Midtown Lunch

Sometimes all you want for lunch is some protein, vegetables and rice. You could go for street meat or falafel, or a cheap Chinese special, but Thai is also at the top of my list when that feeling hits. And amazingly, we’ve never reviewed one of the cheaper sources of a Thai food lunch in the Financial District – Cafe Sage on John St. (at Cliff).

The lunch special ranges between $6.95 to $7.95 depending on what kind of meat and preparation you want (spicy basil, pad thai, curries, chicken with ginger), and they all come from a steam table. There are also three vegetarian options, and I ended up getting the tofu basil ($6.95).

You get a decently sized container of deep fried tofu in a spicy sauce with fresh basil, and a cup of steamed white rice on the side. I thought this was a good value and it filled me up, but if you need a little more you can add on a spring roll for $1.25.

The tofu tasted a bit too much like oil, but otherwise I thought the flavor was great and there was some actual heat happening. I’m not sure how the meat dishes fare on the steam table, but I would imagine you’d be satisfied by any of them.

I can’t say how this compares with the steam table lunch at Bennie’s Thai Cafe as I’ve only ordered off the menu there, but the food I had at Cafe Sage was surprisingly tasty. I’m just going to forget that they were once shut down by the Department of Health…

Cafe Sage, 108 John St. (at Cliff), (212) 925-7440