Midtown Lunch

In the pantheon of great foods, rotisserie chicken has got to be towards the top, somewhere just below fried chicken and above every other kind of chicken imaginable. You may say the secret ingredient is the chicken fat waterfall, created by rotating chickens stacked one on top of another. Now that’s some Chinese water torture I can get into.

Golden brown skin is the key to what makes rotisserie chicken so great, but once you add super cheap prices, Latin style side dishes, and Peruvian aji (green sauce), you’ve got a real winner. Sound good? Well then head to Tio Pio West (the original is in Brooklyn) on 36th btw. 5+6th, where $7.50 will buy you half a chicken, rice, beans, and plantains. Oh, and not to mention a fairly big cup of aji.

What I got and a +/1 after the jump… Read more »

Hidden gems are possibly my favorite part of Midtown Lunch’ing.  There are varying degrees of hidden of course.  The Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is always referred to as a hidden gem, but who doesn’t know about that place?  Then there are the ones on 47th St. that you could have the street addresses for and still not find them (Taam Tov, Diamond Dairy and the Ecuadorian El Rincon del Sabor).  And of course, there’s the latin food in a Blimpie.

But El Sabroso is on a different level.  At least those other places are actual restaurants.  El Sabroso is just a counter, with a few stools.  A counter, inside a hallway, leading to the freight elevator of a building.  Yup.  My first lunch in a freight elevator hallway.  And while the menu is mostly standard Latin fare (pernil, pork chops, stewed and baked chicken, rice & beans), on Fridays they serve a few Peruvian specials- courtesy of the Peruvian lady who makes all the food.

What they’ve got, freight elevator food porn and a +/- after the jump… Read more »