Midtown Lunch

Every morning on my way to work I always pass by the guy wearing a sign and handing out menus for Joy Curry and Tandoor. I rarely crave Indian food (I wonder why?) and and usually manage to ignore the dude.  But one particularly cold morning, I thought to myself “it must be a tough job standing outside passing out menus and having everyone around ignore you.”  So, feeling sorry for the guy, I figured the least I could do was check out Joy Curry and Tandoor.

Read more »

Tadka Indian (53rd btw. 2+3rd) has been mentioned several times in the comments, forums, Lunch’er profiles, and links over the years as a place for a decent Indian fix in upper Midtown East. While we never got around to a full review, it’s always sad to see good places go out of business. Luckily, its (slightly more expensive) sister restaurant, Chola, is still in business (58th btw. 2+3) so we’re not completely out of luck. Here’s hoping something amazing comes in to fill the void!

The Desi Food Trucks have been a pretty big part of Midtown Lunch since Clay first visited them over a year ago. So, it was a big loss when they were forced out of their spot on 50th (btw 6+7th) by the cops. Ever resilient, the Desi folks may have found a way around the food truck breakdown – they parked their brand new Kati-Kart on 50th btw. 6+7th. Get a look at the menu and some kati rolls after the jump.
Read more »

Good question!  The “Indian Fast Food” Cart was a classic.  Anybody seen it lately or know what happened to it?  Let us know in the comments…

The Kashmir Grill (8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) has had a tumultuous last few years. It used to be a by the pound buffet. Then it was shut down by the DOH. Meanwhile, their downstairs all you can eat buffet became The Times Buffet and may or may not still be associated with their upstairs neighbor. All that is history though. Late last year, Kashmir Grill ditched the pay what it weighs buffet and reopened as a take out place with Indian food that looked largely the same as the original.  Now that it seems to have settled into this role, I thought it was high time Midtown Lunch weighed in.
Read more »

Last month we brought you word that Taste of India had opened next to Carribean Kitchen in 1 Penn Plaza, replacing Bruce’s Burger. While some may lament the loss of a hamburger place, we all know there’s more than enough new burger places popping up in New York these days (ahem, Shake Shack). Some of you in the comments section mentioned that Taste of India is serviceable and it was worthy of investigation because there’s a shortage of Indian options around the Penn Station area. So investigate, I did.

Read more »

Last month we told you that the “Famous Dal Cart” (discovered by Grub Street in the EV) had to decided to move to Midtown for lunch. It hasn’t been the most consistent cart of all time (one day it’s there, one day it’s not), but they seemed to have settled on the NW corner of 32nd and Park. So I swung by last week to see what they have to offer. Just from the name, Famous Dal Cart, I knew two things before even eating any of their food. First, I should probably try the dal (duh). Second, it’s always good to be weary of restaurants that claim to be “famous” or “best” at something (especially when they’ve been open for less than a month!) In other words, I was keeping my expectations on the low side (but hoping to be pleasantly surprised.)

When I arrived at the Famous Dal Cart, I knew that even if their dal wasn’t good enough to be famous, they would at least win an award for having a festively decorated cart.

Read more »

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.
Read more »

The Trini-Paki Boys cart (on the SE corner of 43rd and 6th) is well known to Midtown Lunch’ers.  It’s mostly famous for their Pakistani version of chicken over rice, topped with Trinidadian pepper sauce- but Zach was pretty excited to discover that they also served biriyani, dahi bala, polourie, samosas, and most importantly doubles.

I discovered doubles in my college days through a Trinidadian ex-girlfriend. It’s been years since we’ve been on speaking terms, but doubles are still a fond memory. So a week or so ago I finally got a chance to check out the Trini Paki Boys cart for myself- and for once skipped the street meat in favor of a double.

After the jump, some doubles porn and a little background on the whole “Trini-Paki” thing.

Read more »

Apparently the Dosa Cart that was spotted on 39th and 7th a few weeks back and then promptly disappeared has moved one avenue East (or maybe it was always on 6th, who knows?) Bionic Bites twittered this photo yesterday, which we are pretty sure is from the NE Corner of 39th and 6th. Any dosa fans out there? Early adopters, let us know how this new cart is in the comments…