Midtown Lunch

While walking around in the area between Grand Central and Japan Society looking for a lunch spot (I had no idea what I wanted except that I was craving for Japanese food), I was drawn to Udon West’s big menu banner outside the restaurant (on 46th btw. Lex+3rd). It has been well documented that I love a good bowl of oyakodon and wouldn’t mind eating it everyday. So of course when I saw it on the menu I had to check it out.

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Let’s face it – It’s only February, and we still have at least a month of cold weather left before we can put away the sweater, scarves and jackets. Bundling up is one way of beating the cold weather, but the contributors here at Midtown lunch like to reach for a hot bowl of soup to warm up. We’ve asked each of the contributors to share a favorite bowl of soup in Midtown, so read on to find out where we like to get our soup on.

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Let me just admit something off the bat… unlike like many bloggers who consider their opinion worthwhile because they have access to software that transmits their words onto the interwebs, I will admit that there are some things I don’t have a ton of experience with (so maybe my opinion should come with a grain of salt).  And one of those things is Japanese udon soup.  Even though there are many cheap versions all over Midtown (a lot of delis now carry it), it has never really made it into my repertoire of lunches. (Sauteed udon is a different story!)  If I want soup, I usually go with ramen… and when it comes to ramen, two of my three favorite places (Menchanko Tei & Men Kui Tei) were kind of bashed by Rameniac.  So either he’s wrong, or I don’t know shit about ramen either.

So, with that in mind- I headed over to Udon West, the third outpost of the East Village chain which replaced Teriyaki Boy on 46th btw. Lex+3rd a month ago.

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Last September it was reported that the shuttered Teriyaki Boy (on 46th btw. Lex+3rd) would become a Japanese noodle shop, and surprisingly it has happened in the time frame they specified. Udon West has opened in the old Teriyaki Boy space, serving up 13 different bowls of Udon under $10. They also have teriyaki, curry, and combinations (although the combinations are all over $10), and I believe they are the same Udon West with locations in Flushing and on St. Marks in the East Village. It will be interesting to see how this place competes with Menchanko Tei, one block over on 45th btw. Lex+3rd…. but at least while the  weather is still cold I’m guessing there is room for both. Let the soup wars begin! Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

A shot of the pretty nice interior is after the jump…

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