Archive for 'International Food House'

International Food House Is Now Cafe Nunez (And Features a Chef Trained at El Bulli?)

cafe-nunez

We do our best at Midtown Lunch to support buffets. Sure, they feature meats from unknown sources, and sometimes you might not feel so good after the fact… but sometimes you just can’t help it, you know? So it kind of scared us to see that the International Food House Restaurant & Buffet (on 35th btw. 7+8th) is now Cafe Nunez. Even though the awning is new, I was relieved to find that the interior is unchanged, and the buffet table is still intact. They still have takeout menus that say International Food House, but the Cafe Nunez website has their new menu.

Apparently after 5pm the restaurant turns into a fancy tapas place from Executive Chef Rene Hernandez- who according to the website, trained at the ultra famous Il Bulli in Spain.  Not sure about all that, but the lunch menu is pretty much the same- and features mofongo, sandwiches, burgers, and $8 Dominican specials like oxtails, stewed chicken, and pork chops.  As for the Happy Hour special that Mamacita wrote about last year, we’re not exactly sure if that’s still going…

Related:
Midtown Happy Hour: Stuff Your Face (and Drink Too) at the International Food House
All You Can Eat Meat at the International Food House Restaurant & Buffet

Midtown Happy Hour: Stuff Your Face (and Drink Too) at the International Food House

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

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International Food House recently began promoting its $5 happy hour drinks and evening all-you-can-eat buffet for $5.95. There are many doubts that come to mind when a lunch buffet transforms into an all you can eat feast after 5pm. Are they just trying to get rid of leftovers? Are there different or cheaper food offerings at night? Do they really have a full bar, or am I getting a can of Coke here? I was determined to find out… so I rounded up a few victims volunteers to check it out.

IFH was mostly empty when I arrived and the bright front seating contrasted starkly against the darkening street at sunset. In the far back was a dimly lit section that hosted a full bar loaded with liquor and there was techno-dance music playing. That’s where our troops settled in before laying siege to the buffet.

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International Food House Reinstitutes AYCE Buffet

Fresh off the reports of their new happy hour all you can eat deal, Lunch’er David sends this great news about the International Food House on 35th btw. 7+8th: “According to a sign inside and confirmed by asking staff, the lunchtime all you can eat has been re instituted @$10.95.”  As you may or may not know, this is a reversal of their decision to convert the all you can eat Latin food buffet, into a pay by the pound situation. The new price is one dollar over the ML price cap (and $2 more than the original price), but you know I’m always up for bending the rules when all you can eat buffets are involved. Now if only we could get the rest of the pay by the pound buffets to follow suit (Sun Yip/Ho Yip I’m looking at you…)

Related:
Economy Claims Another All You Can Eat Buffet
All You Can Eat Meat at the International Food House Restaurant & Buffet

Economy Claims Another All You Can Eat Buffet

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I’ve got some really sad news to report to all-you-can eat buffet lovers:  The International Food House Buffet on 35th btw. 7+8th has turned into a pay for what it weighs, by the lb. buffet.  Considering the current economic state, this isn’t too surprising, but it is still depressing on many levels.  1) Serving up a wide range of Latin food, it was one of the only two or three non-Indian all you can eat buffets in Midtown.  2) It was a shockingly cheap $8.95. 3) By the pound buffets are a big kick in the pants to fat guys everywhere… especially when you’re serving heavy food like rice, beans, plantains, and stewed meats.  For $5.95 a pound, the price can get up there pretty quickly.

Unable to turn away from their massive selection, I decided to see how I would fare under this new format.  In the process I came up with a few suggestions for anybody looking to brave the *new* International Food House Buffet.

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All You Can Eat Meat at the International Food House Restaurant & Buffet

Am I in the minority of people by not getting excited about IHOP coming to Times Square?  To me it just seems like another addition to an area that is quickly becoming an Epcot’ish oversize chain restaurant pavilion.  In all the excitement, I did however notice a little interesting nugget in this little posting by NY Mag’s Blog “Grub St.”

Search for IHOP in the Yahoo white pages (and on Citysearch and various other sites) and… you’ll find a listing on 240 W. 35th Street [which doesn‘t exist as an IHOP]. We know this because we tried to go there once and instead of being greeted by a Rooty Tooty Fresh ’N Fruity we found, of all things, the International Food House and Buffet, an all-you-can-eat Latin spot.

WHA?!?! All You Can Eat?  Latin food?  International Food House & Buffet?!?!  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the exciting part of the story?  Who cares about an IHOP in Midtown.  I want to hear more about the buffet!

Well, yesterday I trekked down to 35th St. to find this fake IHOP that had disappointed so many, but was about to make me the happiest lunch’er in all of Midtown.

All the buffet-tastic glory, after the jump… Read more »