Midtown Lunch

Sometimes I think my endless quest for the best chicken parm sub in Midtown is exactly that. Endless. I don’t even know what chicken parm perfection would be. Obviously being cheap is an important quality. Good cheese… that’s good too. I can’t decide if I like the chicken pounded thin or left thick, but either way is fine- as long as it’s not dried out. I don’t like too much sauce, but I know some people do. And of course the bread has to be good.

I don’t know if I can pick a favorite, but the there have been decent versions from La Belleza III/La Belleca, Lazzarra’s (38th btw. 7+8th), the Tuscany Catering place on 55th btw. 5+6th, Mondelo (37th btw. Mad+5th), and Little Italy (45th btw. 5+6th). I tried the one at Park Italian (across the street from Little Italy) and remember the bread being bad. But I should probably give it another shot.

With the exception of Lazzarra’s, which is more of a sit down restaurant than a quick take out place, none of the places listed above make their chicken parm to order. Bella Vita (on 58th btw. 6+7th) bucks the trend, giving you a made to order chicken parm, in a take out setting. (No relation to the sit down restaurant on 43rd St.)

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I guess they couldn’t stand being the only dessert Vendy Award nominee without a regular Midtown spot… the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck is parked on the NE corner of 57th st and 5th Ave right now. Their other truck is still in its regular spot in Soho, but they hope to park this second truck in Midtown at least a few days a week. We’ll see how it goes…

They’ll be at this spot until 4pm, and then will probably move somewhere else. (I’ll keep you updated on this post if they move today.)

Photo by Food in Mouth

One question has always plagued me (and no doubt many other hamburger lovers who work in Midtown):  Can you make it down to Shake Shack and back in 60 minutes from Midtown during lunch.  The short answer is no.  The longer answer is no… definitely no.  Sure there are going to be those few miraculous exceptions, but for the most part- if you want to eat at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park during a time that would acceptable for lunch’ing, the wait on line is too long to make it down there and back to your desk in Midtown proper.

But what about the new Shake Shack?  That’s right… the Shack has expanded, opening their long awaited Upper West Side branch this past weekend on Columbus Ave. btw. 77+78th Street… a five minute walk from the 79th Street 1 station, and the 81st B/C station.  My hunch is, with fewer large office buildings on the UWS, and the Shake Shack’s new technology (which will surely decrease wait times for your food) this could be do-able for the Midtown Lunch’ers whose offices are close to the 1, B or C lines. 

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Big changes at one of my favorite fast food Chinese places in Midtown… Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) which is famous for their two different lines, has upended the left side of their operation by making their steam table into a pay by the lb. self serve food bar.  The Americanized Chinese food they served on the left side used to be one of those point-to-what-you-want situations, but now you help yourself- and pay $5.80 a pound for whatever you take. The food itself hasn’t really changed, so you probably end up paying more for less of the exact same food- but you do end up with greater variety, so it’s not all bad.  And $5.80 is still cheaper than most generic deli by the lb. buffets.  So if Chinese food is what you like, and buffet by the lb. is your preferred method, this news should be very exciting to you.

That’s not all though.  The right side, where Hing Won serves up their more “authentic” Chinatown style fare, didn’t escape unscathed. 

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The CW11 Blog is falsely (?) reporting that the new location of Crumbs (on Madison btw. 52+53rd) is opening this Monday morning at 8 a.m. and giving away 1000 free cupcakes.  But I was just told by somebody at Crumbs, this is not true and the planned grand opening is next Friday (10/24). Cupcake fans, mark the 24th on your calendar (in pencil of course…)  Overly suspicious cupcake fans?  Feel free to do a walk by on Monday morning and let us know if there’s anything going on!

Uh… yeah.  You heard me right.  Soft shelled mother f’ing crabs on a Midtown by the lb. buffet.  That is what I discovered at the Cafe Duke on 51st btw. 6+7th yesterday. I’ve already written a bunch about how much I love their by the lb. buffet, but this just put it over the top.  Soft shelled crab! I’m still giddy thinking about it.  This could be the biggest money item to ever show up on one of these generic Midtown deli buffets (the ones that cost under $10 a pound anyway).  And, they don’t even weigh that much (especially compared to other stuff like fruit and bone in chicken).  It really is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen at a by the pound buffet.

At $7.79 a pound, Cafe Duke by the lb. is on the high end of these kind of crappy Midtown options… but for the quality it is definitely worth it.  The food always looks fresh, every choice looks damn tasty, and the sauce they put on their fake jumbo shrimp makes me not mind that they are trying to fake you into thinking you’re actually getting shrimp. 

How they were, a shot of my lunch, and the one big downside- after the jump…

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The Outpost has been mentioned a number of times on this blog, most notably in Lunch’er Grace’s Ultimate List of Midtown Soups at the beginning of the year.  Described as “the soup deal of a lifetime… hidden in the MTV/Viacom Building” this place sounded like a proper Midtown Lunch kind of place. With the weather starting to get cold, I decided to check out the Outpost last week;  but when I entered the building on the NW corner of 44th and Broadway, and rode the escalator up, I found a place called the “V Stop”.  They had soups, and as promised by Grace a 12 oz cup cost $1.25, but the place itself looked like just another generic Midtown crap hole… and the soups looked like they were made by some central catering company- not a random old chef with a whimsical love of soup.  I was kind of thrown off by the whole thing and didn’t even bother trying the admittedly cheap $1.25 soup.

Is this what the original Outpost was like? Has anybody been recently?  Are the soups still good?  My gut tells me this place is now a pass…

Pongsri Thai (on 48th btw. B’way+8th) has completed the renovations to their front room, which shut down half the restaurant for the past couple months. And the big surprise is the fact that they didn’t raise their prices!  The lunch specials are still a very cheap for the neighborhood $6 to $8. If you have time to venture over to Ninth Ave. the thai restaurants are far superior over there (and for the same price you usually get an appetizer and/or salad with your lunch special.) But if you don’t have the time, Pongsri is a decent in bounds option (one that has been recommended often by commenters, bloggers, and Profiled Midtown Lunch’ers.)

The two noodle dishes I had on my most recent trip, are after the jump…   

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Step aside Chipotle and Qdoba, rumor has it a far superior option is coming to town. A manager from a recently opened Midtown Lunch’ing spot told me the other day that three of his friends have a franchise license from Baja Fresh and plan on bringing a location of the chain to 8th Ave in the 50s.  That’s Midtown people! No word on timetable or exact location…

Why I like Baja Fresh 10 times more than Chipotle and Qdoba, after the jump…   Read more »

Kashmir, the Indian place on 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th was closed by the DOH, and their creativity had me almost believing they actually were just “Closed For Renovations.”  The first tactic they used is nothing new… they pulled the gate down half way, covering up the DOH sticker that was put on their take out by the lb buffet shop that is above ground.  But their cover up on the actual downstairs restaurant, was something I’d never seen before.  Check it out after the jump…

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