Today is the first Friday of Lent, which for many practicing Catholics means no meat. For the past few years I’ve rounded up some Lenten faves. Check out a few of my top picks after the jump.

I can’t observe Lent without at least one visit to Kim’s Aunt for their awesome, enormous fried fish sandwiches. Though the sandwiches have crept up in price to $4-5, they are still a great value and super flavorful.

Ain’t no schnitz like fish schnitz (at least during Lent). You can get this from Schnitzel & Things in sandwich form ($8.50) or as a platter ($9.95).

If you love fried seafood, Grand Central’s Oyster Bar is a must hit lunch spot. Fried Oyster Po’ Boy? Yes, please!

I’m on the look out for new Lenten lunches. Got any suggestions for fish or veg lunches worth trying? Let us know in the comments!

Check out the menu after the jump…

• Fried Shrimp Platter served with Old Bay Fries and a small cole slaw
• Fried Clam Shrimp Platter served with Old Bay Fries and a small cole slaw
• Mexican Tilapia Filet coated with crushed tortilla chips and homemade spice blend. Served with a small side field greens salad
• Fried Cod Filet served with Old Bay Fries and a small cole slaw
• Steamed Mussels in a lemon/garlic/butter sauce served with a small side field green salad and garlic bread

Sounds promising. I plan on hitting them up for recon soon. Anyone tried these specials in the past? Let us know in the comments!

Urban Lobster Shack, 805 3rd Ave. (btw. 49+50th) in the Basement

Tri Tip Grill has quickly become a ML darling. For a chain restaurant they provide a good product at a decent value and they listen to what the customer wants (hello, Midtown Toasty!). And it’s easily one of the best brick and morters to come to Rock Center in ages. While they are best known for their beef, if you’re a huge salmon fan and observing meatless Fridays you might want to make this a Lenten Lunch destination.

Like Tri Tip’s other dishes the salmon catches the fire right when you order it so it’s not cold or overdone when you receive it. The fish itself has a bold and smokey grilled flavor. I opted for the “Bayou Peper Salmon Small Plate” for 9.99 which came with two marinated and grilled salmon filets served on “spring greens with Tarragon Aioli.”

The salmon was more than ample, but the greens were basically a token or garnish. I might suggest either splurging for a size of mashers for an additional $2.99 or going with the sandwich version of this for the “Jammin’ Salmon” sandwich for $8.99. As much as I love salmon, unless you’re a protein fiend or salmonphile, the amount of salmon without anything else to mix it up might get a bit monotonous by the end of the first fillet.

You can get a platter version of this for $14.99 which consists of the small plate version plus red mashers and gravy, roasted vegetables, bread and butter. $9.99 is rich for this cheapskate, so I’d have a hard time parting with 15 bucks, but given Tri Tip’s generous portions, I suspect that two people with lighter appetites could probably split the platter and come away satisfied .

Tri Tip Grill, Rockefeller Center Concourse, North Side, (212) 664-1003

While veal, pork and the Schnitz Burger might get all the play here at Midtown Lunch, this is another schnitz. A Lenten Friday friendly schnitz. A cod schnitz.  The cod schnitzel was one of the very first things I ordered from Schnitzel & Things when they first hit the streets in July of 2009. Available at the truck and S & T’s brick and morter as both a sandwich ($8 on the truck/$8.50 at the store) and a platter with two sides ($10 on the truck/$9.95 at the store). The cod is tender and not overly fishy and the breading gives it a wonderful crunch. While the sandwich will run you more than a filet o’ fish or a fried fish sandwich from Kim’s Aunt, it’s a high quality fish and price-wise it is on par with the Oyster Bar’s fish sandwich options. If you don’t mind paying a little more for your fried fish lunch, this is a good one to try.

The truck is on 52nd and Lex today, or you can head over to their new storefront.

The ML Team’s Cucina & Co Chef’s Table experience has been mixed. I enjoyed their pork tenderloin medallions with pasta, but Jeremiah had a less than satisfactory experience with their much hyped Friday sliders special. This week I noticed that the sliders were bumped to a Thursday slot in favor of a Tuna Burger special presumably for the Lenten lunch crowd.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Chef’s Table here’s the drill. Each day they run a lunch special from 11:30 until 12:30 for $9.50. The menu varies week to week, though I’m told that the Grilled Beef on Mondays and the Sliders on Fridays are constant. I first had the Tuna burger a few weeks back when I was stalking their homemade mallomars. It wasn’t even 11:30 yet and there was already a line of about 6 people waiting for that day’s special. When I saw that the tuna burgers were a good size and cooked to order to your specifications, I had to give it a shot.

The Yellow Fin Tuna Burger you see in the photo above came with slaw and wonton crisps. The two little sauce containers had a wasabi aioli and an Asian inspired citrus dressing. This week’s menu says it comes with “mesclun greens, wonton crisp and Lemon Soy Dressing” but I’m imagining it should be pretty similar to what you see here (let us know in the comments, if not).

The burger was flecked with little bits of scallion. I ordered mine medium rare and it was cooked perfectly–so often when you order tuna medium rare it ends up getting cooked through, but that wasn’t the case here. I was impressed that it was a thick burger as well, not a wee little thing. I typically don’t like to spend in the upper range of the ML price limit, but in this case it’s worth it for the quality and amount of food you get. All in all, if you’re a yellow fin tuna fan I would definitely recommend checking this out for lunch. If the line I encountered was any indication, it seems like this is a popular item, so you’ll probably want to arrive on the early side as the Chef’s Table only serves until 12:30 or when they run out.

Apparently Chef Juan has an email list (that I need to get on) that he sends out the weekly Chef’s Table menu to so if you can’t make it this week, you’ll be in the loop for the next time the Tuna Burger makes an appearance.

Cucina & Co, 30 Rockefeller Center, Concourse Level, (212) 332-7630

“Thou Shall Not Eat Fish from a Cart” is one of those street eating commandments that I had unfailingly observed until a couple years ago. The praise that Kim’s Aunt Cart so regularly received from Zach and fellow midtown lunchers is what convinced me to put aside my squeamishness and give it a try. Kim’s made me a believer and while I’ll admit that I’m still a little sketched by cart fish, it’s something that I will go for on a case by case basis. Biryani Cart debuted some new menu items in November, but I’ve only recently had the chance to try their boneless fish curry.

For $7.00 you get a nice combination of rice, curried veggies, and dal with a fillet of fish on top and some salad. Forgive the photo, the lunch slid around in the container when I took it to go.

The fish is moist and tender and was very mild, not at all fishy tasting. The fillet of fish isn’t huge, but it’s a decent portion (bigger than the standard “deck of cards serving metric) and the lentils, rice and veggies round out the meal nicely and make this a more than filling lunch. For those who love fish, but hate little bones, this is a good bet.

Biryani Cart, SW Corner of 46th and 6th

Happy Fat Tuesday! Or Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras…in any case today is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. In many countries it’s tradition to eat pancakes or some sort of leavened fatty food (doughnuts etc) on Fat Tuesday because traditionally, all meat and dairy products were forbidden during Lent. Pancakes or doughnuts were a good way of using up the last of those meat, eggs and dairy pantry items. Whether you are preparing to observe Lent or not, here are some picks for where to get your Fat Tuesday on.

For doughnuts the Doughnut Plant (now available to you Flatiron Lunch’ers) is a great bet. Can’t get down to their store? You can generally find a good selection at Joe the Art of Coffee and Dean & Deluca. Speaking of Dean & Deluca, this year, the cracklike apple fritter they carry from D’Aiuto bakery is a serious candidate for indulgence. Want to up the indulgence factor? How about a Doughnut Plant Doughnut Concrete from Shake Shack?

As for pancakes, the Eggstravaganza cart cooks up flapjacks from scratch fresh each morning at breakfast time. Alas Madeleine the Crêpe Lady is currently on hiatus, but after reading Chris’ post on Crêpe Monster, I’m intrigued by their ice cream crepes, seems very much in the spirit of Fat Tuesday.

If you’re planning on giving up meat for Lent (or just anticipating a meatless Ash Wednesday, a juicy Shack Burger or a perfectly fried Schnitzel from Schnitzel & Things would make for a worthy meat send off.

And if you’re thinking to yourself WWZD? Well, Mr. Brooks would likely be in New Orleans. Barring that, it’s a safe bet that you could find our fearless leader at the Grand Central Oyster Bar scarfing a fried shrimp po’ boy or the fried oyster po’ boy that Clay called “worth a special trip to GCT just to get it.”

Got some more Fat Tuesday suggestions? Leave ‘em in the comments!

Last week, I found myself in a lunch conundrum. I hadn’t brought anything from home and I was bored of my old standby quick lunches. To further complicate matters, it was Friday during Lent, so no meats for me. Much hemming and hawing ensued until I heeded the siren call of the Midtown Lunch Twitter Tracker and hit up Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck (on 47th btw. Park+Mad) to check out their vodka slice.

Perhaps I’m late to the party, but I didn’t discover the wonders of vodka pizza until a couple of years ago. It was one of those “ah ha” moments where everything in the universe suddenly makes sense. Vodka sauce = delicious. Pizza = delicious. Vodka sauce topped pizza = super delicious. I had high hopes for the vodka slice at Jiannetto’s.

The slice itself has a thin crust and is the same size of one of their grandma slices–long, skinny and rectangular-ish. Even when their reheated slices come out of the oven they are steaming hot, always a plus in my book. Jianetto’s vodka sauce deviates from the standard rose colored sauce by including mushrooms and peas in addition to onions. It was a little thinner and less creamy than I was expecting. According to the guy on the truck the slice has fresh mozzarella on the bottom, sauce, and then some grated cheese on top, but cheese lovers may be disappointed with the amount of cheese on the slice–however, if you are a regular at Jiannetto’s, the lack of cheese will come as no surprise, their Grandma slice has only a light sprinkle of grated cheese. Thin crust fans however, will likely be pleased with the chewy and slightly crisp crust.

At $3.25, the vodka pizza costs 50 cents more than their regular Grandma slice. If you’re a Jianetto’s regular looking to mix up your lunch routine, the vodka slice is worth a try and according to the guy who took my order, they have this kind of pie most days–makes sense since it’s the same sauce that they use for the penne a la vodka on their regular menu. Unless you have a very small appetite, one of these slices isn’t filling enough to make for a satisfying lunch, so plan on picking up a couple slices or if you’re like some people (ahem, me) you might get a vodka slice here and then grab a slice or two from one of the nearish 99 cent pizza joints to round out your lunch without breaking the bank.

Sadly because it’s Good Friday, Jiannetto’s is taking the day off in Midtown (but for some reason will still be on Wall Street?!) So I’ll be looking elsewhere for my vodka slice needs today. So far my favorite vodka slice I’ve had is from Bene’s in Windsor Terrace, but that’s a little too far for a Midtown Lunch. Anybody have a good lunchtime vodka slice rec for Midtown? Put it in the comments…

And here we are, the fourth Friday in Lent. You can do it Catholics, two more to go! We’ve covered some of the fried fish options, but what if you gave up fried things (Brownie!) or have been sick enough that someone (Zach!) told you that if you’ve called in sick to work on Wednesday, you shouldn’t go have burgers off a truck as a sick-day lunch. Well, then it would be Asian vegetable soup time.

Lucky for me I work by 45th between Lex & 3rd, one of the best soup blocks in the city. Closer to Lex is Menchenko-Tei, your 2009 Winner of Best Japanese Soup. It might be the most upscale of the soup joints on the block, but it also has the better ambiance and quality. Lately, I’ve been partaking in the Vegetarian Menchenko which toes the ML line at $9.50. But this isn’t your ordinary bowl of noodles… the broth is a kelp seaweed based miso, the noodles are cooked in a cast iron pot (still to perfect al dente like when Zach visited oh so many years ago), and the fresh vegetables are more plentiful than usual. It’s the broth on this that really makes it a winner, its vegetable-based giving it a lighter, more subtle taste then most Asian soups we’re used to. And it’s not too salty like 99% of the broth in this city. I know, you guys probably like salty, but I’m a lady and too much salt can take me from “okay” to “muffintop” in no time. Controlling your salt level is a plus in my book. For $9.50, you get a decent size portion, I usually can’t eat it all and end up staying pretty full through the afternoon. So if you think eating a vegetable soup brings you closer to Jebus, you should pick this up.

For the more lenient types, the ones who think “well, if I choose to be ignorant about the base of the broth then it’s not a sin,” you can walk down the street to Oms/b. Oms/b has been serving udon for at least a year now… it’s not the best in the city, but it’s $6, made to order, has respectable udon noodles, and is full of these vegetable/”carriers of nutrients that will make me healthy for St. Patty’s Day” things. The most likely meat-based broth is also lower on the sodium side, but if you’re looking for an amount similar to a bowl of ramen from Menchanko-Tei, Men Kui Tei, or Sapporo, you’ll be disappointed. It does look comparable to sizes at Udon West (there isn’t currently an under $10 vegetable udon at Udon West.) If you were to go with this option, I’d supplement my Lenten Lunch with a few rice balls or some edamame to help me get through the afternoon. Or I’d walk back up the block to Menchenko-Tei.

Menchanko-Tei, 2 Locations

• 131 E. 45th St. (btw Lex & 3rd), 212-986-6805
• 43-45 W. 55th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-247-1585

Oms/b, 156 E. 45th St. (btw. 3rd & Lex) 212-922-9788

Related:
Friday During Lent? It’s Time For Cheap Fried Fish Sandwiches!
The Friday Guide to Midtown Lent