Midtown Lunch

We all know about Latin food inside a Blimpie, but Fork in the Road brings word of the latest shenanigans going on inside the Blimpie on 46th btw. 5+6th where you can order a not-on-the-menu “Special Vegetarian” sandwich involving doritos and a spicy green chile chutney.  This sandwich is definitely on my list for this week.  Midtown Lunch early adopters, feel free to comment below…

Prefer the Spanish food?  The Latin food that used to be in the Blimpie on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th is now next door sharing space with the Gujarati Indian Steam table and newly opened Taj Delhi Chat.  Or there is another Blimpie with Latin food on 35th btw. 7+8th.

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…

Jerk Chicken at the Jamaican Dutchy

Julia Moskin has a great Jamaican jerk feature in this mornings New York Times and guess who should pop up, but our good friends at the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st & 7th Ave.)  She interviews owner Oneil Reid and calls his jerk chicken one of “the best truck lunches in the city.”  No argument here.

But the most interesting part to me is what the article had to say about jerk pork, and why Oneil doesn’t offer it at the Dutchy:

He said that he would like to make jerk pork sometimes, but that many of the other food vendors, and the taxi drivers who inch past his cart in Midtown traffic, are Muslim, and the pork smell bothers them.

That’s a bummer, although entirely commendable.

By now, if you’re a regular reader of this site then you have pretty much figured out my rules for what qualifies as a true Midtown Lunch.  The most important rule is probably the one about the meal costing under $10, but I fully admit that sometimes this rule isn’t always clear.  Does that mean with tax it has to be under $10?  How about drinks?  Or chips? Or french fries?  What part of the meal must be $10?  For example alot of people will email me and suggest a sit down restaurant with an $8.95 or $9.95 lunch special.  Sure technically, that could be considered a Midtown Lunch- but I tend to shy away from those places, unless they are doing something that you can’t get anywhere else in Midtown.  After all, once you add tax and tip and everything- it ends up being over $10, and not necessarily a great value.

On the other hand, when the bar menu loophole was discovered at Del Frisco’s I immediately blogged about it.  $9.95 got you high quality steak tips and mashed potatoes at a sit down restaurant, where lunch normally costs $40.  If busting into a super fancy steakhouse, dressed like a schmuck, and eating the cheapest (but totally filling) thing on the menu isn’t the epitome of Midtown Lunch’ish behaviour, then I don’t know what is.  They raised the price two weeks later.  To some, it may still be worth it- but it’s no longer a Midtown Lunch.  In the end, sometimes the whole price thing just comes down to a gut feeling.

So a few weeks back, my gut and I headed over to Beacon, an upscale (read: expensive) American restaurant on 56th btw. 5+6th to check out their “Burger Bar”- which has an under $10 loophole of their own.   Read more »

You know what I say… the only good Chipotle is free Chipotle, and two more Chipotles opening soon in Midtown should mean two opportunities for free burritos.  The first one is on 45th Street btw. 5+6th and is tentatively scheduled to open on Monday July 14th.  Usually free burrito day is the day before the grand opening, but that would be a Sunday and very disappointing.  I’ll confirm as we get closer to the date… but let’s hope July 14th will bring gratis burritos.  Maybe that will make up for their grossly misleading calorie postings.  Signs for the second location have gone up on 50th and Park, but no date has been set for an opening.

In other chain burrito news, if you work on the west side and were jealous of the east side Qdoba alternative- the west side will soon be getting its very own Qdoba on 50th btw. 6+7th.  Huzzah! 

Have you seen a new place set to open up in Midtown?  Email the news, with or without a photo to zach@midtownlunch.com

Lunch’ers who ventured over to 38th St. btw. 7+8th today expecting a plate of roast pork over rice from Ying Du, or a plate of katsu from Go Go Curry were greeted by this scene.  Both restaurants were closed today, and converted into sets for “All Good Things” a new Kirsten Dunst/Ryan Gosling movie filming on the street. 

Ying Du as the “Times Square Deli” and Go Go Curry as a “Body Rub Parlor”, after the jump… Read more »

When the Caribbean Spice Cart popped up at the end of April on 46th Street btw. 6+7th it had a pretty tall order: to operate a cart selling Caribbean food just 5 blocks away from the Jamaican Dutchy– what I consider to be one of the best carts in Midtown. Sprung from the ashes of Caribbean Spice, a Hell’s Kitchen restaurant that had closed down at the beginning of the year, early reports from the cart were mixed. The first meal I had there was decent, but not great, and Danny from in Mouth reported that the oxtails were just mediocre. Now, with actual signage (when they first started it was just a cart with a piece of poster board) the cart is finally hitting their stride, and while it’s pretty clear they’re not going to unseat the Dutchy, there are two items on the menu that set them apart. Read more »

The rennovation of the 47th St. Japanese Convenience Store between Lexington & 3rd continues on, and I got this look inside.  It’s hard to make out exactly what is going to happen to this place, but as long as they keep all the bentos and fun stuff they used to serve (at fairly low prices) it should be good.  The store, which is owned by the upstairs restaurant Amakusa, has been closed since January.

Major plywood just went up at the original Kati Roll location on 46th btw. 6+7th, covering not only Kati Roll but another location next door.  Still no word on what may be moving into the place… but from the last bit of info I got, it probably won’t be a Midtown Lunch.

Speaking of speculation, info about the Strawberry space in the McGraw Hill plus the Indian buffet on 37th St., after the jump…  Read more »

With all the talk over Patsy’s (Patty’s?) Taco Truck making a two day appearance in Midtown, it’s not surprising that the two mainstay Midtown taco trucks have been mentioned a bit in the past week. There is the sombrero topped taco truck on 50th btw. 6+7th, and the previously sombrero-less Tacos/Burritos cart on 54th and Madison. I say “previously” because it appears as if this cart has come down with a case of sombrero envy… Read more »

At the peak of the heat last week I reported that Pro Hot Korean (on 56th btw. 5+6th) was now serving naengmyeon, a cold summertime Korean noodle soup- welcome news for anybody who works in the northern part of Midtown and can’t trek to Koreatown for some refreshing cold noodles.  It turns out the version they serve is Bi Bim Naengmyeon, which isn’t a soup at all (like the Japanese hiyashi chuka) but a cold noodle salad mixed with red chile paste, zucchini and apples or asian pear.  Oftentimes it will come with a cold broth on the side and Pro Hot Korean gives you a cup of their “miso” soup, but it was hot so I’m guessing you’re not actually supposed to pour it over the noodles (unless maybe the hot broth gets cooled down by the cold noodles?  I’ll admit, I don’t really know.)

As with anything pre-packaged, and the PHK version of naengmyeon is made in advance, it wasn’t the best thing I had ever had- but it certainly was refreshing and fairly tasty.  They were also serving a kimchee dangmyeon, which is pretty much the same thing (at Pro Hot Korean anyway), but instead of the buckwheat noodles they use the standard Korean glass noodles.  For $2 less ($6.95 instead of $8.95) I think next time I may try the dangmyeon.  Despite using a different noodle, they both looked practically the same from the outside (although the naengmyeon comes with half of a hard boiled egg.)

The best deal is after the jump.   Read more »