Midtown Lunch

Speaking of street meat… underneath the scaffolding at the southwest corner of 47th St. at Park is the Kwik Gourmet cart, which you may remember as the winner of Street Meat Palooza 3 in 2010. That win was four years ago, and the cart has never had a proper review on this site. I wanted to correct that wrong (OK, and really wanted an excuse to eat street meat), and any street cart that regularly draws a line of suits from the nearby banks and offices on Park must be earning their business. A look at their lamb + chicken over rice, and some bonus shrimp action, straight ahead.  Read more »

Craving steak on Friday I realized that you can’t just jump into a lunch at Tad’s Steaks.  Even on a dare.  Eating at Tad’s requires some training.  Like an Olympic Marathon runner, you can’t just start off by running 26 miles.  You’ve got to slowly build up to the big race.  So, I put my lunch at Tad’s on hold, and decided to slowly work my way into it.  (Yes, I am a wuss- but can you blame me?  It’s Tad’s we’re talking about here.) First stop on the training circuit?  The Steak Truck, to try out their steak and cheese sub, that I first noticed in July.   Read more »

It’s been awhile since the monstrosity known as “The Steak Truck” (on Park & 47th) has been mentioned here on the site.  I was not impressed with their burgers, but the steak is not terrible (especially considering it’s under $10 and comes with sides and a drink.)  They seem to have added a few other things, like a fried chicken cutlet sandwich that looked intriguing- but the thing that caught my eye was the sign in the front window.  Foot long philly-cheese-steak-hero $4.99?  Hello!  Could it be that Magdy’s Steak and Cheese cart one block over, may have some competition?

Anybody try this thing yet?  Feel free to let us know what you thought in the comments…

With my hosting company in full meltdown mode this week, and Midtown Lunch’s server on the fritz I realize that one cannot underestimate the restorative power of venting.  If only I could have complained to somebody at my hosting company (or punched one of their employees in the face) it would have made me feel so much better.  In that spirit, I’ve decided to post two emails I received this week.  (If the Eater Complaints Dept. would like royalties, I’ll be happy to pay up…)

First up is Yushi, the upscale Japanese healthy bento place on 47th btw. Park+Lex:

Zach- I wanted to give you a rundown of today’s Yushi encounter… I know, it’s super expensive and kinda on the healthy yet measly side. But I met my boyfriend there for lunch… he got a seared salmon salad and I got a seared tuna nicoise salad. The salads were just under $10 each but with drinks I ended up plunking down $25.67 (number burned on my brain and in my credit). Grumbling at the fact that my $9.95 tuna salad only had four TINY slabs of tuna in it, I sat down, prepared to savor every last morsel of that shit.

Anyway, today they had several girls walking around with trays of samples.  Don’t know if this is a regular occurrence, but snaps for freebies. Boo and I finagled two prime beef/shiitake mini meatballs with teriyaki sauce each from one candy striper (delish and more filling than an entire $10 salad), then we were also given shot glasses of their tasty firecracker miso from another girl. All seemed well… until I noticed a third long-haired minx of an employee strolling the aisles with what appeared to be coupons in her hands. She seemed to be silently judging the inhabitants of each table she passed, while tapping the pile of coupons against her fingertips. Iactually WATCHED this girl hand coupons to table after table after table of males, explaining with a smile the complimentary miso they’d receive upon their return, yet she skipped two tables of women in between!! To add insult to injury, the chick glided past our table unfazed, offering little more than a selective sideways glance and a slight sneer. As we put on our jackets to leave, I was determined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it wasn’t blatant discrimination or an aversion to her own gender, but maybe she was planning on gifting us with a coupon at the door, or maybe she was legally blind in her left eye.

Either way, the minx was camped out near the door with her stack of discounts, so I beelined straight toward her with an inviting”where’s the candy” look on my face. Don’t you know it, but this girl smiles cattily (perhaps my over keen female sensory picked up on this?) while continuing to click the pile against her fingertips, taunting us, and said smugly, “buh bye now.” And that was it. No coupon?! No thanks for my $25.67 and ten-block trek? I’m still appalled. I knew Yushi was bourgy and too leather-laden for its own good, but this sheer disregard for me as a return customer worthy of a free cup of soup really just chafes me. Thought it pertinent that you know. And if nothing else, perhaps you find this little rant amusing.  Cheers, Profiled Midtown Lunch’er “Shauna”

I don’t find anything amusing about missing out on free stuff, Shauna.  Hope that the public display of your rant will solace you as much as that free coupon would have. 

A 100% true Treats Truck complaint/public service announcement that everyone needs to read, after the jump… Read more »

Yes, I am fat.  Yes, I am a big fan of quantity.  Yes, I love all you can eat buffets- and value is important to me.  But I am not a savage animal.  Not all of my meals must be eaten off a mobile truck parked on a sidewalk.  And it doesn’t always need to be an obscene amount of food, for a ridiculously low price.  I like good food… and I don’t mind paying extra for something special, or super delicious.  As long as there is value.  But value means a lot of different things to different people.

I’ll complain that charging $10.35 for a burger, fries and soda combo is too expensive, or $11+ for a sandwich is just plain stupid.  But then, over the weekend, I’ll spend twice that amount on an appetizer at one of my favorite restaurants (sweetbreads at Prune?  Hello!).  Value is about expectations and balance.  It is feeling that what you sacrifice in quantity, you gain in quality, and the whole thing works out so that you are charged accordingly.  And while for me, Goodburger and FreeFoods NYC have priced themselves just outside that value threshold, I can’t help but think that a place like ‘wichcraft teeters right on the edge.

There is no question alot of the menu will leave you hungry, and feeling ripped off, but with some clever ordering I think you can feel like you had a quality lunch, for an expensive, but acceptable price.  Plus, I love Craft, really like Craftsteak, love Tom Collichio, and even though my first trip to ‘wichcraft, ended with my wife being hungry (and angry we paid so much for such small sandwiches), I vowed to give the place another shot.

Basically what I’m saying is this.  If you are a fat man (like me) and enjoy quantity (like me), ‘wichcraft is overpriced for what it is:  tiny sandwiches that leave you hungry in the belly, and lighter in the wallet.  But if there is that small part of you that occasionally likes to trade a little quantity for quality (mixed in with a dose of celebrity chef), there is a better way to order at ‘wichcraft, to get you out for under $10, and feeling satisfied.

A breakdown of the menu, after the jump… Read more »

Words can’t even begin to describe the monstrosity that showed up on the NE corner of 47th St. & Park this week.  Ladies and gentleman, I’m proud to introduce, “The Steak Truck”

Oh my lord.  This could be a keeper.  The Lunch Menu, after the jump… Read more »

After doing this site for over a year, I have become the go to guy for lunch recommedations at my work.  And while I’m usually pretty good for a decent suggestion, there is one request that has, and will always stump me.  “Where can I get something healthy?”  I’ve been to a ton of places in Midtown, and they all have one thing in common.  None of them are healthy.  (Look at my flickr page for proof.  It’s not a pretty sight.)

What can I say?  Fat guys don’t eat healthy food.  If we did, we wouldn’t be fat anymore, and then we couldn’t make jokes about how fat we are for the amusement of people who read our websites.  Plus, you’re not going to trust a skinny guy to tell you where good food is.  I guess I wouldn’t mind eating healthy, if it tasted good- and they gave you more of it.  Healthy food is always less filling.  Maybe if they had healthy food, in an all you can eat buffet form, I’d be down with it.

What did you just say?  Buffet form would automatically make it unhealthy?  Oh.  Well, that sucks.

It’s just unhealthy food tastes so much better.  Well, Yushi is trying to change that.  It’s a new “Bento Bar” that opened up on 47th btw. Park & Lex, serving healthy bento boxes.  You know I love a good bento, so last week I headed over to check it out.

What they’ve got, healthy bento porn and the +/- after the jump… Read more »

New Yorkers love their BBQ.  If you doubt that, try going to the Big Apple BBQ Fest at the beginning of the summer in Bryant Park Madison Sq. Park (I’m retarded).  I had read tons about it- but couldn’t believe what I saw when I actually went.  People waiting hours in line to buy these tiny $7 plates of BBQ from different vendors from across the country.  And if you want to try all the different choices, you’ve got to go with an entourage of friends, each waiting in a separate line.  Go alone and you have to sit in 3 different one hour lines to get what would be considered a meals worth of food.  And worst of all- what does it say about the BBQ places in New York City?  Are they so bad that you’d be willing to wait an hour for four baby back ribs from Illinois.

Well, despite people’s willingness to wait hours in line every June in Madison Sq. Park, there are *some* decent BBQ places in NYC.  Which one is the “best” is always up for debate- you know, when people aren’t arguing about where to get the “best” burger in town.  (Actually the irony of the BBQ fest being in Madison Sq. Park was not lost on me.  It is also home to the longest burger line in New York City.)

Lucky for us in Midtown there is no real dispute as to where the best BBQ is.  Seeing that Dinosaur, R.U.B., and Blue Smoke are all outside of Midtown- it leaves only one true choice for the best BBQ (for the purposes of this blog of course).  Daisy May’s BBQ.  (Beware those of you who feel the need to speak up for Virgil’s on 44th… unless you want to be accused of being a tourist who knows nothing of good BBQ). 

The actual Daisy May’s restaurant is on 11th Ave. & 46th St., but they have graced Midtown with the presence of THREE carts serving BBQ sandwiches and chili during lunchtime.  I thought everyone knew about Daisy May’s…  but once again, I brought my sandwich back to my desk, and the guy next to me asked where I got it.  I had to answer “The BBQ cart.  You know… the one that is right outside the entrance of our building”.  Of course, this is the same guy who asked if my sandwich from Cosi was a falafel…  (If you work next to someone like this- and I know you do, please forward them a link to this blog.  They need our help the most…)

Pictures, where you can find the three different carts,  and the +/- after the jump… Read more »