Midtown Lunch

Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) has always been about the craziness (conveyor belt sushi, dim sum, the new and improved refrigerated conveyor belt, peking duck days, and bogo free greatest hits bentos.)  But this could be the best of the lot: according to Urbandaddy they’ve just started serving an off the menu bowl of ramen covered in a glass of sake (!?) We are so on this… but should it be a lunch or a Happy Hour post?  Early adopters, let us know what you think in the comments.

Last week Yushi (on 47th btw. Lex+Park) introduced a new bento specifically aimed at the Midtown Lunch crowd looking to get more for their money.  They call it the “Greatest Hot Hits”, and it’s got a mix of some of their more popular items all in one box.  Chicken teriyaki, 2 scallion and chive dumplings, edamame and fried rice all for $8.  I’m all about variety, so this thing is right up my alley.  The white meat chicken was not surprisingly a tiny bit dry (although I heard that they might be switching to dark meat) and the edamame could have used some salt… but overall it’s not a bad deal for $8 (especially for Yushi, where some of the bentos can leave a guy like me pretty hungry.)

Still worried it might not be enough food for $8?  Well fear no longer… Yushi has decided to offer Midtown Lunch’ers a buy one get one free deal on the “Greatest Hot Hits” box for one week only.  All you have to do is print out this post, and take it to Yushi during lunch any day this week, and you get two “Greatest Hot Hits” bentos for the price of one.

The fine print is after the jump…

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Today is duck pancake day at Yushi, but we’ve just got word about another special (available every day). The “Greatest Hits” Bento box features two pork and chive dumplings, two chicken teriyaki skewers (minus the actual sticks, so they can “get more in the box that way”), edamame, and fried rice for $8.  Could be good…

I had been hearing rumors that the Downtown branch of Yushi had been tearing things up on Wednesdays with a new peking duck special.  So when the Midtown branch (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) announced two weeks ago that they too would be doing peking duck (on Thursdays) I was mildly excited.  See, Yushi and I have always had a complicated relationship.  When they first opened I wasn’t down with their expensive bento boxes, and low calorie mentality.  But they’ve won me over since, with cool sushi rolls (peking duck sushi anybody!?), delicious soups, and free giveaways for Midtown Lunch’ers. Sure everything is a bit more expensive than I would like, but the food tastes good- and the quality of the ingredients is better than your average take out joint.

Peking duck pancakes and fried rice for $9 on Thursdays only?  Alright… I’m down to take the plunge.

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It’s been awhile since we heard from Yushi, the slightly too expensive, slightly too hipster, but creative and tasty sushi and bento place on 47th btw. Lex+Park (the one with the refrigerated conveyor belt.) Clearly they’ve just been biding their time in anticipation of dropping this bombshell… Starting today Yushi will have Peking duck pancakes as a Thursday special (three, plus fried rice for $8.95.)  I hear they did this at their downtown location, and it was crazy successful (have any of our downtown lunchers tried these?) Plus I liked their peking duck sushi rolls.  Could be good.

I hate posting glossy, done up PR photos, but in this case I think it’s helpful just so you can have realistic expectations.  Check it out after the jump…

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Last week, to promote their new, now refrigerated, conveyor belt, Yushi (on 47th btw. Lex+Park) gave free lunch away to 10 Midtown Lunch’ers. A few of the winners were kind enough to send us their thoughts, with photos. Kee in mind the food was free (and free food always tastes better!) But you still get the general idea…

First up is Lunch’er Matt:

Hi Zach, just got back from Yushi! Food was good. The conveyor belt is a *little* gimmicky but it does exactly as advertised. Each plate has a color on it and that color corresponds to a different price. I think there were 5 colors in all. Now, on to the food!

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Here we go again! Remember when Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) first launched their lunchtime conveyor belt, and gave away free lunch to a few lucky Midtown Lunchers? Well now that they’ve reconfigured their conveyor belt to be completely refrigerated they want to give free food away to ten more Midtown Lunch’ers. To win, all you have to do is comment below with the reasons why you should be chosen. 10 winners will be randomly selected in a drawing this Friday (7/17) at 3pm, and will get to have lunch at Yushi’s new conveyor belt one day next week with a friend. (Each winner and their guest will get a free drink and any four plates off the conveyor belt- probably because the previous winners pigged out too much!) Good luck! (No matter how many times you comment, your name will only be entered once in the drawing.)

Once again, you’ve got to give credit to Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) for trying.  After introducing their new conveyor belt, soliciting advice from Midtown Lunchers, and then sadly turning the conveyor belt into a “for display only” situation, they’ve now changed things up again.  Today Yushi is replacing their “Spruce Goose” with the very first fully refrigerated sushi conveyor belt.

I have no idea what that means, or the technology involved, but apparently the genesis of the idea came from Yushi’s desire to have a conveyor belt you could actually take food from, while answering the customer concern that food on conveyor belts is not always fresh.  I always thought the best way to do that was by making sure your restaurant is always packed with customers constantly eating the food… but sure, crazy refrigerated conveyor belt is a good option too!  Any kaiten early adopters out there?  Feel free to report back. The conveyor belt is open daily from 11:30am to 2:30pm starting today.

Related:
Yushi Wants To Give You Free Conveyor Belt Sushi
First Look at Yushi’s Conveyor Belt, Which Opens on Monday
Airing of Grievances: Yushi’s New Conveyor Belt is For Display Only!?!

In all the years I’ve been begging for somebody to serve Dim Sum in Midtown, the last place I’d expect to step up would be Yushi! (On 47th btw. Park+Lex)  Of course my idea of dim sum is carts rolling around… for Yushi it’s just what they’re calling a new line of dumplings being sold out of steamer baskets at the front of the restaurant.  They’ve got chicken and mushroom, or pork and chive for $6.45.  Shrimp and chive for $6.95.  One order is 6 dumplings, and you get a salad on the side. Sure it’s expensive by Chinatown standards, but that’s only 50 cents to $1 more than the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck (and they charge you $3 for the salad.)

I think I might have to try these, which just proves that if you put anything in a Chinese steamer basket and call it dim sum I’m going to be interested (nevermind that this place is Japanese.)  What can I say? It’s the only fair thing to do before passing judgment, and my last couple visits to Yushi involved a soup and a couple sushi rolls that were admittedly really good.  (Oh, and in case you were wondering the “for display only” conveyor belt is still rocking it down the center of the restaurant.)

Related:
I Am Big Enough to Admit I Wasn’t Entirely Correct About How Much Yushi Sucks
Yushi Bento Bar Brings Style Over Substance to Midtown

Conveyor belt sushi… but not really.

Well this isn’t a good way to kick off your first week with a new conveyor belt:

“I went to Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) for lunch today and had to walk right out. Why? Because the food on the conveyor is now for display only. That’s right. You look at the food on the conveyor, call your waitress over, and ask for it. You’ll then get your plate delivered. What a novel idea! It’s almost like ordering a la carte, except not remotely as convenient. Here I was getting ready to blow my lunch budget bigtime on some much missed conveyor sushi. Please update the entry so as not to mislead any other midtownlunchers expecting real conveyor treats. -Francois”

If people wanted to order food off a menu they’d go to a regular sushi place! I contacted Yushi for a comment, and their response is after the jump.

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