A few weeks ago somebody mentioned in the forums that you can often find churros being sold in the subway station on 53rd and Lex. Well last week, I was passing through there during lunchtime and sure enough… churros! 2 for $1, and despite the freezing cold weather they were surprisingly fresh tasting. I got mine around 1:30pm, so they were not warm (obviously) but were surprisingly still soft on the inside. The pushcart usually doesn’t show up until Noon, and they’re are on the subway platform (so you have to pay the fare), but if you’re taking the E or V to or from that station and are lucky enough to spot some churros action, don’t make the mistake of walking by. It’s only $1!

Related:
Forums – Subway Churros Ladies

I’m a big advocate of taking the subway to lunch.  If you have a monthly pass it’s free, and with a little bit of planning you can easily get a delicious lunch in a different neighborhood in under an hour.  If you don’t like to plan do what Peter Cherches from Word of Mouth does- play subway roulette.

“Sometimes I feel like getting out of the neighborhood for lunch, for variety, but some place not too far, maybe three of four stops on the train.  So I go to the subway at Lexington & 53rd and wait for a train.  The two choices are the E and the V.  If the E comes first I hop on and go to lunch on 8th, or more likely 9th Avenue.  If the V comes first I go some place close to 6th Avenue, maybe one of the Korean places on W. 32nd or maybe Szechuan Gourmet.”

Yesterday, the E came so he ended up at Bali Nusa on 9th Ave. (one of my personal favorite out of bounds lunch spots.)  This could be the greatest idea ever.  Do you work near a subway stop with multiple trains?  What would your roulette options look like?

Related:
Subway Lunch: This Could Be the Perfect Week For Banh Mi
You Can Make it to Porchetta and Back in an Hour
Both Shake Shack’s Are Do-Able From Midtown in 60 Mins

Oh man, do I love pork.  And there are fewer better pork options in the city than a sandwich from Porchetta in the East Village.  So, when I got this email yesterday from Lunch’er Jeff, you can imagine my excitement.

I needed to combat all this pork-bashing in re: to swing flu. Just had an incredible lunch at Porchetta. I’m certain you’ve heard of it… it’s a fatboy’s dream. Had the porchetta sandwich and even split the pork ragu sandwich. I won’t give you the full review, but seriously… heaven. Thing is, even though it’s out-of-bounds, a co-worker and i did it in exactly an hour. We work on 50th and Lex. Granted the 6 subway is on our corner. But most eastside midtowners are near a subway stop… so we just shuttled down to Astor stop, walked the 3 or so blocks east… and bam! Oh did i forget to mention… it’s gourmet pork and can be had for under $10!! (yup, you are so there, i know it).

Photo courtesy of Kathy YL Chan from A Passion for Food

I like the cut of your jib Jeff! Subway lunch to Shake Shack is nice… but in the end, you can get a decent burger in Midtown. A sandwich like the one at Porchetta on the other hand. Ain’t nothing like that in these parts. We all thank you for the report! You can read more about Porchetta on Serious Eats: New York.

“I’ve seen the banh mi conversations running through Midtown Lunch, but have yet to try one. The only banh mi I have come across is the one at Dishes. At $12, (which, from what I can tell, is a 500% markup) it better have white truffles and gold flakes in it if you want me to order one. Well, what Midtown Lunch started, chowhound helped me finish. I am once again in Boston (I work there sometimes), and desperate for good food (I really don’t have a thing for mall food courts), I searched Banh Mi in Boston. After some consideration I decided to head out to Mei Sum Bakery in Chinatown at 40 Beach Street (1.2 miles away according to googlemaps). The goal, get banh mi and be back at the desk in less than one hour, while spending less than $10 bucks.”

“After walking by 3 or 4 chinese restaurants filled with office workers sitting down and eating a fancy lunch (I think people in Boston actually do that kind of stuff), I found Mei Sum Bakery, full of elderly chinese men. Jackpot! Banh Mi comes in 3 varieties, pork, tofu and beef, and costs $2.50. I ordered pork and tofu, and asked the ladies behind the counter what else I should eat, they recommended a BBQ pork bun. Total price, $6.40. Starving (it was 12:30 already, and I had just walked almost a mile and half for food) I started on the pork bun as I walked out of the shop, and my guess was confirmed, this place is awesome. The dough was sweet, and the sweetness/saltiness of the chunks of pork was perfect. There was just the right ratio of pork to bun to sauce and it was easy to eat while walking.”

“I made it back in an hour, and with my appetizer in my belly, I broke out the Banh Mi (pictures of the pork banh mi are attached). It’s got three kinds of pork, slices of smoked and uncured pork, with the fat forming a ring around the edges, plus ground pork. In addition to the pork, this thing is stuffed with cilantro, chiles, onions a few carrots and with some sort of sweetish garlicky sacue. It all comes together with a nice crusty baguette. The tofu banh mi will be saved for the train ride home, cause I’m full on less than $5! -Lee”

As commenters have mentioned before, this could easily be done in NYC:

• “Nicky’s Vietnamese on east 2nd between Aves A and B (F train to 2nd Ave, then a few blocks walk) for real deal banh mi and a Vietnamese iced coffee”  -Shauna D.
• “Rock center on the B/D to Grand St. There are two vietnamese places within a block, and Vanessa’s Dumpling House on Eldridge is super close and packed at lunch.” -Danny

Godspeed. And feel to report back…

As promised, I attempted to make it up to the new Upper West Side Shake Shack today in under an hour.  Unlike the the lunch’er who made the Monday attempt, I took the 1 Train.  I also didn’t leave early, or late- I went in prime lunching hour.  Here is how it went down…

12:17 Enter 1 Station on Broadway and 50th
12:23 Get on the Train
12:30 Train Arrives at 79 St. and Broadway
12:35 Get online at the Shack, which stretches out the door
12:55 Get to the counter to place order
12:58 Food is Ready

Now at this point, you could leave and make it back- in theory. We decided to stay.

13:17 Done Eating
13:25 Enter subway station at 79th and Broadway
13:26 Train Arrives
13:33 Exit Station at Broadway and 50th

1 Hour, 16 Minutes. A few things worth noticing… 5 mins from subway to the shack. 8 minutes to get back. You walk slower after eating lunch at the Shake Shack. You can easily shave 20 minutes off this time by taking your food to go, and you could aruge that the B is faster? Not sure. So, technically we could have made it there and back in under an hour- provided our office was located at the door of the subway station. You still have to make it from your office to the station.

Either way, the burger was great- but I will not be going back anytime soon. And it has nothing to do with the time.

Oh, hell no! I completely underestimated how annoying it would be to stand in line with the 12:30 weekday UWS crowd. I never thought thougth I’d say this, but I think I prefer the suits at the Madison Square Park location.

This place I speak of is Whole Foods, and I finally got a chance to check it out last week for lunch.  It rests on the Upper West Side corner of the Midtown Lunch boundries, on 8th Ave. & 59th St., Columbus Circle, in the basement of the Time Warner Center.  It is easily the best “Grocery Store” in Midtown, and despite its high prices and questionable business practices, the food is undeniably fresh and of a much higher quality than any other place in our area.

The grocery store is nice, but for lunch purposes, we’re looking at the prepared foods area.  The gigantic section between the “store” and the registers.  What they’ve got, grocery store porn and a +/- after the jump…

To get to Whole Foods, enter the Time Warner Center through the front doors, and continue straight down the escalator.  When you get to the bottom, a security guard will force you to go to the left.  Resist the urge to continue straight into the grocery store.  Hanging a right at the Sushi bar will take you right into the heart of Whole Foods Lunch.

Like any good Generic Midtown Deli, Whole Foods has got pre made pizza, and a ton of prepared foods lining the wall, along with a deli where you can order sandwiches.  In the middle of the floor is the by the lb. food bars, stations with labels like Salad, Asian, Indian, and “Hot Food”, which refers to pretty much everything else.

I should hate Whole Foods.  It’s everything I hate about the Generic Midtown Deli.  Everything, and I mean everyting, is pay by the lb.  Even the pizza is pay by the lb.  What kind of crap is that.  They might as well hang a sign up in the front that says “Fat People of NYC.  We fully intend to gouge you.”  It’s understandable from a business stand point, I guess.  Why set a fixed price when you know hungry, overweight lunchers will end up piling on more than they should, not realizing that they’re going to end up spending $17, until it’s too late.  Can you imagine trying to put back a scoop of Indian food in front of the cashier who has just told you that you’ve spent more money then you have in your wallet.

That being said, if you can put aside the price, and be disciplined about what you take, Whole Foods has some really fresh and delicious foods, that are head a shoulders above any other Generic Deli in Midtown.  In L.A. I used to eat at Whole Foods all the time.  My favorite was their curry chicken salad, a cold chicken salad with chunks of apples, raisins and a curry sauce.  Pair that with a sushi roll, and you had a delicious lunch!  It took all my power to ignore the stations in the middle, in an attempt to try and find the fabled curry chicken salad.

Unfortunately they didn’t have it, but they had something that looked pretty similar.  A Morrocan (?) Turkey Salad, with apples, celery, raisins and what looked like curry covering the whole thing.  Just a little scoop please… so I could try some other things.  (I was lucky enough to have my wife with me, so it meant together we could try double the amount of things.)  The scoop ended being just under a 1/4 of a lb., and cost $2.20.  A rediculous amount for how little I got… but you’ve got to put the price aside.  That’s the trick to Whole Foods.  Go with a friend, try a bunch of things (small portions) and split the cost.  That gives you about $16 to work with…

As much as I love quality sushi, I don’t mind the cheap stuff either- and the rice makes it a lot more filling then some of the other things at Whole Foods- so we got a little sampler pack with tuna, eel and salmon and avocado.  Like most pre-made sushi, the rice was cold- but other than that it was good, and definitely better than most deli sushi.  You can even ask the guys behind the counter to make you something fresh if you don’t see what you want… but don’t sit down at the sushi bar.  They have a minimum order of $12 for that privelege, making the Whole Foods Sushi Bar, out of the Midtown Lunch price range.

Inspired by the Vegan profiled lunch’er last week, I was reminded of one of my favorite vegetarian items from the Whole Foods in L.A.-  Fried Tofu.  Fry anything, and it tastes good, and tofu is no exception.  Whole Foods has got a great selection of tofu that would make even the most hard core meat-a-holic reevaluate his (or her) stance on those hunks of soybean curd.  We tried a little bit of two different kinds.  One that was fried and covered in sesame, and another that was just labeled “Ed’s Tantalizing Tofu”.  I don’t know who Ed is, but his tofu had a mushroom and garlic type of sauce that made the whole thing pretty tasty.

We rounded the lunch off with a bag of cherries from the fruit section of the grocery store.  All in all, we spent $16- and while it didn’t seem like a ton while we were putting the lunch together, we were both totally full at the end.  They had a nice seating area, which gets pretty packed, but if you’re there with 4 or less people, seats open up pretty quickly.  There’s also a Jamba Juice if you’re into that stuff.

The key is to be very disciplined.  It may take you a little time to find a combination of items that fills you up, without breaking the bank.  But a little planning goes a long way.  I can’t stress that enough.  Do a walk through, and plan what you are going to get before you go slopping things onto your tray.  It also helps to share with another person.  That doubles the variety, which is one of the reasons why Whole Foods is so great. 

Since it is on the upper west hand corner of Midtown Lunch’ing, it may be a trek for a lot of people.  If you are on the A,C,1,9,B, or D it’s a great Subway Lunch (especially if you have a monthly pass).  Get off at the Columbus Circle stop, and you are steps away from the Time Warner Center entrance.

Is Whole Foods a bargain?  Absolutely not.  Is there a potential to feel ripped off eating there?  I feel that way every single time I step into the place.  If you are rich, and don’t care about how much money you spend on your lunch, will it greatly increase your chances of loving Whole Foods?  Indeed it will.  Is it the best selection of super fresh and high quality prepared foods that surpases every single Generic Deli in all of Midtown-  yes. 

Every once in awhile, it’s nice to escape to a fun wonderland of lunch’ing.  Even if it is a splurge.

THE +

• Variety. Variety. Variety.
• Quality. Quality. Quality.

The -

• Price. Price. Price.

Whole Foods, Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle.  212-823-9600

For more Whole Foods Photos, check out the Midtown Lunch Flickr Set

Arby’s is one of those places in the middle.  For many people, Arby’s is held in that special place in their heart (ironically, the same place you are doing damage to when you eat at places like Arby’s).  I’m on the fence.  There are no other cheap fast food places specializing in roast beef, but according to my wife, Arby’s is the bologna of Roast Beef- so it’s a toss up.  But here’s the thing.  Midtown is home to the only Arby’s in New York City (there are two in Queens).  And that makes it worthy of a Midtown Lunch write up.  It’s also housed in the food court of the Manhattan Mall… and I will use any excuse I can to visit a food court.

How we got there, what we ate and the food court fiasco- after the jump…

With all the rain at the end of last week, and beginning of this week I started looking for places I could go to, without actually leaving my building.  I work in one of the buildings that is part of the Rock Center complex, but I feel like I’ve exhausted all the options in the crappy councourse… so a new plan needed to be devised.  Enter, the Manhattan Mall.  Located on 34th St. btw. 7+8th Ave., the Manhattan Mall is accesible directly from the BDFVNRQ&W Trains (basically the Orange and Yellow and Shuttle), and is home to a food court, that contains an Arby’s.  Rain + Subway = Food Court Adventure!  I was ready.

12:42.  We left out offices and headed downstairs to the subway.  I’m not sure exactly what time we arrived at the Mall, because I forgot to look at my watch.  I was blinded by the excitement of the Food Court sign that greets you as you walk from the Subway station, right into the underground entrance of the Manhattan Mall.  Did I mention I love food courts?  That’s when the problems began.

Everybody who has ever been to a food court knows the best part of a food court is the free samples… and this one doesn’t disappoint.  General Tso’s from the Chinese Place, Bourbon Chicken from the “Cajun” place, and Teriyaki Chicken from the Japanese place.  Even the “Mexican” place was giving out Quesadilla slices, and the Sub place was giving out samples of cheesesteaks.  Very exciting.  First stop, sample each free item.  Sure I know what they all taste like- and I was there to eat at Arby’s, but who am I to turn down free food.

Then it happened.  I tried the bourbon chicken at the Cajun Cafe.  Now, for those of you who don’t know alot about food courts, every food court has a similar assortment of choices, and half of those choices usually will serve some sort of Asian chicken dish.  It might be a “latin” place, or in this case a “cajun” place, but chances are it is owned by Asian people, and despite the fancy name (like “fiesta” or “bourbon”)- it’s really just some type of teriyaki chicken.  I know about this trick.  I am aware of it.  I am wary of it.  I understand why they do it (chinese food is the most popular food court place, but you can’t have 7 chinese food places).  It doesn’t matter.  I’m addicted to mall food court chinese food.

So even though I was there for Arby’s, I was seduced by the free samples of bourbon chicken and caved to the pressure.  I’m not sure how the “noodles” were cajun (it was pretty much just lo mein), but that’s what I got at the Cajun Grill (along with some corn).  It was sickly sweet, and totally disgusting… but I loved every minute of it.  It’s part of being an addict (complete with the post-meal self loathing). 

The person I really felt bad for was the co-worker who went with me.  He’s from New Orleans, and was totally psyched there was a place called the Cajun Grill- not realizing that the food he was going to order would bear no resemblance to the food he grew up eating.  I said “Didn’t you notice that everyone working there was Asian?  What did you expect?”  He just hung his head in shame… and made me promise to refer to the terrible Red Beans and Rice as the Red BEAN and Rice.  MISSION: FAILED.  We got back on the train, and were back at our desks by 1:35.  Total time, 53 minutes.  This was definitely do-able.

Luckily it rained again on Monday, so we headed back to the Manhattan Mall Food Court to accomplish what we set out to do on Friday.  Eat at Arby’s.  It was tough.  I still ate all the free samples (My Name is Zach, and I’m a free sample addict), but purely because I’m fat.  Nothing was going to keep me from eating Arby’s this time. 

Here are my useless thoughts:

• I don’t like cheese spread, so I went with the regular Roast Beef Combo.  They give you a choice of three sizes.  I went with the small and was stuffed by the end of my meal.  Is it possible to eat the large (with fries and a soda) and not be carried out on a stretcher?
• My small without cheese comes on a seeded bun.  I think if you order a bigger sandwich, or one of the ones with cheese, you get an onion roll.  Not positive about this.
• The curly fries are superior to the regular fries.  You can get regular fries anywhere.
• The Arby’s Sauce Bar is Awesome!  I’m a big fan of multiple sauces, and they’re all available for the taking.
• The Arby’s “Signature BBQ Sauce” is not BBQ Sauce.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s not BBQ sauce.  Stick with the honey mustard or the amazing Horseradish Sauce (you may say the secret ingredient is Mayo).

All in all I enjoyed Arby’s more than McD’s or BK, but it wasn’t so unlike the bologna my wife described.  Still worthy of both trips though… even if you don’t like Arby’s there are plenty of other options at the Manhattan Mall Food Court (Nathan’s, Ranch 1, Sbarro, Subway just to name a few).  Not being seduced by the free samples is tough, but the hardest part is the leaving.  Making it past the smell of Cinnabon (between the food court, and the entrance to the Subway) is the true test of strength.