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 Jeff who’s a relative newcomer to the Downtown Lunch scene but has already managed to find most of the quality places for Vietnamese sandwiches.

Name: Jeff Baum

Occupation: Litigation paralegal

Where you work: Broadway and Liberty St.

Age: 30

Favorite kinds of food: Spicy, authentic Thai food, or a really good steak.

Least favorite foods: Generally not the biggest seafood fan, especially for lunch.

Favorite lunches downtown: If I can spare the time to walk up, Xi’an Famous Foods on Bayard St.  (btw. Mott & Elizabeth) in Chinatown for liang-pi noodles is untouchable. More locally, I really enjoy the sloppy bao at Baoguette on Nassau (btw. John & Fulton) and the Taiwanese dumplings at the A-Pou’s Taste Cart (Multiple Locations). My grandfather and I try to get together for lunch every few weeks, and for a nice, sit-down place that’s pretty reasonable, Les Halles on John St. (btw. Nassau & Broadway) was excellent.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Pret a Manger (Multiple Locations) is close, easy, and has a solid selection of sandwiches I like, even if they are a couple dollars more than they probably should be.

Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Downtown? I’ve only been working down here for a couple months, and I owe pretty much everything I eat down here that’s not a chain to ML:D, but I don’t think I’d know Baoguette or Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches on Nassau (btw. Fulton & Ann) even existed down here if not for the site. Bennie’s Thai Cafe on Fulton (at Gold) was also a great find for serviceable Thai lunch specials. Excited to explore some of places mentioned on here a bit further away as the weather warms up.

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: Used to live near Astor Place, and the top lunch spots around there are endless. To have Ippudo, Num Pang, the best Grand Sichuan location, a Xi’an Famous Foods and everything else around there as standard, everyday lunch options would be a dream.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch: Downtown readers? If there are any great Chinatown spots that deliver down to the Financial District without a huge minimum, I’d love to hear it. Also, if there is any way to sort out the 15 seemingly identical carts across from and around Zuccotti Park, curious to know which are worth checking out.

Someone else will have to address the Chinatown question because I’m in the same boat you are! As for the carts, Biryani House is great for kati rolls and chicken tikka, especially if you like spice. Alan’s Falafel on Broadway (nr. Liberty) and Sam’s Falafel on Cedar (nr. Broadway) have their fans and are good if you want a ton of vegetarian food for not a lot of money. And for street meat, the cart known as Zak’s Halal, which I believe is the second in from Cedar St. is good for chicken over rice. 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 downtown@midtownlunch.com.