Midtown Lunch

I haven’t had Indian food for awhile, so I headed over to the East side of Midtown to a place I’ve walked by many times but never eaten at.  Despite the sign, which mentions Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh (and the fact that the food is halal), Joy Curry & Tandoor is a normal steam table Indian food place, similar to Minar or Maharaja.  The place is always packed, and frequented by a lot of Indian workers from the area, a clear sign that it must be good.

There is plenty of Indian food in Midtown, and while my favorite form of Indian is the all you can eat buffet, almost all of the buffets in Midtown are over $10.  Luckily there are a bunch of places, like Joy, where you can get a very filling Indian meal, for under $10.

What I got, Indian porn and the +/- after the jump… Read more »

If you missed the news– today is the last day to enjoy Kati Roll at their 46th St. location.  They will be re-opening on 39th St. btw. 5+6th in a week and a half.  The reaction has been pretty predictable.  If you work near the current Kati Roll, you’re pretty bummed.  If you work near the new location, you’re pretty psyched.  But there’s one thing that there is no denying… come tomorrow there will be a Kati Roll void, waiting to be filled in the 40s between 6+7th.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Biriyani Cart that started serving Roti Rolls on 46th & 6th.  A perfect replacement for Kati Roll (and half the price!).  Well now it appears that cart will have some competition.  Last week, a new cart quiety opened up between the Biriyani Cart, and Kati Roll- serving their own brand of Kati Rolls.  And there is no mistaking the intentions.  The new cart is looking to be Kati Roll replacement.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the signs they had printed up- after the jump Read more »

That’s right.  Our beloved Kati Roll (on 46th btw. 6+7th), has lost their lease and is moving.  The last day to eat at the current location is Thursday, June 28th.  They will re-open on July 7th on 39th St. btw. 5+6th.  Great news for the folks in Midtown South, who never made it up for a delicious “Indian Burrito”.  Bad news for the local regulars.

Currently they only do delivery after 2:30pm, but I was told that they are hoping to do lunchtime delivery from the new location.  It is also going to be twice as big.  R.I.P. Kati Roll 46…  Long Live Kati Roll 39!

Their apology letter, after the jump… Read more »

Next Thursday (6/7), Midtown Lunch turns 1 year old- and I can honestly say no restaurant, no article, no food or news has has been bigger on this site than Kati Roll.  I wrote about the “Indian Burritos” the first month of the blog, and that page has been read more times than any other piece on this site. 

In a lot of ways Kati Roll sums up the Midtown Lunch experience.  It’s interesting, delicious (obviously), not too expensive, and most importantly it’s only two blocks away from my work, next to one of the more popular places in Midtown (Margon), and yet most of the people I worked with, had never heard of it.  Kati Roll was and still is a testament to the laziness of most Midtown Lunch’ers.  Every day, on the way to boring soups and sandwiches Midtown workers walk blindly past some of the best food in Midtown, without even noticing.

Well- it took a year, but finally Kati Roll has got some competition.  And it comes in the form of a cart!  For a long time this cart toiled annonymously in Midtown, serving up the typical lamb or chicken and rice- just like countless other carts not really worth mentioning.  I first noticed it a little while back, when they hung a hand-made sign on the front that said “Chicken Biriyani Special”.  I made a mental note, but never found time to go back.

Apparently, it has gotten popular- because now the Chicken Biriyani sign is professionally printed, and takes up most of the front of the cart.  In the past few weeks I had started to get emails telling me how good the Wednesday & Friday Chicken Biriyani (or Biryani if you prefer)special is- so this past Friday I headed over to check it out.  Imagine my surprise and delight, when I discovered the even newer sign selling “Chapati Rolls”, clearly a Kati Roll knock off, just a few hundred yards away from the crowd of people waiting for their Kati Rolls to be ready.

Pics of the new Kati Rolls on the block, and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

When opening a new business, there are two ways of going about finding a location.  #1.  Find an underserved area, where your presence will fill a niche that is currently not being addressed.  Or there is #2.  Find a successful business that is similar, open up next door, and either benefit from their overflow, or crush them under the weight of your greatness. (Or fail miserably.)  Either way, I’ve seen #2 happen all over Midtown.  Kobe Club & Quality Meats, the M&M store & the Hershey Store… and now- Indian Food Carts!

Last July I wrote about “Indian Fast Food“, a cart on Park Ave. & 53rd St. serving up styrofoam trays of Indian food for $4 and $5 (depending on if you wanted the meat).  The cart is super cheap, and great if you work in the area, but with all the Indian choices in Midtown, the quality is not good enough to go out of your way for. Thanks to a tipster, I was informed that there is now another cart serving Indian food for $4 to $5 in styrofoam containers, and it’s popped up on the same block!!!

What this new cart is serving, how it was, pictures and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

Ever since the $8.99 Rangole Indian Buffet closed, I’ve been searching for a replacement in Midtown.  Sure, I could spend $12.95 and up for a fancy Indian Buffet (there are plenty of them)- but I really wanted to find something under $10.  Sukhadia, the vegetarian Indian buffet is really good, but it’s $10.95, and there’s no meat- so it doesn’t really qualify as a full fledged replacement.  When I posted about that place, a few people recommended Curry Dream.

Curry Dream is a middle of the road Indian restaurant on 39th btw. 5th & 6th with a lunchtime buffet that costs $9.95.  (Anything under $10 is very exciting to me!!!)  Overall the food was better than Rangole (not too difficult), and for the price it is easily the best Indian buffet deal in Midtown.

What’s on the buffet, pictures and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

Ever since Rangole closed last month I have been searching for an under $10 Indian Buffet in Midtown.  After weeks of searching (and asking for suggestions) I have come up with the conclusion that it just doesn’t exist.  There is one on 9th Ave. and one on 2nd Ave., but these are both out of my eating range… And while I have been known to travel very far distances for the face stuffing that only a buffet can provide, my goal is to find a cheap Indian Buffet in Midtown proper.  There is no question that there are some great Indian buffets in Midtown if you are willing to fork over $15+ bucks… but I’m not quite at that level of desperation. 

But, I am still a little bit desperate- so with no $10 buffets left, I decided to up my price to $10.95 and check out Sukhadia’s, a Vegetarian Indian Buffet on 45th btw. 5th & 6th Ave.  Now, I am not an Indian food expert, and I am not exactly sure what kind of Indian food Sukhadia serves- but I can say this… if you are looking for Tandoori Chicken, or some sort of Tikka Masala with Naan- you are going to be very disappointed.  In fact, if you are looking for meat at all, or even any of the standard Northern Indian dishes you find at most American Indian restaurants, you are going to be disappointed.  I believe the cuisine is mostly from the area of Rājasthān, but you can find Northern and Southern Indian food at the restaurant, in addition to Jain dishes (a religion/philosophy from Ancient India whose followers are vegetarian).

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  You show up at an Indian Buffet, and it costs $10.95 and they got no meat, it’s going to make you say “Yo Goober! Where’s the meat?”  Well, here’s my theory…  With most Indian Buffets, you get what you pay for.  If a buffet costs $15 or more, chances are it’s going to be of decent quality.  Pay $9 (i.e. Rangole), and there may be meat dishes, but the curry it’s covered in is probably going to be watery- and the veggie dishes are usually crap too.  If you are charging $11, and serving NO meat, than you are probably going to take extra special care to make sure that your veggie dishes are pretty tasty.  So, as much as I love lamb, and beef and Tandoori Chicken- I headed over to this Vegetarian Indian buffet to fork over my $11 and check it out.

What they had, a picture of my first plate and the +/- after the jump…

Read more »

The complaints against eating in Midtown are many… but the one thing you can’t complain about is a lack of good Indian food.  There are tons of Indian places for every appetite and price range.  Expensive sit down restaurants, expensive buffets, cheap buffets, cheap take out, and even an Indian food cart.  When you look at the cheap options, it seems as if there is one for every neighborhood.  If you work on Park in the 50s, there’s the super cheap Indian food cart on 53rd.  If you work on the East side of Midtown in the 40s, there’s Hurry & Tasty Curry.  If you work on the west side there’s Minar.

Everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love Kati Roll (the “Indian Burrito” place)… but sometimes you just want the real thing.  And when that urge hits, Minar is right next store to feed my Indian food fix.  The one thing I’ve realized about these Indian food places is, you get what you pay for.  You pay $4 for Indian food out of a cart, it’s going to taste like $4 Indian food (it’s good, but not the best).  Minar costs a little more then that, and it’s a little better.  Not as good as a nice Indian restaurant where you are going to pay $10+ an entree, but if you are looking for some quick and tasty Indian food for lunch- and you work in this area of Midtown, you can’t do better then Minar.

What I got, pictures of the food, and the +/- after the jump…

Read more »

I think I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again.  I love food courts.  What’s there not to like?  It’s like 20 cheap restaurants, all under the same roof.  Sure I always get the Chinese food, or the Chinese food knock off (bourbon chicken I’m looking at you)… but having the options (whether you use them or not) is great- because if you go with other people, everyone can get what they want.  So when I want Chinese food (which I always do), my wife and I can go to a food court even if she doesn’t want Chinese food, because there’s other things for her to get!  It’s a fool proof scheme…

There aren’t many food courts in Manhattan (you’ve gotta go to a mall in the suburbs for that), but there are a few.  And one, that seems like it should be amazing, is the Grand Central Terminal Food Court.  One walk through this place, and you’ll think you’ve died and gone to food court heaven.  No wasted space on generic fast food joints like McDonalds or BK, and they have all the requisite food options (Chinese, Sushi, Indian, Cajun, Caribbean, BBQ, Pizza, and more.) 

And yet, for a food court- with a ton of options- right in the middle of Midtown, it’s not nearly as crowded as you would think.  None of the places have lines, and we didn’t have too much trouble finding a place to sit.  To top it off, I get emails all the time recommending places to eat in Midtown.  Very few “good” (a relative term of course) or popular places have gone unrecommended.  And yet, nobody has ever recommended the food court, or singled out any of the choices in an email.

A superficial look at the options, more pictures, and a call to arms… after the jump.

Read more »

I had lunch for the first time at Maharaja the other day, an Indian dive on 45th st. btw. Lexington & 3rd.  Maharaja, you say?  I’ve walked down that street many times and never seen a place called Maharaja… Well, that’s because the awning doesn’t say Maharaja.  That’s not memorable… and it’s a little too “nice” a name- especially for a dive like this.  I don’t care what the take out menu says, I’ve always called it by the name on the awning- “Hurry and Tasty Curry”. 

How could you not?  It’s a perfect name for this place.  Say what you want about grammar, reading the name, you understand what kind of restaurant it is.  During lunch, the food is all in steam plates, so it’s “hurry”, and a lot of the food is pretty tasty (I’m not going to vouch for all of it).  Maybe it was meant to be “Hurry and Taste THE Curry” but the guy who made the sign heard them wrong.  To add to the confusion, Menupages has two listings for the place, at the same address (133 E. 45th St.), Maharaja (which gets four stars) and Hurry & Tasty Curry (which gets 3 1/2 stars).  As far as I can tell, the owners of Hurry & Tasty Curry used to own an Indian restaurant on 44th St. called Maharaja (which was half a star better then the only place they own now- which is on 45th St. and has a giant awning that say Hurry & Tasty Curry). 

Who knows… but either way the sign says everything you could ever need to know about this place.  It’s fast, tasty and it is clearly authentic (because these people are too busy making good Indian food to care about English grammar).

What they’ve got, pictures and the +/- after the jump…

Read more »