Across the street from Taam Tov, and one floor down from El Rincon Del Sabor, there’s a new Glatt Kosher Uzbek restaurant on 47th (in the space where Dougie’s BBQ used to be.) It’s $2 cheaper than its neighbor, the staff outnumbers the patrons, and the kicker? Mukpatz!

The regular menu is a carbon copy of Taam Tov’s and anything you order will look and taste exactly the same. What brought me in, apart from the lower prices, is that bizarre fusion of Israeli and Chinese called Mukpatz.

Really, it’s just an Israeli version of Chinese stir fry that ends up being pretty similar to the cornstarch-ed chicken and peppers in brown sauce you’d find at any bulletproof Chinese place. The difference with the Americanized version is that this is much more savory than sweet. And they put it on a baguette.

The sandwich won’t blow your mind with its amazing balance of flavors, top-quality bread, or any of that other crap. It’s a friggin’ stir fry hoagie. But if you’re hungry, and maybe just a little hungover, it’s kind of the best thing ever. At $7.50 with a side of fries, it’s not all that pricey either.

If you insist on getting something ‘normal’, they have Beef/Chicken/Lamb Kebab platters ($10), Uzbek Pilaf ($9), and the standby of Russian grandmothers everywhere, Golubtsy ($8.50). They’ve printed a couple different versions of the menu with prices varying by +/- 50 cents and some of the Russian names replaced with English ones. E.g. Mukpatz becomes “Chicken Sandwich”. Golubtsy becomes “Stuffed Cabbage”, and so on.

The restaurant itself is a small, overlit room across from one of the many jewelry repair and gold wholesalers that occupy the building. It doesn’t have a sign, or a bathroom, or more than one or two sit down customers at a time. If you’re by yourself you can eavesdrop on some interesting conversations (“Have some Diet Coke, no calories so you won’t get fat!” – said to the young, Chinese/Uyghur? waitress). To some this can be a little creepy, so you might want to get your Bakhsh to go.

Five Star Grill, 74 West 47th St (btw. 5th and 6th Ave) 3rd Floor

I made my way to Kolette’s a little later than my usual lunchtime, to a nearly empty storefront. A few people were there eating soup or sandwiches, and the people working there were friendly to all of us in some way. Just like we’ve been hearing, this spin on the banh mi came on fresh bread, and you get to choose your level of spiciness. Since I was still getting over being sick, I decided to go with the medium level. The bottom piece is slathered with mayonnaise and their veggie paté, then topped by the chicken. I found the chicken cooked to tender and in a well seasoned sauce. Carrots, cucumbers, and cilantro top the whole thing off, and you have a Vietnamese Chicken Shawarma Banh Mi.

For $7.50, I found this to be a good-sized sandwich. They’re generous with the chicken, enough to fill you up, but not so much that you end up in an afternoon food coma. Plus, all of the flavors combine together nicely. The medium heat was just enough for me without becoming overwhelming. The carrots add the necessary banh mi crunch, which may be heightened by adding some pickled daikon. Toss in the fresh bread, and this sandwich is completely worthy of being added to the Midtown East rotation.

Kolette’s Kitchen, 672 Lexington (btw. 55+56th), (212) 593-2222

There have been some heated debates around here about where to find the perfect banh mi in Midtown. After we mentioned Yushi was pushing the Vietnamese sandwich on Wednesdays, they quickly sold out in subsequent weeks. Then there was the epic “Banh-Mi-Palooza” organized by Lunch’er Christine and a gang of other awesome ML readers. So, naturally, we were gonna freak the eff out when we heard that Kolette’s Kitchen (a new place on Lex btw. 55+56th) was offering kosher (!?) banh mi complete with porkless (natch) pate. Banh mi without its signature meat ingredient? See how it did on judgment day…

Instead of pork pate and and slices of pork, Kolette’s Kitchen uses veggie pate and turkey terrine to get that look, feel, and, to some degree, the taste of traditional banh mi. You can order it spicy, medium spicy, or mild. I usually prefer things spicy, but for the sake of getting the average, I went for medium spicy.

For a place that looks like a bare bones deli, the baguette was surprisingly fresh with a crisp crust and soft insides – an excellent and appropriately-sized loaf of bread for the foundation of fake banh mi! Even more unexpected, I realized I didn’t miss the sliced pork roll much since the turkey terrine does a decent job masquerading as pig-based protein. Then there was the veggie pate, which has the texture of a thick tomato paste and tasted like ragu. So if you’re OK with a Vietnamese sandwich with an Italian twist, go for it. On top of all this, you have crunchy cilantro, carrots, and thin-sliced cucumber, so it doesn’t fall behind in the fresh category either.

While it won’t make any “Best of” lists, this guy is definitely a worthy stand-in for those too far from the closest Baoguette, and is deeply satisfying if you keep kosher but have always been curious about banh mi. Lastly, for a sandwich that stayed in my bag a bit longer than it should have, it held up pretty well.

Now that the non-pork experiment is over, I clearly need to go back for that other freak sandwich we’ve been reading about in the forums: “Kolette’s special Vietnamese style chicken shawarma”…

Kolette’s Kitchen, 672 Lexington (btw. 55+56th), (212) 593-2222

Two bits of Midtown food news from the website Koshertopia today. First the bad(?) news. Aroma, the Kosher pizza spot on 36th btw. 5+6th, has closed. I guess people weren’t down with the pepperoni fake out? And now the good (also ?) Kolette’s Kitchen will be opening soon on Lex btw. 55+56th serving up “Middle Eastern Mezze, Deli Sandwiches & Vietnamese Sandwiches”. No word on when that will open, but we’re super curious to try Kosher Vietnamese pate.

Have any tips, recommendations or news to share? Send it to editor@midtownlunch.com

Thanks to Lunch’er Stephen for tipping us off to this new kosher waffle truck (?!?) that has popped up on 52nd and Lexington. The truck is called “Quick Stop Kosher“, and according to their website they are indeed selling waffles in addition to sandwiches, falafel, blintzes, and slushies.  The schedule is regularly updated on their Facebook page, and yet the few times I have pranced around 52nd Street, in the heat, they have not seemed to be around (perhaps they are invisible to those of us raised Christian?) I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they will be off on Saturdays and may discover a hungry lunch crowd in the Diamond District.

Has anybody tried this truck yet? We are definitely curious…

UPDATE: Today they are parked on Park Ave. and 23rd St.

If you like Kosher food, but want to be healthy (?) you’ll be interested in this news from Lunch’er Adam. He spotted this truck on 48th and 6th yesterday. Unsurprisingly the website painted on the truck doesn’t work, and we can’t imagine they’ll be able to keep parking on 48th and 6th every single day. We’ll see if they’re back today… early (Kosher?) adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

From the outside, Eden Wok on 34th street looks just like any other generic Chinese food take-out place… save for one thing: a newspaper article in the window from The New York Times. There are number of old school Chinese places in Manhattan that have blessed by coverage from the paper of record- but this isn’t some 2 star review of a Chinese dinosaur (we’re looking at you Shun Lee.)  This article was about Eden Wok’s hot dog egg roll. Yeah, you read that right. Eden Wok is a Kosher Chinese food restaurant, and the star of their menu (according to the NYT circa 2005) is a “Chinese Hot Dog”. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was going to be, but I had to find out… you know… for the sake of science.

I’m not as courageous as Zach, who is eating his way through shady Chinese steam tables, but sign me up for some Chinese hot dogs!

It’s actually pretty simple. You take egg roll skin, wrap it around a hot dog, deep fry this thing… and you have a Chinese hot dog. I guess the Chinese thing to do with a Chinese hot dog is to smear a packet of sinus clearly mustard on it… For $2.50, this thing is not really enough to be a meal. It’s almost like a crunchy corn dog, but since it lacks the substance of a thick cornmeal coating, it won’t fill you up.

So what do you do? Well since I had just walked by Kyochon and the still-under-construction Bon Chon, I was in the mood for some fried chicken wings. At Eden Wok, most of the lunch specials are over $8.50, so I thought perhaps an order of chicken wings ($4.95) would be a good deal. Upon opening the bag of wings, I found a generous pile of fried wings. The wings aren’t huge, but there’s ten of them in there, all fried to perfection. The outside was extremely crisp. They seem to have the same type of breading as most fried wings at American-Chinese food joints. As awesome as it is to get a bag of fried wings to fill you up, the wings would be better with salt or hot sauce. They’re not really seasoned at all, but when they’re cheap and fried, I really have no complaints.

For those of you who aren’t into fried foods, they do serve regular American-Chinese food items like sesame chicken (although it’s Kosher… so expect mock shrimp and *shocker* no pork!)  They also have sushi. And on their website, they call themselves the ‘finest Glatt Kosher Chinese and sushi restaurant.’ That has to stand for something right?!

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Chinese Hot Dog!
• A bag full of fried chicken wings is music to my ears
• I like Chinese food, but I keep Kosher

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• A little salt please?
• Too much fried foods for me, I’m getting ready for the beach
• Chinese food without pork is like sex without the purple unicorn playing a banjo.  It just makes no sense.

Eden Wok, 43 E 34th St. (btw Madison and Park Ave), (212) 725-8100

With the opening of Pizza By Cer Te and news about Hello Pasta, the area by E 55th seems to be getting a whole lotta food action lately! Thanks to Lunch’er Apikoros18 for pointing out the kosher place Yummy Yummy (on Lex btw. 55+56th) that’ll soon arrive too! Looks pretty mysterious so far – just a storefront plastered with “Falafal bar, free salad bar, coffee bar, hummus, bourekas, soups”. No indication about how soon it’ll open, but as soon as we know- you’ll know.

After a giving up fried foods for Lent, I had a post-Easter hankering for falafel, so I headed over to 46th street to hit up Moshe’s Falafel just back from their Passover hiatus. While waiting to place my order discovered that they’ve raised their prices across the board.

My go to order–4 falafel balls with tahina, hot sauce, and pickles is now $2.50, up from $2.00. Falafel sandwiches will now run you $5.25 up from $4.75. Prices for French fries and soup have both increased 50 cents will cost you $3.25 and $4.35 respectively.

Zach’s wasn’t a huge Moshe’s fan because of their sandwich layering problems, but I’ve always just gone for the side order of falafel and added it to my own bread or pita from home so I haven’t encountered the same trouble. Even with the 50 cents increase, $2.50 for crispy falafel, plenty of sauce and pickles is still a steal in my book. Any longtime Moshe’s fans care to weigh in?

A few weeks ago, we reported that Vic’s Bagel Bar (on 3rd Ave. btw. 36+37th) had opened and was offering Midtown bagel lovers the option to customize their cream cheese (Cold Stone Creamery style.) Curiosity always gets the best of me, so of course I had to return to try one of their bagel monstrosities… the Backyard BBQ.

Lest you be confused, here are the steps:

It’s all very Pinkberry’ish, down to the small tubs of toppings… or should I say “mix-ins” because they don’t top your cream cheese as much as they’re, duh, mixed into your cream cheese, hummus, etc. While it’s more trendy-looking than most, it’s still a kosher bagel shop (crazy, right?) so you won’t find any meat here aside from lox.

I grew up on bagels from an awesome Windsor Terrace bagel shop and I thought the particular poppyseed bagel I ordered was comparable to one of Brooklyn’s best. Here’s why: The poppyseed coating was generous, but not so much where you can’t tell the bagel’s color because it’s smothered in seeds. Lunch’er Vick5y mentioned that when she ordered the Backyard BBQ, the cream cheese was “seriously squirting”. Not sure if bagel shop owner Vic took that comment to heart, but there wasn’t excess spillage in mine.

Now, let’s dissect this thing. There’s cut corn, small squares of cheddar cheese mixed with a stream of BBQ sauce, which was then folded into plain cream cheese. It’s such an obvious concept, it kind of blows my mind no one thought to offer customized cream cheese sooner.

In a way, it’s a bagel for hedonists if only because the bagel is no longer just a bagel – it’s a full, three dimensional experience. Not only are you so happy about the taste of cream cheese on a bagel, but there’s now CHUNKS OF CHEESE in your cream cheese. It’s sensory overload, but in a good way. I also happen to be a great fan of barbecue sauce so am wondering why other bagel shops haven’t added barbecue cream cheese to their selection. And if you can’t tell, it was a fat bagel with springy insides. You can ask for a more toasted – darker – bagel, but I want to keep my two front teeth so the bagel’s lightly toasted crust with dense, soft insides was happiness for me.

The Backyard BBQ came out to about $7 with tax which is totally pricey for a bagel, but kind of reasonable for a lunchtime sandwich. (There’s a $7 credit card minimum, which may be a pain for the cashless customer. Thankfully, I just made the cutoff.) Lunch’ers who can’t imagine forking over more than $3 for meatless food, you can still get your $2.50 bagel with cream cheese and $1.50 bagel with butter here. I’m an Ess-A-Bagel (on 3rd btw. 50+51st) devotee because it’s close to where I work, but I actually preferred Vic’s poppyseed to any I’ve had at Ess-A-Bagel. And, at Vic’s, they don’t randomly yell after me in Japanese, which is a nice change to dealing with bored, but well-meaning bagel men at Ess.

Vic’s Bagel Bar, 544 3rd Ave (btw 36+37th), 212-213-3900‎