Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Mark who dislikes being a creature of habit come lunch time, likes steak sandwiches and is looking for good deals without having to eat on a park bench.

Name: Mark Uhl

Occupation: Design studio manager

Where you work: Soho

Age: 37

Favorite Kinds of Food: North African, French comfort food, and Peruvian and Mexican in my Jackson Heights, Queens nabe.

Least Favorite Foods: Deli fruit salad (especially the melon), Greek diner home fries (I’d prefer to eat the potatoes raw and unadorned), cheese sandwiches, and meat on rice with white sauce from any Halal cart (it’s a great dish until you eat the whole thing and need to go home for the rest of the day).

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Papatzul on Grand (at W. Broadway) for mole de almendra – the best mole in NYC, Mooncake Foods on Watts St. (btw. Thompson & 6th Ave.) for the steak sandwich, Big Wing Wong on Mott St. (btw. Canal & Hester) for the pork and noodles, Peep on Prince St. (btw. Thompson & Sullivan) and Spring St. Natural on Spring St. (btw. Cleveland Pl. and Lafayette) for the chicken burger.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Excellent Dumpling House on Lafayette St. (btw. Canal & Walker) for chow fun and dumplings, Olive’s on Wooster (btw. Prince & W. Houston) for the steak sandwich and noodle salad, Café Duke, aka, “The Food Court,” on Broadway (btw. Prince & Spring) for beef donburi and salads.

Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: None yet, honestly.

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: Midtown!  Ironically, Midtown Lunch (the original) makes me want to work in Midtown.

Anything you’d like to ask the downtown Midtown Lunch readers?: Which “sit down” spots do you get the best bang for your buck?  Peep and South’s Bar on Church St. (btw. 6th Ave. & Franklin) come to mind.  Where else?

Well, I am with you on Peep having one of the best lunch values, especially for Soho. Anyone able to point Mark in the direction of any awesome lunch values? And as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email us at downtownnyc@midtownlunch.com.