Midtown Lunch

Up until Milk Street Cafe opened on Wall St. last week the options for kosher food in the Financial District (OK, and most of the area this part of the site covers) was limited to glorified generic delis, a place that consists of a take-out window and another place with not a whole lot of seating. Milk Street is the classiest option that the kosher among us have, and nearly everything on the menu is more than $10. If you don’t keep kosher then you might not eat here just because the prices are higher than you’d normally find, but the food seems high-quality and there are options galore.

Opening day was a little chaotic and a friend and I had a hard time deciding what to eat. There’s sandwiches, a rotisserie, a grill, an Asian station, sushi, salads, soups and pasta among other things like coffee and desserts. After wandering around we opted for a sandwich and a little kosher Asian food.

The selection is a little limited to fried rice, cold peanut noodles, spring rolls and sauteed vegetables. (Obviously you’re not going to find roast pork here). I got half and half of the noodles and rice with some of the vegetables. Beware if you’re looking to get half rice and half noodles – they charged me for a full serving of each which is $7.50 a pop. This was the cheapest entree option I saw here other than soup.

My friend went for the Montreal smoked beef ($10.95) with some coleslaw on it. There was some confusion as it’s supposed to come on garlic bread, but didn’t so you might want to make sure you get the right carb.

The fried rice, and especially the vegetables, were good although the rice had raisins and pineapple in it. Your enjoyment of the peanut noodles will likely depend on whether you like peanut butter because it was literally like those were the only two ingredients. Tasty, but I could only eat a little of it.

The smoked beef sandwich was also good although it benefited from some mustard. Again, it’s pretty expensive but it was a decent size and you’re probably paying for the added expense of kosher meat.

Bottom line – if you don’t keep kosher you may not eat here much due to the prices although they do have a few things that aren’t often found downtown like KC BBQ beef brisket and kosher banh mi (and ample seating!). I would also say the sushi looked better than a lot of grab and go found in the Financial District and the prices are reasonable. The baked goods also might be worth checking out if the sample of a chocolate chip/potato chip cookie was any indication.

Milk Street Cafe, 40 Wall St. (nr. William), (646) 827-9955