Midtown Lunch

Midtown West is getting another exciting lunchtime option. A new branch of Mooncake Foods is currently under construction on 54th St, between 8th & 9th ave, with a targeted opening date of early January. Lunchers who are familiar with Mooncake’s fast-casual Asian fusion concept should be particularly excited, as they do an admirable job of turning out quality, tasty, food for $10 and under. I’ve always been a fan of their generous portions and fresh flavors, and apparently so is our old friend Lunch’er Adam Prato (his job moved Downtown a few months back.)  Never been to the Downtown or Chelsea locations?  You can see a write up of the place on the Downtown section of the site.  And we’ll be sure to keep you updated with an exact opening date, the menu, as well as pictures of the space. Mooncake Foods, 359 West 54th St (between 8th & 9th).

Usually 9th ave is out-of-bounds from an ML perspective, and the opening of a new Thai restaurant in this area of town is hardly sensational – in fact, there’s no less than 15 Thai restaurants within a 4 block radius of the newly opened Pure Thai Shophouse. But after reading Grub Street’s opening report, and learning of the pedigree of Chef David Bank, who previously worked under Jean-Georges Vongerichten at the Mercer Kitchen, I decided that this would require an out-of-bounds journey. And boy am I glad I made that trip.

A meander down 9th ave in search of Thai sustenance can be overwhelming. One Thai restaurant might cater to customers who prefer to dine amongst garish bubblegum pink décor, while the next Thai venue offers an exclusive ‘secret’ menu to the knowledgeable few with an old copy of the Zagat guide or access to Yelp.com. All serve the same highly fungible crowd pleasing dishes of pad thai, drunken noodles, and curries in various earth toned colors. However, if you’re ever in doubt as to which Hells Kitchen Thai joint to pick for lunch, I’ll suggest that Pure Thai Shophouse is perhaps the only Thai restaurant worth visiting on 9th ave.

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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 »