Midtown Lunch

When I saw the great deal for Shorty’s last week, I grabbed it immediately. I’ve been a fan of Philadelphia food ever since I started visiting it regularly ten years ago, and Shorty’s is one of the few places in New York that approaches Philly authenticity.  Looking back at all of our old posts about Shorty’s I was surprised to see cheesesteak this and cheesteak that. Sure, I love a good cheesesteak, but in a bar briefly known as Tony Luke’s, it’s not the first thing that comes to my mind. The original Tony Luke’s in South Philly does serve cheesesteaks, but they are best known for what I consider one of finest delicacies Philadelphia has to offer – The roast pork sandwich.

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Come tax season it’s a tradition of mine to visit Cafe Zaiya (41st btw. Mad+5th) every time I go see my accountant (his office is just around the corner, lucky guy). But now with the addition of Sunrise Mart, deciding where to eat on 41st St just got a bit tougher- although on my most recent visit the fact that I hadn’t been to the new Sunrise Mart yet made the decision a bit easier. I walked straight to the back and ordered their oyakodon, the Japanese rice bowl with chicken and egg. I wanted to compare the version at Sunrise Mart to the version I had at Sapporo few weeks ago.

And then I realized I should probably go to Yagura too (the ugly duckling of the Japanese stores on that street).  After all, they serve oyakodon as well. So how do all 3 oyakodons compare to one another? Will I ever get tired of eating oyakodons? Let’s fine out.

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We get a lot of press releases in the ML inbox–most of which we ignore, especially if they have to do with “Sandra Lee, world-famous food personality”.  But I am a sucker for a bake sale, and tomorrow Pyrex is sponsoring the World’s Largest Bake Sale to benefit The Food Bank of New York. It will feature “sweet and savory baked goods from 30 of New York’s most well-respected chefs and restaurants, including: Ciao Bella Gelato, Junior’s Restaurant, Magnolia, Manhattan Chili Company, Murray’s, Zaro’s as well as Del Posto and Fresco by Scotto. The bake sale will be in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal from 11:30 to 7pm.

The downstairs Times Restaurant (8th Ave btw. 39+40) has endured near constant change over the last few years: name changes, wildly fluctuating buffet prices, DOH imposed downtime. Through all of that, Times has been some kind of Indian restaurant, much like the upstairs Kashmir Grill it used to share a name with. But now Times Restaurant is offering “traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex food.” It looks like it’s still a sit-down place, but there are a few ML friendly lunch items, like tacos and sandwiches. Perhaps more exciting is the fact that it may also be some sort of Mexican Hooters…
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Turkish food is a mystery to me. I know my Chinese food, I know my Japanese food, I know my Italian food but if you ask me what sort of food they serve in Turkish restaurants, I would draw a blank (or I would just check the internet). So to change that I decided to go eat at a Turkish restaurant.

The (apparently very opinionated) Chef and owner of Sip Sak, Orhan Yegen, recently opened a new spot called Bi Lokma (on 45th btw 2+3rd). It’s a tiny Turkish restaurant with a very ambitious menu for a where all the food seems to be made in advance. There are soups, salads, desserts, over a dozen appetizers and over a dozen main courses. And the best part about the menu is that almost everything on it is under $10 with the exception of 3 items.

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We’ve seen a lot of DOH sign shenanigans.  Cover ups.  Camouflage. Comedic acceptence. But making up your own sign and hanging it in the window?  This is new even for us.  Luncher “Ambitious Delish” tweeted us this photo yesterday from S. Dynasty (on 48th btw. Lex+3rd).  “Is this allowed,”  she asked.  Honestly?  We have no idea, but utilizing our skills of judgement and basic common sense we’re going to go with…. no.

Anybody ever been to this place?  We couldn’t find it on the DOH restaurant inspection site (which can provide hours of fun, I assure you), but found A grades at three different restaurants in this building – including a Chinese one called Lo.  But nothing listed at all for S. Dynasty.  Then again, the 2 1/2 stars on Yelp worry us a bit more than the letter in the window.

If yesterday’s post about the Serious Eats review of Food Gallery 32 got you thinking about stopping in for dinner or an after work snack tonight, you might want to hold off. This afternoon, around 3pm, a sprinkler burst over O-De-Ppang! in booth 3 of the Koreatown food court. The FDNY was on sight in minutes to get things worked out. Don’t panic though, word is they should be up and running again in the next couple of hours.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Timing for the eating o’ the green treats. If you’re courageous enough to brave the emerald clad revelers, there are some St. Patty’s Day treats awaiting you at Treats Truck including: cupcakes, crispy treats, and four leaf clover sugar cookies. And Robicellis is now delivering to Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so Joe should have a selection of their holiday cupcakes: Irish Soda Bread (with a clotted cream buttercream & Drambuie soaked raisins), Irish Coffee (Bailey’s-espresso cake & buttercream, ganache, crushed white chocolate) and the Car Bomb (Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Bailey’s buttercream, Jameson whiskey ganache). Lily O’Brien’s will be getting a delivery of these flavors tomorrow for those of you still celebrating on Friday (or needing something to get over your hangover).

Also Shake Shack is serving up Mint Chocolate Chip Custard, and if you tell your server “Get Lucky” at The Counter in Times Square they’ll give you a green beer or green shake for just $3. “Like” The Counter on Facebook and show it to them (on your phone or a printout) they’ll give you the shake for free.

The question of ‘Who makes the best phở?’ is a hotly debated topic – NoVa versus Seattle versus NorCal versus SoCal – it’s a showdown with an impossible conclusion. But I doubt that I’d get too many dissenting opinions if I proclaimed New York’s pho joints to be generally mediocre, with even lousier options in Midtown Manhattan. But we should work with what we have. After multiple visits to the newly opened Cha Pa’s Noodles and Grill (on 52nd btw. 8+9th), I’ve found that the quality of the food and maturity of the service has markedly improved. And they serve, in my humble opinion, one of the best bowls of phở that I’ve tasted in Midtown.

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Back in November, a new cupcake truck, Cupcake Crew, was spotted on the streets of Midtown and most of us just though “Ugh, another cupcake truck. Can’t pies or doughnuts or whatever kill the cupcake already?!” I too was cupcake’d out for a while, but now that Cupcake Stop is possibly maybe gone (?) it’s a different story.  Well that, and I saw the flavors that Cupcake Crew was coming out with. Cupcakes with cannoli filling and shells! Ones inspired by my favorite Girl Scout cookie, the Samoa! Add considering that they tend to park next to savory trucks where I can score lunch, I had now choice but to be on it!

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