Midtown Lunch » Village Voice

Check in at Choice Eats Particpating Restaurants, Get Free Stuff

Zach Brooks — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:30:12 +0000

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.

10 Best Things to Eat in Times Square

Zach Brooks — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:00:08 +0000

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!

Famous Dave’s Named Worst Thing to Eat in Times Sq

The ML Team — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:30:36 +0000

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.

Choice Eats Gives Midtown the Cold Shoulder Once Again

ultraclay — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:30:56 +0000

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.

If the point of participating in an event like this for the restaurant is to pique interest in potential new customers, I have to declare this a success all around. Xie Xie’s braised pork with tart shallots certainly has my interest. Once I figure out a good excuse to head to 9th Avenue during my lunch break, I’ll be up there to give them a try.

Choice Eats also reminded me which places I need to go back to after a long absence. One bite of Fette Sau’s smoked pork belly left me wondering why it’s been out of my life for so long. Thrown in for good measure, a smoked ham better than any you’ll find on the Easter table next month.

Sara Jenkins’ Porchetta sparked an obsession in me that still makes me salivate when smelling fennel and rosemary together. That juicy, herb-scented pork is one of my favorite foods in the world.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that table after table of readily available beer made a good reward after standing outside in the damp weather for an hour waiting to get in.

For more coverage of Choice Eats, check out Robert Sietsema’s live blogging and Blondie and Brownie’s report (which will probably be up later today or tomorrow).

Virgil’s Makes the Best Sandwich in Midtown!?

The ML Team — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:00:26 +0000

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…

More on Oaxaca Grill and Izakaya Moku

The ML Team — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:33 +0000

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.

Sietsema Loves Midtown

Zach Brooks — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:30:04 +0000

Midtown Lunch friend and personal hero Robert Sietsema has been doing some nice eating in Midtown lately… yesterday he reviewed the new location of Katsuhama (on 55th btw. 5+6th), and on Tuesday joined my farewell lunch tour for some Biriyani Cart and Kati Roll.

Choice Eats Tix Are Now On Sale

Zach Brooks — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:00:13 +0000

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>>

Fork in the Road Weighs in on Wu Liang Ye

Zach Brooks — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:30:12 +0000

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]

Margon Does Us Proud at Choice Eats (Again)

Zach Brooks — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:30:28 +0000

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…

Chicken chicharrones, octopus salad, and fried plantain. Awww yeah.

Beyond Margon, SmorgasChef was the only other place with a Midtown location (they took over the old AQ Cafe space on Park & 37th, when that place moved to 58th & Broadway.) Their Swedish meatball with lingonberries, and smoked salmon was fine.

Some of our favorite out of bounds spots were there though, like Baoguette (on Lex btw. 25+26th) which served mini versions of their sloppy bao and pork banh mi. Delicious! There was also chopped liver on toast from Eisenberg’s Sandwich shop (on 5th btw. 22+23rd), and Tiffin Wallah (on 28th & Lex) was there for a second year in a row.

Beyond the Midtown stuff, my favorites were probably the manty from Cheburechnaya in Rego Park and the chiles rellenos tacos from Tortilleria Nixtamal.

The place was packed, and a lot of the food ran out early (Momofuku Bakery I’m looking in your direction…) but nobody left hungry (or sober) and for $35 it’s kind of hard to complain! You can read more coverage on A Passion for Food or Serious Eats: New York.