Last time I wrote about Joe’s Shanghai, fellow Lunch’er Harry recommended I check Pearls (7th btw. 48+49th) out. I’m always skeptical about restaurants in and near Times Square. But I should have an open mind right? So I took a friend along so that we could try it out.
It’s been some time since we’ve seen the Ecuadorian lunch truck El Guayaquileño. Last I’d heard, they had temporarily converted it into the Malaysian Kitchen Food Truck in the fall. Then yesterday, I stumbled across it at its old spot on 37th Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway. Does anyone know how long they have been back? Just as I got there, the lady inside darted off on her break, so I didn’t get to ask any questions. Regardless, I’ll be keeping an eye out so I can try some of that goat stew Mamacita raved about last year. Seems like the perfect thing to brighten a rainy spring day.
Posted by ultraclay at 8:30 am, April 13th, 2011 under El Guayaquileño Cart, Latin.
3rd Ave between 57th & 58th St is getting a couple of new lunch options this summer, and both seem to be a little more forward thinking than your average deli. On the east side of the street, a Mediterranean concept called “BarBanzo” will be opening soon. The google didn’t turn up anything definitive about this place, but it seems like their menu will likely focus on falafel. On the west side of 3rd Ave, Naked Pizza is a slightly more interesting opening. Founded in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina, and backed by investors Mark Cuban and Robert Kraft, the chain has expanded to over 25 locations across the US, as well as presence in Dubai.
They seem to have embraced the healthy, organic, sustainable, whole wheat pizza model (looks like Pizza by Certe will have some competition). They’re also big into the social media game, one article interestingly quoting the owners saying that, “Naked Pizza isn’t a pizza company, but a social media company that sells pizza”. So for the lunchers of Midtown East that have been craving more garbanzo beans, or eco-friendly, healthy, whole wheat, preservative-free, organic social media pizza, time to get excited.
If there’s anything worse than a gimmicky restaurant in Midtown, it must be a Midtown restaurant with an overabundance of gimmicks. 4Food (Madison btw. 40+41st) arrived on the scene last year with a semi-healthy (?) burger concept called (W)holeburgers featuring patties with holes in them, along with a multitude of creative sandwich toppings, an industrial chic look (complete with iPad stations), space age packaging, and an aggressive social networking strategy. None of that made me anxious to try it, but it was one of their other gimmicks that finally got me in the door, and convinced me to create a Midtown Lunch inspired burger – their Billboard-esque chart of customer burger creations.
These past few weeks of Lent I’ve been giving recs for fish lunches for those who are observing and eschewing meat. Fried fish sandwiches are always a popular option and the new Shark and Bake sandwich from Trini Paki looks like a good option if you’re able to get there early, but what if you don’t like fish? Enter my go-to meatless option at the Shake Shack: The ‘Shroom Burger.
Posted by Brownie at 10:30 am, April 8th, 2011 under Shake Shack, Vegetarian.
The dollar pizza plague trend is spreading! Yesterday, I found this sign up in the narrow storefront on 6th Avenue near 39th Street that used to be a Tasti D-Lite. Personally, if I’m over there looking for a bite, I’d probably hit Kati Roll Company (on 39th btw. 5+6th) or the Desi Food Truck, but on those days when you only have $2 or $3 to spend on lunch, this will definitely come in handy.
Posted by ultraclay at 1:30 pm, April 7th, 2011 under Pizza.
This week I noticed on the ML Twitter Tracker that Korilla BBQ was trying out some new menu items–citrus glazed version of their “Wonderbird” (aka chicken) and the KALBiester which is their take on traditional BBQ (kalbi is marinated short rib). Being a Korilla fan, I had to go check it out. Read more »
Posted by Brownie at 11:50 am, April 7th, 2011 under Korean, Korilla BBQ Truck.
In hindsight, it was unfair of us to post a mostly unfavorable write-up of Bai Cha, which opened on 9th Ave last August. We don’t call ourselves professional restaurant critics, but any professional food writer worth their salt will wait at least a month before visiting a restaurant with the intent to critique. So when I saw that Bai Cha’s bánh mì fell around the middle of the pack in Serious Eats’ recent assessment – earning a place right behind Bánh Mì Saigon, but besting Baoguette and Nicky’s among others – I knew it was time a for another visit.
Read more »
Posted by Chris H. at 9:45 am, April 5th, 2011 under Bai Cha, Vietnamese.
Kimbap is an ideal lunch item for me. It’s cheap, travels well, packs an even and flavorful dose of carbs, proteins, veggies, and it doesn’t suffer if I get pulled into a meeting and it sits on my desk for hours until I finally get to it.
Whenever I get the hankering for kimbap and I’m close to Koreatown, E-Mo (‘Aunt’ in Korean) has always been my go to. I get sentimental when it comes to this place as well – it’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall that’s been around forever, and the old Korean lady that assembles the kimbap to-order is as sweet as can be (at least when she’s not scolding me for my embarrassing lack of conversational Korean). It may not be the best kimbap I’ve ever had, but compared to the other options in K-town, it always held its own. That is until Food Gallery 32 opened up across the street, and started selling its own version of made-to-order kimbap at the Boon Sik Zip stall.
A comparison between the two was inevitable, so we set off to do a head-to-head assessment in our highly unscientific analysis.
Posted by Chris H. at 11:40 am, April 4th, 2011 under E-Mo, Food Gallery 32, Korean.
For those of you who looked forward to Lily O’Brien’s Monday and Friday Robicelli’s deliveries, effective this week, the Robicelli’s have terminated their relationship. The good news is their cupcakes are now available at Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central Terminal. Joe gets delivers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (so they’ll be fresher mid-week) and best of all, they are selling the cupcakes for $3 instead of $3.50 at Lily’s. For flavor schedule, you can follow Robicelli’s Tumblr, though be aware that because of space constraints Joe doesn’t get all of their flavors… so if you’re very particular about which one you want, you may want to call ahead.
Joe The Art of Coffee, Graybar Passage (off Lex.) in Grand Central Terminal, 212-661-8580
Posted by Brownie at 1:30 pm, April 1st, 2011 under Lily O'Brien's, Sweets.
