First Look: The New Goodburger on 45th St.
Once again, I’d like to congratulate burger lovers working in the 40s. You finally have a burger place to call your own. If you haven’t been to any of the Goodburger locations, and want to read about the food- almost all of what I wrote in November of last year, about the location on Lex., still applies, the one notable exception being that now the combo costs $10.35 instead of $9.95, which means- technically for this to be Midtown Lunch, you will need to forgo fries or a drink. It’s just not right.
The new location on 45th btw. 5+6th (which opened yesterday) is a lot larger than the location in Midtown East, and has an upstairs seating area.
An actual goodburger, plus a sign worthy of being put on Suicide Food, after the jump… Read more »
Posted by Zach Brooks at 8:33 am, December 14th, 2007 under 45th btw. 5+6th, Burger, Goodburger.
The search for a good Chicken Parm sub in Midtown trucks on. This week’s stop is Little Italy Pizza on 45th btw. 5+6th. If you spend any time reading the comments posted to Midtown Lunch, then you know about Little Italy Pizza, and its neighbor across the street, Park Italian. Both places have their fans, and detractors, serving up what amounts to two pretty mediocre chicken parm subs.
I’m not saying they are inedible. I’m just saying mediocre. A Chicken Parm Sub is going to taste good by default. Any sandwich that consists of fried chicken topped with sauce and cheese is going to have its redeeming qualities. Sure the sauce may be too sweet, the cheese may be no good, the bread may be soggy, or not toasted- but in the end it’s still a fried chicken sandwich. It’s going to taste good enough to eat. That being said, I’m not going to to tell you to go to Little Italy Pizza for the chicken parm. It’s just ok. The pizza on the other hand… now that’s a different story!
I take for granted sometimes that everyone knows about every kind of food I write about. I spend 17 posts writing about a strange bulgogi cart outside my building, but I feel like some people still don’t actually know what the hell bulgogi is. The same could probably be said about Bi Bim Bap. Maybe it’s just Korean stuff. Despite being a short walk away from Koreatown, it seems as if people are still not versed in the delicious ways of Korean dining. Well, if you’ve never eaten Bi Bim Bap, here is a quick primer. 
Bi Bim Bap is basically a deconstructed Korean rice dish. You get white rice, a number of vegetables (usually carrots, cooked spinach, bean sprouts and others) and sometimes a little bit of meat. The dish is then topped off with a fried egg, which you are supposed to break over the whole thing. It all gets mixed together with this sweet and spicy red sauce to make a rice dish/meal. It’s delicious, and in the past few months, it seems to popping up at delis everywhere in Midtown. I’ve had a decent pre-packaged version at 
I’ve always been content with the Cafe Duke version, despite the fact that it was pre-packaged- but after discovering Ambrosia, I think Duke has been unseeded. While Korean food is a unique option for Midtown Lunch’ing, Ambrosia is not. It’s just another one of those generic delis that serve everthing under the sun- complete with sandwiches, salads, pizza and the requisite by the lb. buffet. Although I’m sure some have partaken in the Mexican Fiesta station, I suggest ignoring it all and heading back to the Korean Food window in the back of the store.
Everybody loves falafel! So the second week of Midtown Lunch’s existence was dubbed Falafel Week- and each day I visited and wrote about a different Midtown falafel joint (
Bread & Olive is a Lebanese take out place on 45th btw. 5th & 6th ave. They have both beef and chicken shwarma, kafta, delicious homemade breads, and an array of maza (Lebanese salads and dips). There is a small seating area in the back, but most people take the food to go. Everything is Lebanese style, so the spices are going to be different than the shwarma at an Israeli place, or the gyro from a Greek place.
Ever since 
But, I am still a little bit desperate- so with no $10 buffets left, I decided to up my price to $10.95 and check out Sukhadia’s, a Vegetarian Indian Buffet on 45th btw. 5th & 6th Ave. Now, I am not an Indian food expert, and I am not exactly sure what kind of Indian food Sukhadia serves- but I can say this… if you are looking for Tandoori Chicken, or some sort of Tikka Masala with Naan- you are going to be very disappointed. In fact, if you are looking for meat at all, or even any of the standard Northern Indian dishes you find at most American Indian restaurants, you are going to be disappointed. I believe the cuisine is mostly from the area of RÄjasthÄn, but you can find Northern and Southern Indian food at the restaurant, in addition to Jain dishes (a religion/philosophy from Ancient India whose followers are vegetarian).
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You show up at an Indian Buffet, and it costs $10.95 and they got no meat, it’s going to make you say 
How much are you willing to pay for a hamburger and fries? Assuming that we’re talking about a take out place (not a sit down restaurant), and the portion is decent (not humongous), but it’s made from good meat (not McDonalds). If you are not willing to pay more than $8, stop reading now. Don’t waste your time. The place I’m writing about today will just infuriate you.
WARNING: What you are about to read was not written by a burger connoisseur. That’s right. I said it when I wrote about 
Everybody in Midtown has a goto lunch, and although I try to eat at new places every week, my wife and I usually fall back on Cafe Duke. Last week, we hit up Cafe Duke for a quick lunch, and I decided to forgo my usual Bi Bim Bap in favor of a few things from the buffet by the lb. I don’t normally do the whole by the lb. thing, because although I love the variety, I can’t stand feeling the need to hold back. Scooping tiny portions, all the time worrying that my lunch is going to end up costing $17. While loading up with my normal items, something amazing stood out to me. They had these amazing looking Jumbo Shrimp that had me wondering “How they hell can they afford to serve Jumbo Shrimp for $7 a lb.????”
I guess that’s why I wasn’t surprised about the shrimp. Can you imagine if the Jumbo shrimp were real? For $6.99 a lb? Hoards of fat guys (like me) would be crowded around the buffet, loading up on jumbo shrimp… trying to “beat the game”. Thankfully, the fake shrimp were delicious so I wasn’t too upset about being duped. I’m not sure exactly what they are made of, but I’m guessing it is a rice cake type of mixture (or imitation crab meat… although it didn’t have that fake fishy flavor that imitation crab has). The best part about the scam… the “shrimp” are not only colored and shaped to look like shrimp, they even have the indentation where the tail was pulled off. Such detail. It’s like art.