Midtown Lunch

I love tacos. The more interesting the fillings the better, from tender lengua to crunchy oreja, I’ll eat it. Yet working near the Empire State Building, the options are pathetic. Short of Chipotle, we’ve got nothing. So, when I read nonnomnyc’s post in the forums last week about a new Taco Truck near Penn Station, I knew I’d be making the trip in short order. Yesterday, I stopped by El Comioncito’s to give it a try. The truck, run by Ecuadorans, offers all varieties of street meat, but that’s not what I was there for. The Mexican menu is small and you might miss it at first. There are only four types of tacos available, but I’ll take what I can get.

See the tacos after the jump.
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Photos courtesy of Lunch’er “nomnomnyc”

Thanks to Luncher “nomnomnyc” for posting in the forums about this new taco truck that has shown up near Penn Station (on the corner of 31st and 7th Avenue.) It’s just out of ML bounds and the selection seems to be limited, but given how woefully under-served the area is for Tacos, I’m willing to go the extra block for some carnitas that don’t come from Chipotle.

More photos, the menu, and a brief report is after the jump.

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Have you ever been kind of jealous of the winners of Zach’s various cart tours?  Even though I work in midtown and can hit the great midtown carts anytime I want, there’s something to be said about the fun of taking on a bunch of them at once.  To really do it right you need strength in numbers, so when I learned that a couple of my friends from Seattle, would be in town and free for lunch during the week, I started plotting potential food adventures.  Both of them regularly read Blondie & Brownie and they were jealous of the midtown cart/food truck scene.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that we should try to hit as many carts for as many different types of foods as possible and with that in mind, may a present Brownie’s Cart Canyon Tour: 10 carts/10 cuisines/$10 a person…

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Knowing how much I love the all-you-can-eat buffet, Serious Eats grand poobah Ed Levine IM’d pretty soon after he and the SENY crew discovered El Ranchito del Agave- the brand new Mexican restaurant on 9th Ave. btw. 36+37th that features a lunch buffet.  He knew I’d be excited (I’m very serious about my all you can eat buffets), but cautioned that he might have finally found an all you can eat buffet that even I couldn’t get behind 100%.  Ed found the taquitos to be dry, and the mole too sweet- but the rest of the crew seemed to like it enough in their review… and it’s only $8!  How could it be bad!? (After all you are talking to a guy who has willingly eaten at an all you can eat Chinese buffet in the back woods of Tennessee.)

What I’m trying to say is my standards for all you can eat buffets are far lower than Ed’s, so I rushed out 9th to check this one out.

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There’s something about eating lunch in a building’s loading dock that is just so fun… so awesome… so… well, Midtown Lunch’ish.  The most famous two examples of this are Pick-a-Pita (which was in a loading dock, before moving to 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) and El Sabroso, which is still serving up delicious and cheap latin food out of a counter in a loading dock on 37th btw. 7+8th.

So, when Luncher Christina told me about Nick’s Place “tucked away in a freight entrance” on 39th btw. 7+8th, I naturally had to check it out.

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El Rey del Sabor has added a third cart to their Mexican food empire. They’ve been flirting with the just out of ML bounds location on 28th Street and 6th Ave. for months now, but made it a permanent spot a few weeks ago.  This should considered great news for lunchers in the southern part of Midtown.  Their other two carts are located on 60th & 3rd, and 49th & 3rd.

I might have been mildly interested in this news if Baja Fresh hadn’t just opened on 3rd Ave, although I guess if you work near Penn Station you might be down: “I just randomly happened upon this today…. Inside of Penn Station a Moe’s Southwest Grill is set to open — I’d say by Friday. They looked open and staffed, but had the door barricaded. This location isn’t even mentioned on their website as a coming soon! Walking inside towards the A-C-E lines, it’s on the right side. They are also converting the Houlihan’s to a TGI Fridays, and remodeling the Roy Rogers (which contains two other places that I cannot recall). -Lunch’er Joe” Ahhh, Penn Station. What a glorious lunchtime wonderland. Anybody been to this chain before? Is it worth it?

Apparently Monday at 1:30pm is the time to hit up the new Baja Fresh on Lexington btw. 45+46th.  5 people in line.  Nobody at the salsa bar.  Got my food in five minutes. (A stark contrast with… I don’t know… say… opening day.) Finally, the chance to enjoy one of the things I really miss about living in Los Angeles: the Baja Chicken Burrito.  Since this chain opened up their first Manhattan location last Monday I’ve heard a lot of words thrown around.  Overrated, overhyped, meh.  To those people I say… you may be right.

Expecting Mexican food greatness from Baja Fresh is like hoping for rare roast beef on your Arby’s Sandwich. And complaining that it’s not real Mexican food is like wishing that In N Out Burger served thicker patties. You don’t compare In N Out to JG Melon; you compare it to McDonalds.  In other words, in the world of fast food pseudo-Mexican corporate chains (Chipotle, Qdoba, Taco Bell), Baja Fresh is the king. And in a terrible Mexican food city like New York, any decent addition is welcomed with open arms.

Of course I base that opinion entirely on the Baja Chicken Burrito, which is pretty much the only thing I order at Baja Fresh. But after hearing negative things about the New Jersey locations of Baja Fresh, I was concerned that this NYC franchise wasn’t going to be able to pull it off.

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There’s a big part of me that wants $5 curry from Go Go Curry today (today is their second anniversary), but there’s another part of me that knows today should be all about the Mexican food.  Even though people complain that there is no good Mexican food in New York City, we do have a decent number of options in Midtown.  There’s the two El Rey del Sabor carts (60th & 3rd, 49th & 3rd), Pampano Taqeria, a bunch of tamale options, and if you are willing to trek to 10th Ave., Tehuitzingo (btw. 47+48th) and Tulcingo del Valle (btw. 46+47th.)  Or, you can hit up Mamacita’s favorite Mexican spot: Las Poblanitas.

Our beloved Happy Hour correspondent has been trying to get me to go to Las Poblanitas for a years now (long before she started contributing to the site in an official capacity.)  Just out of bounds (on 38th btw. 8+9th), if you’ve ever walked by 38th & 8th during lunch before you have undoubtedly seen the guy holding the sign pointing you towards tacos, tamales, and burritos.  If you haven’t before, you would be wise to follow the arrow on that sign.

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