Midtown Lunch

The other day I told a couple of people that my lunch destination was Sea World on Church St. (at Lispenard) to further investigate the $6.99 buffet that popped up. They wished me luck in the way that people do when you tell them you’re taking the subway to the Bronx or going to eat a McRib. My stomach has handled worse things than fried seafood, I thought, and it’s only come back to haunt me once! When I got there and asked if the buffet was by the pound, I heard the magical words “No, it’s all you can eat.” And with that I was handed my plate and went over to see what my strategy would be for gorging on fried foods.

I would highly suggest you go for the buffet at either noon or after 1 p.m. When I got there I was the only customer except for a man who seemed to be using it as his office. Other people came in and out to inspect the buffet but I was the only taker until after I had grabbed my second plate. Then the place filled up with construction workers and a couple of police officers. There were a fair amount of choices on the buffet including fried shrimp and fish fillets, crab sticks, chicken and fish nuggets, fried rice, lo mein, some vegetables and a meatball/vegetable mix. It all looked like it was fairly fresh, and there was plenty of each.

My first plate I grabbed a bit of whatever looked good, but not too much so I could save room for seconds (or thirds). The clear winners of this plate were the chicken on a stick – like the kind you’d find at a yakitori place, the meatballs, fried shrimp and my “dessert” of a donut. The fish was OK, but pretty hard to eat with a plastic fork and definitely would have worked better in sandwich form. I liked that they have tartar and hot sauces on the tables because these definitely helped out a couple of the seafood items.

My random second plate included crab rangoon that I didn’t really care for (but was freshly fried), a fake crab stick, fish nugget and a big old chunk of what I think was breaded and fried pork. I would not recommend the crab sticks or fish nuggets unless you appreciate really low-grade seafood products. Oh, and I got another meatball (and later, a chicken stick) because these were the stars of the buffet for me.

This is not a lunch a cardiac surgeon would recommend, but the price is right and I love being able to try things and not worry about how much they weigh. Oh, and for those whose friends may judge them for eating lunch from a buffet at a place called Sea World, point out that they got rated A by the Department of Health.

Sea World, 321 Church St. (at Lispenard), (212) 925-4790