Midtown Lunch

Some of the details for Village Voice’s Choice Eats (one of our favorite events of the year) have been announced and it looks like this year’s event is going to be a good one. Tickets don’t go on sale for another week, and only a few restaurants have been announced, but they’re going to have four food trucks all of which are Midtown Lunch faves (Joyride, Wafels & Dinges, Korilla BBQ and Taim Mobile.) Plus, there’s a special badge for Four Square users that will score you free stuff at the event. All you have to do is check in from 5 restaurants that have been or are going to be part of Choice Eats, and you score the badge (for Midtown that includes the food trucks listed above and Margon.) Tickets go on sale Wednesday, January 26th. Get all the details on their website.

To make up for their 10 Worst Things to Eat in Times Square list from a few week ago, Robert Sietsema- food critic for the Village Voice- put out his 10 Best Things to Eat in Times Square list today- and with few exceptions it’s basically just a list of Midtown Lunch’s Greatest Hits. He completely ignored the fancy restaurants of Midtown, choosing instead to highlight such under $10 ML classics as Tad’s Steak (see, I’m not crazy for liking it!), Teriyaki Boy, Cafe Edison, Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, Margon, and Sapporo.  The only real shocker of the list is their boundaries, which went as far west as 9th Ave (Gazala Place) and as far north as 56th (Szechuan Gourmet) and yet didn’t include an Honorable Mentions list- even though with those boundaries you clearly could have listed a ton more places.  Like Madeleine the Crepe Lady, who actually has a legit claim to be called “in Times Square”.  It also included Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, but not the Biriyani Cart- which is about a 100 yards closer to Times Square. Go figure.

As with any list like this, it’s easy to pick it apart or make our own (better) suggestions… but in the end, Fork in the Road got what they wanted.  All of you guys to click over and read it!

Ouch! We heard Famous Dave’s BBQ (on 47th btw. 6+7th) was hit or miss when it first opened- but worse than the by the pound buffet at Smiler’s!?! Come on! Fork in the Road has released their weekly top 10 list and today it shines a spotlight on the 10 Worst Things to Eat in Times Square. Seeing as how Midtown Lunch is devoted to finding the best food around Times Square (and beyond) we’re proud to say we haven’t tried a single one of the ten things.

It’s a familiar story at this point: Another year, another Choice Eats that sadly neglects the restaurants of midtown. This was my first year attending and I was honestly surprised at how few Midtown offerings there were. In past years, Margon flew the flag for the underrepresented, but this year, the only restaurant to fall within Midtown Lunch boundaries was Toloache, with just out of bounds Xie Xie and Mantou Chinese Sandwiches rounding out the Midtown selections.

It was disappointing from a Midtown Lunch’ing standpoint, but there was plenty of other deliciousness to stuff my face with. After the jump, some of my favorites.

Read more »

Fork in the Road released their 10 Best Sandwiches in New York list, and unsurprisingly none of them are in Midtown.  But we did score two in the “runners up” list: ‘wichcraft’s white anchovy, soft-cooked egg, salsa verde, and frisee (whatever, it’s a chain), and Virgil’s Owensboro lamb sandwich (on 44th btw. B’way+6th). At $14 the lamb sandwich is way out of the ML price range, but call us intrigued. Anybody had this thing yet? And would you chose it over the Sophie’s Cuban fried pork and plantains sandwich? And what about all of Certe’s Sandwiches (on 55th btw. 5+6th)? Or Ma Peche’s pork banh mi? What Midtown sandwich do you think should have been on the list? Or were they right in snubbing us…

Related:
The Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge

The Village Voice seems to be in Midtown a lot these days… on Tuesday Robert Sietsema posted a not terrible review of Oaxaca Grill (even though “there’s zero Oaxacan about the menu”), and in yesterday’s issue of the paper Sarah DiGregorio reviewed the newly opened Izakaya Moku on 32nd btw. B’way+5th.  From her review you don’t really get a sense of what the place might be like for lunch, but it sounds like the food is pretty good.

Related:
Izakaya Moku Continues the Japanification of Koreatown
First Look: Oaxaca Mexican Grill (A More Americanized Chipotle!?)

Tickets for my favorite event of the year have just gone on sale today… the Village Voice’s Choice Eats. This year’s bash will be on March 22nd at the 69th Armory (on Lex btw. 25+26th) and tickets are $45 for general admission, and $75 for VIP… although there are limited number of early bird tickets available now for $10 less. 23 of the restaurants have been announced, and even though only two three are from Midtown (Xie Xie, Mantao Chinese Sandwiches, and Toloache) it’s already shaping up to be a stellar lineup. To purchase the discounted early bird tickets before they run out, click here>>

Related:
Margon Does Midtown Proud at Choice Eats
Margon Does Us Proud at Choice Eats (Again)

If you wanted to read more about my kid’s first taste of tea smoked duck, the Village Voice’s Robert Sietsama has a great write up of a sit down lunch we shared last week at Wu Liang Ye (on 48th btw. 5+6th).  Sadly, none of what we ate is in the Midtown Lunch price range- with the exception of the dan dan noodles and the wontons in hot oil. Both were delicious, but neither are big enough to make a complete lunch.  Wu Liang Ye’s takeout menu does have a list of $8 lunch specials- but very few of their “Szechuan Specialties” are on it (unlike Szechuan Gourmet, which has a number of their specialties available as lunch specials.)  Either way, it was still a really tasty lunch- and worth checking out the write up if you love Szechuan food. [Fork in the Road]

For the second year in a row Midtown lunching was woefully underrepresented at Choice Eats, but Margon-the Cuban/Dominican diner on 46th btw. 6+7th- did us proud with a huge spread of some of their best stuff.

A plate of my three favorites is after the jump…

Read more »