Midtown Lunch

I first got word of a new Portuguese inspired café, unassumingly named “City Sandwich” (on 9th Ave btw 45+46th St) via Eater this week. With the temporary incapacitation of Xie Xie, there is again a sore gap in Hells Kitchen for ethnic sandwiches, so ‘Portuguese sandwiches’ required immediate investigation.

There’s a lot to like about the humble honesty of this place – whether it’s the inviting Ikea-esque décor, their quirky mantra of “No Mayonnaise” (they prefer yogurt), or their kaleidoscopic menu of soups, salads, and 20 different sandwiches, each playfully named after a friend or family member of the Chef/Owner. Lest we not judge a book by its cover, underneath this demure appearance is some serious cooking and ambitious food… well worth traveling a bit out of bounds for.

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I love seeing scrappy underdog restaurants pop up out of nowhere. Word-of-mouth publicity from readers of Midtown Lunch carries a lot more weight with me than slick advertising campaigns. So, yesterday, when we heard through the grapevine about a new (but slightly-out-of-bounds) restaurant that serves Southeast Asian street food, our interest was piqued. On paper and in concept, I was instantly sold – Thai inspired papaya salads, Malaysian satay skewers and roti’s and what’s that… a BANH MI? To borrow a quote from Anthony Bourdain, I would cheerfully “crawl naked across broken glass” for a good banh mi. It’s my absolute favorite food, ever.

I was so excited for the prospect of good Malay and Viet food, that I skipped a work happy hour (sorry co-workers that may be reading this) and voyaged over to 9th ave to get my banh mi fix. So do we finally have a bonafide banh mi in Midtown West?
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A few weeks ago Lunch’er “Emily” (not today’s profiled lunch’er, but a different Emily) told us about Bai Cha, a self proclaimed South East Asian street food & market (on 9th Ave. btw. 49+50th) and today Life With Food and Drink confirms that it’s open and has posted a copy of the menu. Satay, salads, banh mi, roti and dumplings… It’s slightly out of bounds, but with a Vietnamese street food line-up like that I think we can walk the extra avenue to check it out. Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

‘Tis the season to eat ice cream and with some sunny and warm weather in the forecast today, might I suggest a slightly out of bound excursion to Holey Cream in Hell’s Kitchen for a donut ice cream sandwich? After all if there’s any day it would be ok to enjoy a doughnut ice cream sandwich for lunch, it’s National Doughnut Day!

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I love Pad Thai and I’m always on the hunt for a tasty and filling version of the classic noodle dish. Hells Kitchen has no shortage of Thai restaurants, but only one of them got the two thumbs up from veteran Midtown Luncher, Talida of Talida Bakes. Talida’s parents are both from Thailand and I’ve seen her in action ordering dinner for a dozen food bloggers at Sriprapai, so when she told me that Olieng was her go to place for real Thai style Pad Thai, I had to give it a try.

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There’s nothing more miserable than standing in line at the post office, unless it’s standing in line at the post office on Tax Day. For those of you haven’t e-filed and find yourselves in the unfortunate position of heading to the city’s main post office to mail in your returns, might I suggest a side trip to the slightly out of bounds NY Pizza Suprema for a fortifying slice?

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When Zach discovered the Santouka in Los Angeles, he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t read more about the place while he was still in New York (there is also one at the N.J. branch Mitsuwa.) Always Hungry did a ramen video from there, but didn’t even mention the name Santouka once, and Time Out New York left them off of their list of the Ten Best Bowls of Ramen in NYC (although in fairness I guess it technically isn’t in NYC.) Coincidentally enough, forums diva “Yvo” wrote about Santouka this week on Feisty Foodie, calling the broth amazing.  Why isn’t this place mentioned in the same breath as the East Village ramen royalty more often?  Sure… it’s not Midtown, but we love Mitsuwa, and if you have time for a 2 hour lunch there is a bus from Port Authority that will take you there.

I’ll admit when I walked by A+ Thai’s newspaper-covered windows a few weeks ago, I was surprised. Could it be? Another Thai place? I’ve had my share of under $10 Thai lunch specials (almost all are on 9th Avenue) and while most are reliable if you’re just looking for curry or cheap noodles, there’s no place I’d walk farther than three blocks for – especially on the East Side. So what’s a girl with a Thai craving and great expectations to do? Go hungry, that’s what. Then walk one avenue out of bounds and order the “I Love Pad Thai” and Mega Balls at Midtown’s newest Thai.

Check out the goods after the jump… Read more »

I know we have a few Midtown Lunchers stuck outside the official boundaries in that no man’s land between Midtown and Chelsea in the high 20s low 30s between 8th and 10th Ave.  Lunch’er Jamie (who now runs our Philly site) used to work over there… and thankfully so do the folks over at Serious Eats!  They just posted about the amazingly delicious looking, and surprisingly ML friendly Ovest Pizzoteca (on 27th btw. 10+11th) which not only has some delicious looking under $10 pizzas and lunch specials, but also their own version of the pizzacone (and it looks far better than this!)  You didn’t think we’d go the whole day without a single pizzacone mention, did you?

Even though the meat lovers on Midtown Lunch outnumber the vegetarians, sometimes we like to shine a light on some of the less offensive meatless options being offered for under $10 (some of you may remember the days of Zen Burger!?) The latest spot is Vegan Hut, a just out of bounds chain that opened a few months ago on 7th btw. 29+30th… and we figured what better to assess it’s awesomeness (or suckiness) then by bringing in Lunch’er “Sarah”, our resident Vegetarian commenter, for a heads up point/counterpoint with me- a bonafied meat eater. In other words, we have something for everyone today. It’s a tale of he said she said. Meat eater vs. vegetarian. Both sides of the story. How will Vegan Hut hold up!

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