the Parker Meridien Hotel on 56th btw. 6+7th, has raised their prices.  That’s right- the hamburger that you voted “Best Burger” in the 2008 Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll, now costs $7 (up from $6).  The cheeseburger gets a $1 price hike as well (to $7.50) and the grilled cheese, french fries, brownie, milkshake, bottled water and a beer now cost you 50 cents more.  While soda and lemonade get a token 25 cent increase.  Apparently the whole pickle is the only item immune to the recession.

I’m sure it won’t effect the line of tourists you currently find packing the place everyday, but with Five Guys now open a few blocks away, and Goodburger continuing their expansion, this price hike could have an effect on their lunchtime business.

With the price of food all over the city going up, and a Burger Joint hamburger and fries now going for $10.50, are these places no longer Midtown Lunches, or is it time we adjusted the $10 cap for inflation?

What the good ‘ole days looked like, after the jump… Read more »

Even though I posted about City Burger’s grand opening yesterday morning, I was out of town, so I missed out.  City Burger’s Day 2, on the other hand, rivaled Five Guys on opening week.  Super long wait times, a large crowd of pretty unhappy people, and a staff struggling to learn the ropes, while simutaneously being slammed by huge lunchtime crowds wanting their burger fix. Oh and the seating is limited to about 15 stools, no tables.Some promising signs… the burger are pretty big and thick, as are the rings- which are beer battered. They’ve also got thick steak fries which look excellent (if you’re into that sort of thing). Oh, and they’ve got wings… I’d give ’em a little time to work out the kinks before I rush over to eat.

On Friday, I got word from the owners of Abitino’s (a generic take out pizza place with multiple locations in Midtown) that City Burger, their newest venture (on 39th just east of Broadway) will finally open today. As I reported in Feburary, the menu and prices are on par with GoodBurger, with the addition of pizza parlor staples like chicken wings and mozzarella sticks. Their meat will come from Pat LaFrieda, the same place the Shake Shack gets the meat for their burgers- so a comparison may be in order. Best case scenario: we finally get a shake shack burger in Midtown. Worst case scenario: another over-priced burger place crowds the the Midtown market (although they seem to have found a little hole in the Midtown landscape that is not serviced by GoodBurger, Five Guys, or The Burger Joint). Most likely middle ground: Midtown now has a fast food burger place where you can also get chicken wings. Very exciting.

I’m actually in Miami until tomorrow, so I’ll be missing out on the Grand Opening, but if you go tell us what you think in the comments. I’ll probably check it out tomorrow, and decide if the $13.50 Burger, Fries, Soda & 5 Chicken Wings combo will put an end to the $10 Midtown Lunch rule!

Related: New City Burger Will Get Meat From the Same Place As The Shake Shack

**UPDATE** 10:45 am – According to commenter DDR, the new Qdoba on 46th btw. Madison + 5th is opening up today as well.

If you’re looking for a St. Patty’s Day Midtown Lunch, there really is only place to recommend…  The Blarney Stone on 3rd Ave. btw. 44+45th.  An Irish Bar, to be sure, but not one of those typical Midtown pubs, where the food is mediocre, overpriced and served to you by a waiter.  It’s a dive in the best sense of the word, with a bar on the left, steam table/grille on the right, free for all wooden tables in the back, and some of the cheapest, most delicious lunch food in Midtown- no menus required.

When I first wrote about the Blarney Stone in January of last year, it was for the burger.  1/2 a lb. of fresh grilled meat, on a gigantic roll for only $4 is easily the best burger deal in Midtown ($6, gets you the works + fries or onion rings), but with the influx of Five Guys, the new Goodburger location , Pop Burger, and standbys like the Burger Joint, I feel like the Blarney Stone is still largely under the radar when it comes to burgers (although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the long lines between Noon and 2pm every day).  The burger is still great, and amazingly they haven’t really raised the prices yet.  But on St. Patty’s Day, a burger may not be exactly what you’re looking for…

Corned Beef porn, and the best onion rings in Midtown, after the jump.  Read more »

Midtown is too much ground for one man to cover, so comments, suggestions and emails are always welcome.  Most “discoveries” I make come from suggestions, and the comments are always a great place to see where other people are eating.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  When I was having chest pains last week, I attributed it to my “work” here on Midtown Lunch and decided to take a salad suggestion from a commenter, only to find another lame, generic deli, not worth the walk out of my way.  The next day the doctor told me there was nothing wrong with my heart, and that I probably only had the death plague that’s been circulating around New York City (she didn’t use those words exactly…)  Thankfully, I didn’t have to try out any more salad suggestions.

Yesterday it worked out a little better when I checked out the Homefront Deli on 41st btw. Park+Madison, which was mentioned awhile back as a good place for a hot pastrami sandwich.  Expecting a soup, sandwich and salad bar deli, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a hole in the wall sandwich place, with more similarities to Milant then Metro Cafe.

My recommended pastrami and swiss, after the jump… Read more »

The owners of Abitino’s, a generic take out pizza place with a few locations in Midtown, are three weeks away from opening “City Burger” on 39th St. just East of Broadway, and I got word from the owners that their burgers will be made from Pat Lafrieda meat, the same purveyor that supplies beef to the Shake Shack.  Not sure if it will be the “high end stuff” or the “regular commodity” meat, but either way it looks like this is the closest thing we’re getting to a shack burger in Midtown.

I got a sneak peak at the menu, and it looks pretty similar to Goodburger.  The burger/fries/soda combo is a disappointing $10.55 ($10 is usually the midtown lunch price limit), but at least you’ll be getting a 1/2 pound burger (no doubt larger than the standard Goodburger, and twice as large as the Shack burger).  They will also be carrying a turkey burger, salmon burger and veggie burger, fries, onion rings, and shakes.

If they are good, the thing that may set this place apart is their buffalo wings (10 for $6.99), and the $13.50 burger/fries/soda/5 buffalo wings combo will definitely have me re-thinking my under $10 rule! 

As of now, there is no Good Burger or Five Guys in the immediate area, but the competition should heat up once the Hale and Hearty owned “Shake Shack” concept planned for the NY times building opens up one avenue away.

Thanks to lunch’er “Gail” for the tip.  If you have any tips, news or recommendations, email them to zach@midtownlunch.com