Midtown Lunch

Sorry for the late notice on this one, but it’s Macaron Day and you can get free macarons from a bunch of different bakeries downtown. Francois Payard has organized this delightful event, and to exercise your freeloading you need to tell the people at the participating shop that you’re there for Macaron Day NYC. You’re limited to one per person at each location, and some of the bakeries are also donating a portion of the day’s macaron sales to City Harvest if you need a sugar rush. The bakeries in on this deal in the Downtown Lunch coverage area are:

Bisousciao.Macarons – 101 Stanton St.

Dominique Ansel Bakery – 189 Spring St.

Francois Payard Bakery – 210 Murray St. and 116 W. Houston

La Maison du Chocolat – 63 Wall St.

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 Robyn who is sure to win hearts on this site for her food like/dislike list, and her making of contraband sandwiches in the office.

Name: Robyn G.

Occupation: Legal assistant/ day dreamer

Where you work: Water and Maiden Lane

Age: Ageless

Favorite kinds of food: Delicious kinds (steak, ice cream, lobster, crab legs, cheesy delights, anything that pairs well with booze).

Least favorite foods: Healthy kinds (beans and broccoli disgust me).

Favorite lunches downtown: A rare bleu cheese burger with fries at Meade’s on Peck Slip (btw. Water & Pearl), the grilled chicken sandwich with extra EXTRA green sauce at Sophie’s Cuban (Multiple Locations), the croque madame at Financier Patisserie (Multiple Locations), the falafel platter with extra white sauce and yellow rice from the cart (Adel’s) on Maiden Lane and Front Street, truffles from Maison du Chocolat on Wall St. or FIKA Swedish Espresso Bar on Pearl (at Coenties Slip), mussels with cream and bacon at Les Halles on John St. (btw. Broadway & Nassau), tortas from Toloache Taqueria on Maiden Lane (btw. William & Gold), falafel from Taim Mobile, and most importantly sandwiches from my contraband snackmaster in the office.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: The cafeteria in my building which has so many awful, unsatisfying options but is convenient.

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You all have embraced the Biryani House Cart‘s kati rolls, biryani and chicken tikka as much as I have and for a while now they’ve had a second cart on William St. (btw. John & Maiden Lane) selling the same items as the original on Liberty St. Nothing makes me happier than seeing carts like this branch out, but the other day I realized I’d never tried the meat and potatoes at these two carts: The lamb/chicken over rice. I’ve seen people order it all the time and was curious how they spiced the chicken, or if they did anything different since they sell more than lamb, chicken and falafel.

I think you’ll be happy to see what I discovered.

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Some non-hyped fish tacos. Courtesy of Lunch Studio.

• It looks like the Wall St. Burgers truck really was stolen. [DNAinfo]
• It might not be Shake Shack, but Pinche has good fish tacos. [Lunch Studio]
• You can get homemade Peeps at Duane Park. [Tribeca Citizen]
• Miss Lily’s makes a grilled fish sandwich with a kick. [Serious Eats NY]