Midtown Lunch

When I first walked into Earl’s Court on Monday when it officially opened, I was impressed that they seemed to have replicated some sort of corporate cafeteria or food court in a European airport. The food offerings are far less exciting than at first envisioned when the list of food options in this place was announced. And if the food doesn’t excite  you, perhaps the fact that you can drink there after work will.

They had a lot of helpful employees telling you how to go through the ordering system which is not my idea of a good start to a lunch. Basically, you order sandwiches and anything else that needs preparing from the counter, or you grab a salad (shudder), soup, sushi rolls, cupcakes from Billy’s Bakery or baked goods on your way to the cashier at the end of the line. This is an impulse buyer’s nightmare.

I decided to get lunch from the Earl of Sandwich section of the menu. All of the sandwiches are $5.99 and I went with the Caribbean jerk chicken variety because who knows how to replicate the cuisine of the islands better than an English sandwich chain? The toasted bread, chicken and peppers on the sandwich were all surprisingly good but the downfall was the sauce. I was expecting something jerk-like, but instead it was more like a spicy mayonnaise and there was a lot of it.

My biggest disappointments with Earl’s Court were that the Shake Bar sells only chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors and some smoothies, and Billy’s Bakery only cupcakes. If you want to drink after work in a food court setting, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a bar there called Libations that’s open until 10 p.m. although the food part shuts down at 5 p.m.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a place with plentiful seating this winter this is probably your best bet.

Earl’s Court, 90 John St. (at Gold), (212) 227-6899