Midtown Lunch

Boi’s Vietnamese restaurant empire, which already has two banh mi offshoots in Midtown East (Boi to Go and Boi Sandwich), will grow by one this week when Boi Noodles opens on 41st 40th btw. 7+8th.  The new location, which is scheduled to open on Thursday in the old Sophie’s Cuban space, will specialize in pho, but they will also sell sandwiches, wraps, salads, rice bowls, and noodle bowls- just like Boi Sandwich on 3rd Ave- plus Vietnamese coffee and bubble tea.  We’re kind of curious how it will compare to Chicken House (on 36th btw. 7+8th), which added banh mi, bun, and a pretty mediocre pho to their menu last year.

Check out the full menu from Boi Noodles, after the jump…

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.

The Bistro Truck is such a tease. When Zach posted about their opening last year, he mentioned that they might come up to Midtown eventually. Nearly a year later and we still get no love. So, after spending all winter drooling over the tweets about their specials, it was time to take matters into my own hands and hop the bus down 5th Avenue.

Except for some recent difficulties that have left them renting someone else’s truck, they have been showing up to the same spot on 5th Avenue near 17th Street pretty faithfully. That’s just bad news for Midtowners because they serve some great Moroccan specialties along with burgers, frites and regularly changing specials that I’d love to have closer to the office.

Some more on the menu and the food after the jump…

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I can’t exactly say why, but we here at Midtown Lunch have always been big fans of seafood from a cart. Cheap fish sandwiches, fish and chips, fried shrimp, tilapia… even Zach has continued the tradition in L.A. by eating sushi off of a truck. I recently spotted this sign at the cart on the Northeast corner of 39th & 3rd Ave. Since this isn’t a regular cart of mine, I have no idea how long they’ve had this, or if it’s a contender for next year’s Lenten Lunches. Or, after searching ML, whether or not this cart is any good at all. (They weren’t nominated for Street Meat Palooza 3 either, results coming soon btw.)   Sadly, I had already eaten lunch when I walked by… but it is totally calling to me right now.  Has anybody taken the plunge?

I passed Thai-Nam (on 45th btw. Lex+3rd) the other day and immediately zeroed in on the tasty-looking photo of pho bo – Vietnamese beef and rice noodle soup – plastered on their window. They describe their new offering as “hearty beef broth scented with cloves and anise. Served with thin rice noodle. Choice of beef/chicken/seafood.” Food that’s scented with anything always sounds suspicious to me, but I love pho so will overlook their attempts at fancy language. Thai-Nam wasn’t well-received by Zach on his last visit, but I’m curious enough to give it a go. Have you had it? And speaking of pho, any suggestions on where to find a good bowl in Midtown East?

There have been some conflicting reports in the comments about Nanoosh’s free lunch giveaway today. Some have said that they were told the event is invite-only. I walked by to check it out and was flagged over by a guy working the door. As far as I saw, he was inviting anyone walking by to come in and try some out. When I left, the guy at the door said they’d be serving until 3pm.

The line was long, but went by fairly quickly, considering. Check out some scenery and food shots after the jump.

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Word is that yesterday afternoon, Nanoosh– the new Mediterranean counter on Madison btw 33+34th- was giving away free lunches to hype up its big opening day tomorrow (Weds).  We’re hearing word from a fairly reputable source that they’ll be back at it this afternoon from noon to 3pm. Not sure exactly what they’re giving away (samples?  complete lunch?) but I got there around 2:30pm yesterday and it was all over, so for hardcore freeloaders we suggest going early.

Not interested in waiting on line for the possibility of free food? If you don’t mind spending a couple bucks, so long as it goes to a good cause, Nanoosh will also be open from 5:30 to 8:30pm tonight serving a main, a side and a (non-alcoholic) drink for $10 to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Related:
Nanoosh Hummus Bar Expanding South

I’ve watched over the last couple of weeks as signs of life have glimmered in the long vacant space on 35th btw. 5+6th  that used to house Rainbow Deli and Chinese food. What’s coming has been a mystery, that is until yesterday when this sign went up.  Grill sounds kind of fancy, right?  Grill means over $10, right?  I hope not.

Looking at the construction inside, it could go either way, but doesn’t give too many more clues. When I peeked in, I asked one of the workers about an opening day. He wouldn’t commit to anything, but thought it might be in about two weeks.

If you’re into trying to divine that sort of thing from a construction site, we’ve got an inside the plywood shot after the jump.

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From the outside, Eden Wok on 34th street looks just like any other generic Chinese food take-out place… save for one thing: a newspaper article in the window from The New York Times. There are number of old school Chinese places in Manhattan that have blessed by coverage from the paper of record- but this isn’t some 2 star review of a Chinese dinosaur (we’re looking at you Shun Lee.)  This article was about Eden Wok’s hot dog egg roll. Yeah, you read that right. Eden Wok is a Kosher Chinese food restaurant, and the star of their menu (according to the NYT circa 2005) is a “Chinese Hot Dog”. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was going to be, but I had to find out… you know… for the sake of science.

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So, if Japanese curry isn’t your thing and a Cinco de Mayo pizza sounds too weird there are still plenty of straight up Mexican options in Midtown to partake in today.  Eating Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo is kind of cliched, but we’re not above using it as an excuse to chow down at one of our favorite taco spots for lunch.  Here’s a list of our favorites…

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Ecuadorian food options are few and far between in Midtown. The only places I’ve heard of are El Rincon de Sabor (on 47th btw. 5+6th) and the lady selling Ecuadorian food from a shopping cart that Zach wrote about a couple years ago. Neither are particularly accessible to me in the Midtown South area, so when Luncher “@stenro” tweeted the other day that El Guayaquileño, a new Ecuadorian food truck had popped up on 37th and 7th, I broke out into a jog to go check it out.

I was pretty excited because this was my first real opportunity to try out some Latin options more exotic than tacos and pernil. Interesting is definitely what this menu has to offer. See the food after the jump.

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