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 Callie who is looking for some good Battery Park City lunches and her dislikes include everything this site is against.

Name: Callie

Occupation: Risk analyst

Where you work: 55 Water St.

Age: 22

Favorite Kinds of Food: Cheese, meat, combinations of cheese and meat, sushi, French, Italian, Thai, Korean, Indian, Peking duck, soup (especially spicy soup), anything I can smother in ketchup, baked goods. I appreciate good, fresh, thoughtfully-prepared foods of all kinds.

Least Favorite Foods: Wraps, most deli sandwiches, chain pizza, the cupcake fad, overpriced pub food on Stone St., cucumber.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Taim Mobile, Alfanoose on Maiden Lane (btw. Broadway & Nassau), Adel’s Halal on Maiden Lane (at Front) for the falafel and spicy rice; Toloache on Maiden Lane (btw. William & Gold) for the pozole de pollo and guacamole; Mexicue – I got 4 sliders once and almost had a heart attack at my desk. I think the BBQ brisket is my favorite; Financier (Multiple Locations) for the financier sandwich and la crevettes salad; Table Tales on Water (btw. Beekman & Peck Slip), Adrienne’s Pizza Bar on Stone St. (nr. Hanover Sq.), Harry’s Italian on Gold St. (at Platt) for the meatball parm. Pita Press is a new favorite – their zucchini and feta fritters in pita is awesome when I’m not feeling like souvlaki but want some tzatziki sauce anyway.

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A couple of weeks ago while alerting you all that Sophie’s Cuban was now selling its legendary green sauce I realized something shameful: I have never eaten at Sophie’s. Sure, I’ve had roast pork from other downtown spots like the West Side Coffee Shop on the fringe of Tribeca, and at the Roxy, but Sophie’s eluded me. I’d also been meaning to try the pernil at Lane Cafe that I stumbled upon a while back. And so on two different artery-clogging days I got pernil plates from each place to see which one was better. That’s right, it’s a roast pork battle the likes of which the Financial District has never seen. Read more »

The roast beef and arugula baguette from Pret. Photo by Robyn Lee.

• A look at the entire menu at Pret a Manger [SENY]
• Get a free falafel sandwich at Maoz [Tenka]
• Prosperity Dumpling opens a 2nd location (with seating!) [Bowery Boogie]
• Searching for the best dumplings in NYC [Eat This NY]
• Lucky’s Famous is now open on Houston [Fork in the Road]
• The soon to open Luke’s Lobster will have beer and wine [Grub Street]

A lot of places open in SoHo and Nolita but it’s often sad scanning their menus because more often than not everything on them is $10 or more, even at lunch. There are ways around that by going vegetarian or ordering nothing but a sandwich but sometimes it’s nice to eat somewhere a little nicer but still at ML prices. Rubirosa opened on Mulberry (btw. Prince & Spring) – an outpost of a beloved Staten Island bar pie purveyor – but sadly the cheapest pizza on the menu is $14 for a small and there is no mention of slices. But then I saw that they were named the best slice of 2011, and that there was a way to get a cheap lunch here after all. Read more »

Greek food isn’t something we have a lot of downtown. There are places like Zeytuna and Koyzina Cafe that sell some vaguely Greek items but most of it is more Middle Eastern. When it was pointed out that something called Pita Press had opened on Cedar St. (btw. William & Pearl) I had no idea what it was and assumed it was another falafel shop. You can’t miss the blinding sign and interior of the shop that proves if you are selling Greek food you must use blue as a color scheme. What really caught my attention, though, were the words “Greek rotisserie.”

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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 Danny who has some issues finding a good lunch near his office, but luckily all of the food trucks park nearby.

Name: Li-Hsin “Danny” Lee

Occupation: Analyst

Where you work: Fitch Ratings, across from the Staten Island Ferry terminal

Age: 25, 26 on Tax Day

Favorite Kinds of Food: Chinese (dumplings, scallion pancakes), Korean (soon doo boo), Italian, chicken and rice, and almost everything else edible on Earth.

Least Favorite Foods: Bitter melon

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Bian Dang truck on Wednesdays.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Murphy’s Tavern (formerly known as AJ Kelly’s) on Stone St. (btw. Broad & Whitehall), and Chipotle (Multiple Locations) – we have VERY limited options due to how far downtown we work (right by the water).  There are still great places but they’re kind of far away and difficult to fit into our one hour lunchtime. 

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