Midtown Lunch

The future NAYA Express on 56th Street, previously Cucina.

As you know, we’re huge fans of Naya Express, the “Chipotle assembly line”-style Lebanese fast food place on 3rd Ave btw. 43rd and 44th, and we’ve just got word that they’re opening a SECOND LOCATION in Midtown West at 54 West 56th Street between 5th and 6th Ave!

We’ll keep you posted on the opening date, but the location is expected to be up and running in August.

Since I started working in Midtown a few months ago, I’ve steered clear of Middle Eastern food for the most part because I’ve got some great places around my Queens neighborhood, and because there seems to be SO MUCH OF IT that the scene is just too daunting to navigate. But recently, one of my coworkers shared that she was “soooooo excited” when she found out the Middle Eastern restaurant Karam (45th btw. 5th and 6th), a favorite from her former digs in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, had a sister restaurant just around the corner. The chicken shawarma is the bomb, she said, and it made the top 101 sandwiches of 2010 by New York Magazine. After this recommendation, I had to give it a shot.

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