Midtown Lunch

Here we go again.  I love the buffets… and on Friday I visited another one (with my wife and a few of her co-workers).  I had actually been to this buffet back in March for my brother’s birthday- when it was known as Minado.  We went for dinner, and it was pretty good.  Decent sushi, some good hot things, not too crowded- but things were still fresh, and a huge selection.  A couple of months later, I had read that it was sold to Todai, a Japanese buffet chain with locations mostly in the west coast, Texas, Illinois, Virginia & New York.  My one previous visit to a Todai (in Los Angeles) left me with a bad taste in my mouth (literally).  The rice they used to make the sushi was disgusting, and the warm food was not so great either.

With that in mind, we went to the New York Todai, hoping that some of the Minado goodness was held over in the transition.  Todai is what is known by buffet aficionados as a “Super Buffet”.  It’s a very technical term, and might be difficult to understand for the buffet lay-person.  “Super” refers to the awesome size and nature of the buffet in question.  Most Super Buffets have many stations, and at least 50 items (I just made that up… I don’t think there is any real measure). 

Super Buffets also require a totally different technique from your small scale and regular size buffets.  With the small buffets it is easy to load your plate up with the 10-20 items they have available… but with a Super Buffet you need to be more cautious.  I like to take small bits of as many items as possible, scope out the real winners and then return for larger portions of the 3 or 4 things that I really loved.

Tackling Minado, the food porn, and the +/- after the jump…

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After snapping the picture of the new Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine set to open on 56th St. I happened upon a place that caught my interest.  What appeared to be a generic middle of the road Midtown sushi joint, had placed a cooler/glass case in front of their restaurant and were selling pre-made little boxes of sushi and other Japanese food… and there was a line.  I love sushi, and am always looking for good, cheap sushi at lunch, but I usually avoid the restaurant places because they are a little bit more money then I want to spend, and I don’t really eat at sit down places for lunch.  I’ll make exceptions for buffets, and really good ramen places… but sushi restaurants, I tend to avoid.

But this one was selling boxes of sushi out front, and that makes it exciting!  I don’t know what it is about setting up shop on a sidewalk that makes something more appetizing to me, but it just does.   Sell fresh made delicious sushi (or BBQ, or falafel, or gyro or teriyaki for that matter), in a restaurant where I have to sit, order, wait and then tip, and I’ll hesitate.  But take the same food, put it in a to go container, and sell it on the sidewalk for the same price- and I’ll be the first one on line.   

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

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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.

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I just wanted to say a quick thank you for all the emails I’ve gotten, many of them with some great suggestions.  A lot of those suggestions urge me to branch out farther and farther from the places I have already reviewed.  9th avenue, the high 30s, Koreatown.  Someone even suggested I go to Chinatown if I wanted “real authentic Chinese food“.  Apparently she didn’t fully grasp the meaning of my blog’s very complex title.  It is very confusing…

I kid, I kid.  Although every day I struggle with where to draw the boundaries with this blog.  I could say 8th ave. on the west, and 42nd St. to the south.  But what if there’s a great place to eat on 41st.  Am I really not going to walk the extra block?  So the truth is, I’m not going to set any boundaries.  And the reason is simple…  No boundaries means I have an excuse to go all the way down to 32nd st. in Koreantown to write about my favorite all you can eat buffet… Arang.

One of my favorite styles of eating is the all you can eat buffet.  The variety, the concept, the trying to beat the game by pushing your personal eating limits as far as they can go.  What’s there not to like?  (Besides how you feel afterwards).  And nothing is going to get me to travel 16 blocks away from work like a $9.95 face stuffing Korean and Sushi extravaganza.  Which is precisely what you get at Arang.

For those who work on the southern part of Midtown 32nd St. btw. Broadway and 5th Ave. is no big deal.  But for those of us a little farther north, here’s the way I see it.  There’s no ordering, and you start eating immediately… so- 20 minutes down, 20 minutes to eat, and 20 minutes back.  It’s a full proof scheme. 

Arang is what I refer to as a “small scale” buffet.  Don’t expect Minado (the gigantic Japanese buffet on 32nd btw. 5+Madison, which sadely has been bought out by Todai) or some sort of Super Buffet.  This is one of those small places with fewer items… but because it is small- you hope the few things they do have are done well.

What they have, the pictures and +/- after the jump… Read more »

If you read this blog every day, I’m sure you get the general idea of my taste.  I’m not really into those delis that litter midtown with their “choice”.  Choice to me is
“Do I get my combo with the pork fried rice, or lo mein?”.  I consider most sandwiches kind of boring, and I never imagined I could eat a salad for lunch.  That is, until I met the Variety Cafe… and I let my guard down.  I allowed myself to fall in love with this Variety Cafe place, and their wonderful salad bar for fat people… only to have my heart ripped in half by their disregard for serving said salad without rodent droppings.

“I’ll never eat at a deli/salad bar place again” I said to myself (I use slashes when I talk- that’s pronounced “deli slash salad bar”), that is, until I found Cafe Duke.  From the outside it looks like your typical Manhattan lunch place.  The name, the decor, the salad bar, buffet by the pound, rotisserie bar, sandwiches and paninis, wraps and of course the sushi bar.  But, hidden in the back left hand corner is the real gem of the place… The Korean Food station!

That’s right, Bi Bim Bap, Bulgogi and Korean soup, being served in the back of a Midtown deli.  Bastards!  I can feel myself falling in love all over again…

The food porn, and +/- after the jump… Continue to the rest of the post…

Does cheap, pre-packaged sushi that’s good exist?  Or is it some sort of enigma- like cheap General Tso’s made with real chicken.  Is it even possible?  Or, is pre-packaged sushi all bad, because it is pre-packaged?

Now, I should probably quantify what I’m talking about, because the word “sushi” can mean so many different things.  I feel like when talking about good sushi, you can divide people into two main camps.  The first camp is the real fish eaters.  People who love sashimi (just the raw fish) and/or sushi (slice of fish laid over some rice).  The more you spend, the fresher and better the fish, so you don’t really want too much of a bargain when it comes to eating this kind of sushi.  If you are in this camp, and can’t imagine eating sushi that doesn’t fall into this category- you might as well stop reading… because my search is for something totally different.  You might say “The cheap stuff”.

The second category, is the rolls camp.  When someone in this camp says “I love sushi”, they really mean, I love rolls.  Totally different animal, because in this camp the flavor of the roll doesn’t necessarily come from the fish.  In these rolls the fish comes prepared in many different ways.   Fried in batter (tempura), chopped and mixed with mayo (spicy tuna rolls), or sometimes in a special “imitation” form that isn’t actually fish (that crab stuff in cheap California rolls).  Liking rolls also means that you can probably tolerate eating at cheaper places…

Which brings us to my dilemna.  I’m one of those people who falls in both camps.  I can enjoy the $100 omakase at a real deal sushi place, but I can also eat a $4 pre-packaged Eel & Avocado or Spicy Tuna roll with the best of them.  And when it comes to having lunch in Midtown, I’m looking for that elusive cheaper, quicker option. 

With that in mind, I had lunch at Yummy Sushi the other day.  It’s a take out only, quick sushi place underneath Rockefeller Center.  It’s fairly cheap, good selection and like most cheap sushi- not particularly great.

What we ate, the +/- and my plea for help, after the jump… Read more »