Midtown Lunch

For those of you who are into having desserts for lunch, I felt the need to direct your attention to the ice cream cakes being sold at Quality Meats (on 58th btw. 5+6th). They first caught my attention when I walked by and saw their shiny new DOH grade. (Nothing screams out “try me!” more than an A!) The cakes here are (a shocking) $8.72 after tax, but I suppose it could be shared with somebody else as a dessert. (Although after one bite, you might be into sharing so much.)  They give you three options: Pie Fight (lemon meringue ice cream), Cherry Monkey (pistachio cherry ice cream), and Cookie Monster Ice cream. At almost $9 it certainly isn’t for everybody… but I was totally down.

Good news for Korean pastry fans… the location of Paris Baguette on 32nd btw. 5+B’way that we told you about last month is opening today. This will be the first Manhattan location for this huge Korean chain of French-style bakeries (not to be confused with Paris Sandwich, the banh mi shop in Chinatown.)  Anyone else excited about this place? Comments on our last post go back and forth between those who think the place serves up delicious pastries to complaints that it’s over-priced.  Who’s rushing in for some fresh-baked goodness? Let us know how it is in the comments.

The Kashmir Grill (8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) has had a tumultuous last few years. It used to be a by the pound buffet. Then it was shut down by the DOH. Meanwhile, their downstairs all you can eat buffet became The Times Buffet and may or may not still be associated with their upstairs neighbor. All that is history though. Late last year, Kashmir Grill ditched the pay what it weighs buffet and reopened as a take out place with Indian food that looked largely the same as the original.  Now that it seems to have settled into this role, I thought it was high time Midtown Lunch weighed in.
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On Friday Lunch’er Hightemp checked in to let us know about Helen’s Rice and Noodles, a brand new Korean(ish) spot just out of bounds (on Lexington and 62nd.)  They have $9 lunch boxes, with your choice of Korean meats or teriyaki, plus bibimbap, kimbap, japchae, soon doo boo, and a list of Japanes stuff like udon, ramen, and sushi.  Here’s what Hightemp had to say about the place…

I had the Spicy Pork lunch box.  Came with a big portion of brown rice, a small cup of miso soup, a small salad and 3 other sides – no choice on the sides.  Its kind of like the system at Pro Korean on 56th but without the completely pre-made boxes (the boxes were prepped with sides but the meats seemed to be cooked to order).  The pork was considerably spicier than Pro Korean and the meat quality was pretty much the same as Pro Korean.  I felt like I got a good amount of food for the price.

They do need to figure out some basics of organization though.  My order took far longer than it should have since only one of the staff members seemed to know what was going on and he kept splitting his attention to the others.   Hopefully they can get there because the food was pretty good.

Check out the menu after the jump…

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The recently reopened Bull Moose Saloon (on 44th btw. 8+9th) has a lunch special that not only leaves some Washingtons in your wallet but also satisfies that Summer thirst. For measly $5.85 you get a cheeseburger cooked to order with hand cut fries and a beer. For those inclined, you can also get 10 crispy hot wings with a beer for the same price. Yes, all this for under $6. Workers on the far Westside rejoice, eastsiders… well.. we’ll give you a moment of silence to mourn…

Ok that’s enough, time for burger porn!

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When I saw Luncher Dan L.’s report in the forums that a new cart had opened up on Fifth Avenue serving Korean Fried Chicken, dumplings and other Korean food, I knew I had to check it out.

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Café Duke is such a tease. Ever since initial reports that bulgogi tacos were being haphazardly offered as a daily special at their Korean entrée counter, I’ve been fascinated by these tacos. After all, Bann Next Door took on the Korean taco concept and hit a home run, so I don’t see why Café Duke couldn’t replicate this success (and it’s a few avenues closer to work.) Besides, assembling a competent Korean taco is laughably easy in concept – just jam Korean meat into a taco (no double entendre intended), and you’re the next Roy Choi.

Café Duke has always been a staple in my weekly lunch rotation, given that it‘s a smorgasbord of wallet friendly options that appease my co-workers’ finicky spectrum of palates. But for weeks, I’ve bolted straight to the back counter, only to see a non-bulgogi taco special coquettishly playing with my emotions. We even sent ML contributor, Jeremiah, on a wild goose chase to hunt down these tacos at the 41st Street location, to no avail. However after weeks of speculation, my dumb perseverance and gullibility was finally rewarded.

I came. I saw. I conquered the elusive Café Duke bulgogi taco.
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As if I needed more reasons to stalk the ML Twitter Tracker (hopefully it will be fixed soon!), this week it brought me news of several new lunch menu items from the Eggs Travaganza Cart (on 52nd and Park). These are the same folks that brought me that de-freaking-licious Bacon and Chorizo Grilled Cheese sandwich, so naturally I had to check it out.
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A new cart called “Grill & Noodle” has popped up right next to the Daisy May’s BBQ Cart on 50th and 6th Ave. According to Lunch’er “Matt Z” yesterday was their second day parking in that spot and the owner said they would try and park there again today. The menu is a Japanese/Chinese hybrid with lo mein, casanova chicken and steak (whatever the hell that is!) and teppanyaki. Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Eater reported this morning that Mono + Mono, a new music-centered Korean Fried Chicken spot is opening in the East Village this fall with another branch to open in Koreatown. Now, before you get too excited for even *more* Korean fried chicken on 5th Ave., it turns out that Mono + Mono’s K-Town branch is none other than Mad For Chicken (on 32nd and 5th, 2nd Floor). I stopped in during lunch and found out that the new location will be tied to a re-branding of MFC, which was (clearly) lacking a decent name since leaving the Bon Chon franchise last year. There’s no eta on the renaming, but according to the staff, there isn’t much that’s expected to change immediately. (Photo courtesy of Eater)

Related:
Korean-Fried-Chicken-Palooza: Kyochon vs. Bon Chon vs. Mad For Chicken