The full description of the sandwich was as follows: chicken cutlet with fresh mozzarella, guacamole, vinegar peppers and herb mayo on semolina. All for $7.95. That’s a lot going on in one sandwich. In fact it seems like too much because the guacamole and herb mayo got lost in the shuffle the day I tried it. I could see the guacamole but I only really tasted it in a few places where it was particularly concentrated.

That’s hardly a complaint though, because the flavors that do stand out (the chicken, mozzarella, peppers and bread) make for a very satisfying sandwich. The chicken is thin, moist and not overly breaded or greasy. I was skeptical about the “fresh” mozzarella, but there was no doubt in my mind after seeing the pure white slab of it on top of my sandwich. It was the real deal and it was good. The peppers were pickled hot peppers (possibly green cherry peppers). They provided some much appreciated heat, nothing too extreme. And the bread really brought everything together. A nice crusty exterior and a soft chewy interior, finished off with an undercarriage dotted with sesame seeds. If all their bread is this good and fresh, Nino’s may be my new go-to sandwich spot.

Nino’s rotates their special pretty frequently and you’ll know what they have by what is advertised on a plain white sheet of paper in the window. They assured me, however, that they could make this sandwich just about any day as long as you give them a little time (calling ahead might be a good idea).

Nino’s Trattoria, 39 w. 46th Street (btw. 5+6th), 212-719-4015

I noticed a couple of things while walking down 46th street btw. 5+6th the other day… the first is Cafe Jia, a new place opening soon right next to Nino’s. Sadly it looks like another generic deli, but it does say tex-mex bar, a teppanyaki (think hibachi) bar and a gourmet coffee bar (I’ll believe that when I see it). You never know, this place could be good. (We’re not keeping our hopes up.) Regardless, it’s supposed to be open 24 hours, so they’ve got that going for them.

Remember Michelle’s on the same block?

Back in February Dave Cook told us about Michelle’s Restaurant, the UES catering transplant that had opened on 46th. Well, it’s already “closed for renovations” and from what I could see inside, they’re pretty serious renovations. (Like, we wonder if they’re ever coming back rennovations.)  We never got around to trying Michelle’s, and from the looks of it we’re guessing nobody else did either. For some reason the renovations are now making me curious. I might have to check it out whenever they reopen.

Got any news, recommendations or tips?  Send them to editor@midtownlunch.com

After a giving up fried foods for Lent, I had a post-Easter hankering for falafel, so I headed over to 46th street to hit up Moshe’s Falafel just back from their Passover hiatus. While waiting to place my order discovered that they’ve raised their prices across the board.

My go to order–4 falafel balls with tahina, hot sauce, and pickles is now $2.50, up from $2.00. Falafel sandwiches will now run you $5.25 up from $4.75. Prices for French fries and soup have both increased 50 cents will cost you $3.25 and $4.35 respectively.

Zach’s wasn’t a huge Moshe’s fan because of their sandwich layering problems, but I’ve always just gone for the side order of falafel and added it to my own bread or pita from home so I haven’t encountered the same trouble. Even with the 50 cents increase, $2.50 for crispy falafel, plenty of sauce and pickles is still a steal in my book. Any longtime Moshe’s fans care to weigh in?

So with all this talk of schnitzel, and the Schnitzel Truck still weeks away, I hit up Kosher Deluxe (on 46th btw. 5+6th) on Monday for a little chicken schnitzel in pita action.

Like most of the Kosher restaurants in Midtown, Kosher Deluxe is pretty expensive for what it is- leaving you with few choices under $10.  Luckily, they make up for it by letting you go hog wild on their pickled veggie bar- which is easily the best in Midtown.  Once you factor in the pickle bar, their falafel in pita is an amazing deal.  The schnitzel ($9.50) and shawarma in laffa (now $10.50!!!) a little less so.  But I was in the mood.

What’s their not to like?  Deep fried chicken fingers, in a pita, slathered with hummus.  I can’t say any of the spices (if there were any) stood out in my mind, but whatever. Chicken fingers in a pita is good stuff. And once you add their spicy Israeli salad, and pickled mango sauce (they have the orange stuff too) it’s all good.  Toss in the free plate of pickles, cabbage slaws, carrots, and delicious delicious eggplant (which Olympic Pita Baraca does not have) and you feel a little less guilty about spending $10 for a small pita sandwich. The bread can’t hold a candle to the fresh baked laffa at Baraca, but it’ll do.

Still, nothing beats a breaded veal cutlet (followed closely by a standard pork cutlet.)  And I’m very excited for the Schnitzel Truck to finally hit the road…

Related:
Kosher Deluxe (aka the beauty of the laffa- and free salad bar!)

I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it. I have a problem. The funny thing is others stopped by the newly opened Panda International (on 46th btw. 5+6th), took one look at the food, and walked out. From Lunch’er “Gustad”

“Went with some coworkers, and just as we were walking in, 3 guys walked out laughing. so i asked what was wrong, and they said it looked too sketchy. we continued walking in to come to the same conclusion. in their warm trays, i saw meatballs and other italian dishes. what the hell!!?? their menu had chinese dishes for 10-11 bucks (the stuff that is usually 6-8 at a real chinese joint). and heros, smoothies, etc… very odd. i saw a mexican in the kitchen and two white people up front. i can eat at the junkiest of chinese places, and i’m not saying this place looks junkie, but it was very far from appetizing. we left without food.”

I stayed and ate.

In fairness to Panda International, the lunch specials were not $10-11. And I did see a Chinese guy bringing food out while I was there. The rest of what he said is pretty much true.

On the Chinese side $8 gets you one meat, rice or noodles, an egg roll, and a soda. Not bad, unless you don’t want the egg roll and soda. Then you’re just going to wish it was cheaper.

If you want the Italian food, it’s $9 for one pasta, one meat, bread (and I think also a soda).

None of it looked that great, and with Sun Yip and Hing Won not too far away (for Chinese) and Park Italian and Little Italy Pizza on 45th btw. 5+6th (for Italian) I doubt Panda is going to replace any of those four as your go-to.

I got noodles and sesame chicken. “Chicken” is kind of misleading (it was mostly breading), and there was waaaaay too much sauce (and I actually liked the sauce.) No sesame seeds to be seen, egg roll was a little too doughy, and an hour later I was fighting off a headache. It’s probably the worst cheap Chinese food option there is in Midtown. And yet… I still enjoyed every single bite. What is wrong with me?

Panda International, 9 W. 46th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-921-2323

Lunch’er Josh, aka NYC Foodie, tipped me off to a new cart called Aamir Halal Food- which is serving chicken tikka and lamb over rice on the opposite corner diagonally across the street from the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th). According to Josh, the new cart is run by Aamir Hussein- who just so happens to be the father-in-law of Meru, the owner/chef of the Biryani Cart. When I stopped by to ask Meru about it yesterday, he called the new cart “competition” and admitted that it was in fact his father-in-law running the cart, and serving very similar food. He stopped short of saying it was causing “a problem in his family” (my words, not his) but I could see he wasn’t too psyched about the whole situation.  If I had to translate the look he gave me into words, I think it would be: “it is what it is”.

Totally in the mood for some street meat (I’ve been on a street cart tear lately) I headed over to this new unauthorized copy of the Biryani cart to see what was going on.

Clearly Aamir has no problems flaunting his connection to Meru… there is a newspaper photo hanging on his cart of him helping the Biryani cart at the Vendy Awards this past year, where they won the People’s Choice Award.

I asked for “his specialty”, which turned out to be a chicken and lamb combination over basmati rice. It had a very similar flavor to the food over at the Biryani Cart, even though he had told Meru he would be serving different food.  I didn’t notice any kati rolls on the menu, but on the plate of food I got there were more similarities to the Biryani Cart than differences (that hard boiled egg certainly looks familiar.)

It’s tough to complain about the food though… just like the Biryani Cart, it was incredibly tasty (and spicy) and I’ve always had the opinion the more street carts the better.  Although he probably would have been smarter to park on the East side, which is in need of a Biryani Cart’ish option.

Despite Aamir’s assurances that he is not serving the same food as Meru, there is one thing he said to me that leaves no doubt he is trying to follow in the Biryani Cart’s footsteps: “This year, I want to win the Vendy Awards.”  Whoa there pal.  Let’s take this one step at a time…

Aamir’s Halal Food, NE Corner of 46th and 6th Ave.

The Moshe’s Falafel truck that has been parked in Union Square for the past 6 months has given up on that spot and moved to 57th and Broadway.  According to the guys running the 2nd truck, business started off ok but has tapered off significantly during the winter.  So this week they decided to try out the NW corner of Midtown.  They haven’t settled on a permanent spot as of yet, but plan on being somewhere near 57th and Broadway every day starting around Noon.  Yesterday they were on Broadway btw. 56+57th on the West side of the street, and have already started to draw a crowd.

It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten at the Moshe’s Cart, so I decided to re-sample the goods…

Slightly better than I remember it from a few years ago (from the cart on 46th & 6th), my original complaints are still there: way too messy, and the distribution is all wrong.  I got one falafel ball on top, covered in tahini, then had to eat my way through a bunch of lettuce and tomato before getting to the other falafel balls on the bottom. Speaking of lettuce and tomato, if you are a big fan of the Israeli salad, you won’t find any here.  Another negative (unless you prefer lettuce and tomato.) Plus, I asked for hot sauce, but couldn’t taste any on the sandwich at all.  The falafel themselves are the big plus though… they have a great crunch on the outside, and were nice and moist on the inside (probably because I was there right when they opened and got mine fresh out of the fryer.)  The bread is forgettable, but all in all for $4.75 it’s tough to complain.

Amazingly, I just looked back at my Moshe’s Falafel post from 2006 and it could have easily been about the falafel I had yesterday. I guess at you can say they’re consistent.

The one thing that has changed is they added french fries a year or two ago.  They won’t put them on the actual sandwich (the way that Pick a Pita and Olympic Pita will) so I’ve never tried them… but yesterday decided to get an order.  For $3.50 you get a ton of shoestring fries in a bag (you can’t tell from the photo, because they’re at the bottom of a bag- but it’s a lot), and I love shoestring fries… so I was totally down with this.  If only we could get them to add the fries to the pita sandwich!!!  (Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge anyone?)

Regardless of whether Moshe’s is your favorite falafel or not, it’s a great addition to the one part of Midtown that is kind of devoid of falafel.  If you work near there, are are probably very excited today… (oh, and don’t wait too long to check it out, they will be closed for Passover.  So if you don’t make it by Wednesday, you’ll have to wait another week before they are back.)

THE + (What somebody who loves this place would say)

• Tasty Israeli style falafel balls (when you get them fresh out of the fryer).  Nice and crunchy on the outside, crumbly on the inside
• Cheap!  Sadly $4.75 is about as cheap as a falafel can get these days
• I love shoestring fries! And you get a ton for $3.50
• You get a whole pickle on top of your falafel
• Not a lot of falafel in this area…

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• Way too messy!
• Too much tahini poured over the top
• Falafel/lettuce/tomato/tahini distribution is terrible
• Bread is out of a plastic bag, and not warmed up
• I don’t like shoestring fries! (And they’re frozen in a bag…)

Moshe’s Falafel (2 Locations)

• NE Corner of 46th & 6th
• Somewhere around 57th & Broadway

So it’s not a Panda Express, but I suppose we’re getting closer.  Chuan Garden (on 46th btw. 5+6th) is finally reopening as “Panda Restaurant”.  Thanks to Profiled Midtown Lunch’er Josh from NYCFoodie, who sent along the photo above.  No word on whether or not it is the same owners, same food, or when it’s going to be reopening… but we know it’s still Chinese food- and as far as I’m concerned, the more Chinese food in Midtown the better.

Back when I was on my quest for a real deal Greek gyro (not a Middle Eastern shawarma sandwich, or a chopped up gyro from a cart), a number of commenters mentioned Akdeniz.  Sure it’s Turkish, and not Greek, and the place is a sit down restaurant- but their gyro sandwich is under $10 (one of the few things on the menu that is) and came highly recommended.  Well I finally got around to trying the thing, which is only available during the day, and although it wasn’t what I initially was asking for, it is definitely a tasty sandwich.

I got it to go (so I didn’t have to pay tip, etc.. you know the drill), and opened the thing to find something more like a gyro burrito than a sandwich.  It is $7.50 and comes wrapped in a Turkish style of bread that is more similar to a tortilla than pita bread.

First bite in was mostly lettuce (very disappointing)

But after a few bites I hit pay dirt.  The gyro meat is a much higher quality than what you would get from a cart, or even one of the cheaper Middle Eastern places, which shouldn’t be a surprise.  Akdeniz is kind of a nice, sit down, Turkish restaurant.  The flavors were more like shawarma than a Greek gyro, but overall the “burrito” was a little dry.  It needed something…

And that’s when I realized I forgot the sauce!

Much, much better. The sauces took it from being mediocre to delicious! For some reason they do the sauces on the side here, and in my bag I had totally missed them: a white yogurt based sauce, and a vinegary hot sauce- which improved the gyro sandwich tenfold.  The fatty meat gets balanced out by the crisp lettuce and tomato, while the hot sauce gets cooled off by the creamy yogurt.  Delicious!  It took me long enough to take the suggestion, but I’m glad I did.  (Keep them coming!)

THE +

• Gyro meat is much higher quality than you find at most places in Midtown
• The two sauces are excellent, and balance each other out really nicely
• If eating a “gyro burrito” sounds good to you, this is probably your sandwich

THE -

• $7.50 is a lot for a gyro sandwich (although admittedly Akdeniz is a nice Turkish restaurant)
• If you are looking for a Greek style gyro this is not it
• There’s a lot of lettuce and tomato in the thing (which may or may not be a good thing)

Akdeniz, 19 W 46th St (btw. 5+6th), 212-575-2307

El Tequilazo (on 46th btw. 5+6th) has always been a bit too expensive, and… “bright”… for my tastes (well, the sign anyway) but I passed by yesterday and noticed their sandwich board is advertising lunch specials that are well within the Midtown Lunch price range.  I’m pretty sure they never had anything for this cheap before, so I’m guessing this is some sort of recession special?  Anybody tried this Colombian/Mexican place before?  I’m a little wary, but kind of curious if it’s worth it at the cheaper price.

El Tequilazo, 43 W 46th Street (btw. 5+6th),  212-768-0770