Kosher Deluxe (aka the beauty of the laffa- and free salad bar!)
With nothing in mind to eat last week, I was wandering down 46h St. (btw. 5th & 6th) when I stumbled upon another one of those Kosher versions of the ubiquitous midtown deli. Sandwiches, Salad bar, etc… but a quick look at the menu in the window, and I discovered they had Chinese food! Now, I was brought up Jewish (a reform Jew, so we didn’t keep Kosher at all)- which means I love Chinese food (the goto meal on Sunday nights and Christmas). But what’s Chinese food without pork (and shrimp for that matter)??? I love pork. A lot. As a matter of fact, with all the pork I’ve eaten in my lifetime, I was sort of surprised that an alarm didn’t go off when I walked into Kosher Deluxe.
I bypassed the salad bar and shwarma station on the right, and headed straight to the back, where they serve a variety of sandwiches, dinner type dishes and of course- the Chinese food. The menu had most typical Americanized Chinese dishes (all served with chicken or beef)- like Lo Mein, General Chow’s, Beef or Chicken and Broccoli, Moo Goo Gai Pan, and my personal favorite- Pastrami Fried Rice, in case you had forgotten where you were. The big problem was the price. Almost every Chinese food item was over $12!!!! (And you didn’t even get shrimp!) I did a quick u-turn, figuring that it wasn’t worth the money- but something caught my eye on the way out. On the menu above the Shwarma station I saw it…. “Shnitzel in Pita”. Helllllllo???
Now, I’m a big fan of wiener schnitzel (german fried veal cutlets), so how could Shnitzel be bad??? I spotted some delicious looking fried stuff below the Shwarma, next to the falafel that I was betting was the Shnitzel. I ordered it- and was not disappointed… (It is actually a misconception that wiener schnitzel is some sort of sausage- despite “wiener” being part of the name. In German wiener actually means veal. Serves me right for just assuming crap. Wiener actually means Viennese… and a traditional cutlet from Vienna is usually Veal.)
The pics, +/- and the Midtown deal of the century… after the jump.
Posted by Zach at 9:45 am, December 4th, 2006 under 46th btw. 5+6th, Falafel, Kosher Deluxe, Middle Eastern.
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 
I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of Thanksgiving. Yes, I am a fat man. Yes I love to stuff my face. Me & Thanksgiving sound like a match made in heaven. But as you can tell from this blog, I love ethnic food, so turkey and stuffing just don’t do it for me. American Thanksgiving is boring. Thankfully, America is full of immigrants, not satisfied with putting just turkey out on the table. My step-mom cooks great Italian food- so Thanksgiving at my Dad’s includes Lasagna. I think I would like Cuban Thanksgiving too. One of my co-workers (who is Cuban) said they have roast pork, in addition to Turkey. I’ve never been to a Chinese Thanksgiving, but if they had roast duck (or General Tso’s chicken) in addition to their turkey, I’d probably like that too. 
When I first found this amazing street, Cafe Zaiya was like a dream come true. Fun, exciting and packed with tons of amazing foods at super cheap prices. Chiyoda, in contrast, seemed like a slightly nicer sushi place, that was trying to mimic the success of Cafe Zaiya by offering a limited selection of rice balls and bento boxes in addition to pre-made sushi. In the past few months they have undergone a subtle makeover, and have now come into their own- offering upscale (but still inexpensive) treat, including small dishes like an avocado and salmon tartare, interesting looking Omusubi (rice balls) and an assortment of delicious looking salads, tempura, odon and more… all available to go. But more on Chiyoda another time… this is my Thanksgiving post!
I was walking to work the other day and got handed a menu for the 
Now, I will admit that “The Floater” is an unfortunate name. While it may be an Australian term for a pie covered in soup- it has come to mean something far grosser in our frat boyish American culture. (As a matter of fact, when I told one of my co-workers what I had eaten for lunch… he joked that it was also what I “would be making in a few hours”) But you can’t blame these guys… they’re Australian! And it’s still a catchy name, even though the heavy pie doesn’t really float in Madeleine’s hearty pea soup.
What can I say about this place that hasn’t already been said… Margon is a Midtown institution. When I started this blog (and wrote about Margon neighbors 
I put the “Cuban” in quotes because even though the sign outside says “Cuban”, it’s actually more Dominican. The first giveaway is the poster of the Juan Pablo Duarte in the back (one of the founders of the Dominican Republic)… but the real proof is in the Cuban Sandwich. A delicious pressed sandwich of pork, ham, cheese, mustard and pickles- the Margon version also has salami, a strictly Dominican preparation. While some complain that it’s not authentic, it is no less delicious!
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.
There are a lot of reasons I choose to write about a place. Being “Cheap” is a given… but other than that the first, and most obvious is the food. A lot of the places I write about do something interesting- something that isn’t available everywhere. Whether it’s the Indian Burritos at 
I very very rarely write about fast food- so the next question is obvious… Why the hell would you write about KFC??? Well the answer depends on who’s asking. If you haven’t heard yet, New York City is considering 
I love burritos, and have often lamented about the fact that there is not a good one in Midtown (
A few months ago I discovered the world of Midtown “Taco” Carts when I ate at the 
Here we go again. I love the buffets… and on Friday I visited another one (with my wife and a few of her co-workers). I had actually been to this buffet back in March for my brother’s birthday- when it was known as Minado. We went for dinner, and it was pretty good. Decent sushi, some good hot things, not too crowded- but things were still fresh, and a huge selection. A couple of months later, I had read that it was sold to Todai, a Japanese buffet chain with locations mostly in the west coast, Texas, Illinois, Virginia & New York. My one previous visit to a Todai (in Los Angeles) left me with a bad taste in my mouth (literally). The rice they used to make the sushi was disgusting, and the warm food was not so great either.
With that in mind, we went to the New York Todai, hoping that some of the Minado goodness was held over in the transition. Todai is what is known by buffet aficionados as a “Super Buffet”. It’s a very technical term, and might be difficult to understand for the buffet lay-person. “Super” refers to the awesome size and nature of the buffet in question. Most Super Buffets have many stations, and at least 50 items (I just made that up… I don’t think there is any real measure). 
After snapping the picture of 