Looking back through all of the lunches I consumed in 2013 made me wonder, once again, how I am not morbidly obese. There was BBQ chicken lo mein, pizza with bacon and jalapeños, cheese steaks, fancy hot dogs, and one uncooked lunch that I’ll talk about later. All in all it was a great year for lunching downtown, and we gained options like Jersey-style subs, Philly-style hoagies and Japanese curry.

While digging through all of these lunches, there were several that stood out and I whittled them down to 10. You’ll find those straight ahead, along with an honorable mention and a bonus spot for perhaps the most memorable lunch I’ve eaten in my tenure as editor of this site. 

The following 10 lunches are in no particular order of greatness. Basically, they’re dishes I still remember as being delicious even if it’s been 11 months since I ate them.

Shorty’s Italian Fries:  “You can get plain fries for $4 but why do that when you can get them topped with Cheez Whiz, Old Bay seasoning or Italian seasoning and romano cheese? The fries were fresh, crispy and liberally sprinkled with the salty cheese and some fresh herbs.” I still dream of these fries and would not hesitate to pay $5 for them again and again.

Luckyim Thai Cart’s Pad Thai: “Other than rice noodles, you get bean sprouts, egg, radish, and six large shrimp that were surprisingly not overcooked. Yes, you have to wait five to 10 minutes for your food, but I could tell that my pad thai had been cooked to order, as the noodles weren’t stuck together and everything was still piping hot.” After having so many subpar version of pad thai, this version, tart with tamarind, was a revelation.

 French Cafe Gourmand’s Lamb Sandwich: ”The lamb wasn’t tough at all and I appreciated it was in small enough pieces that I didn’t pull all of the meat out when I took a bite.” How often do you find a tasty braised lamb sandwich for $8? Pretty much never.

Dirty Bird To Go’s Chicken Fingers: “These chicken fingers are gigantic! Each piece was basically the size of a small chicken breast with a thin coating of breading. It was more original recipe than extra crispy – if you’re familiar with Kentucky Fried Chicken lingo.” I’m not ashamed that I put chicken fingers in my top 10. These are worth the shame.

Banh Mi Cart’s Pork Roll and Egg Sandwich: “If you were thinking New Jersey-style pork roll, think again. This is the same pate found in the classic banh mi but with a fluffy folded omelette in the middle rather than more pork.” This one gives the traditional banh mi a run for its money.

Birdbath Bakery’s Veggie Burger In M’smen: “This veggie burger is made of bulgur, pumpkin seeds and chickpeas, and it’s a bit crumbly. This is where the buttery Moroccan flatbread called m’smen that it’s nestled in comes in handy if you eat it like a taco.” Sometimes you want to eat something that’s light, yet filling and interesting. This is that lunch.

Yummy Fawl & Falafel Cart’s Platter: “By far my favorite part of the plate was the hummus, which tasted deeply of tahini, and the falafel balls covered in it were the best ones.” This cart from a vet of Sam’s Falafel is just as good, plus there are no lines.

Pisillo’s Cantanzaro Sandwich: “The pickled peppers balanced nicely with the fatty meat and cheese, and the bread did a good job of holding everything together. This thing was basically a foot long and I could have stopped eating at the midway point but ended up finishing it.” Pro tips: Don’t expect any parm sandwiches or marinara sauce here, and go hungry.

Hummus & Pita Co.’s Chicken Shawarma Pita: “What was in my pita was so tasty that I powered through the whole thing even though my stomach told me not to. The crisp-skinned chicken, although tasty when I got a bite, took a back seat to the salads and vegetables within (the Spanish eggplant and carrots were standouts).”  The chicken is good, but you should totally take advantage of the many vegetable topping options. Just keep pointing until they cut you off.

Mooncake Foods’ Lemongrass Shrimp & Rice Noodle Salad: “The shrimp were the best part of the plate – cooked and seasoned nicely, although I didn’t detect a lot of lemongrass flavor. The second best part was at the bottom when I discovered the lettuce had been slicked with a vinaigrette that prominently featured that fish sauce.” Bet you didn’t think a salad would make this list! I can still taste those shrimp, and that funky dressing.

Honorable Mention: One of the first lunches I ate in 2013 was also the most surprising. An order of a peppermill grilled chicken with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella on focaccia from The Grotto got me this behemoth. The key is the oil-slicked bread covered with chopped tomato, cheese and herbs, then charred on a trip through the pizza oven. Delicious!

Most Memorable Lunch…Ever:  There were a lot of really great lunches eaten in 2013, but the “Cheezee Satisfaction” from Magic Mix Juicery was sadly not one of them. From the review: “Despite being denied my dish of choice the first time I stopped in, on a return visit they had properly dehydrated the kelp and I walked out into the freezing cold with the raw food equivalent of spaghetti.” 

But wait, there’s more: “As I gazed upon the disconcerting red color of the noodles, and the puddle at the bottom of the container, I wondered what I’d done. But I was hungry and pressed on. The good news was that the meatballs were actually pretty tasty, molded together with some sort of pesto and tasting of garlic and herbs. The clear kelp noodles, on the other hand were colored with beet juice that somewhat transferred its flavor into the noodles.” 

I can still taste the beet juice clinging to those overly-chewy kelp noodles, and I think the shirt I was wearing that day also bears the scars of this lunch. Seriously, you guys, I enjoy the occasional healthy lunch as much as the next person but eating this seemed like I was being punished.

That’s the end of my list, but now it’s your turn. What were some of your most memorable lunches from 2013? Share them in the comments!

Earlier this year, an unconventional veggie burger caught my eye. This city has a lot of crappy versions of them, but when Birdbath Bakery‘s earned the top nod among the city’s non-meat burgers I took notice. After all there is a location in Tribeca at Church & Thomas streets, and I can’t often get to my favorite source. The other day I stopped in to see if they had the burgers (I was told they don’t have them until close to 1 p.m.) and a pile of them greeted me behind the glass divider.

This veggie burger ($8.50 including tax) is made of bulgur, pumpkin seeds and chickpeas, and it’s a bit crumbly. This is where the buttery Moroccan flatbread called m’smen that it’s nestled in comes in handy if you eat it like a taco.

Besides the burger itself, the toppings include slices of avocado, slightly pickled shreds of red onion and carrot, a tangle of cilantro, and a tomatillo sauce. Mine was light on the sauce and therefore kind of dry so I had to remedy this with my own additions. That was the only downfall to this interesting vegetarian lunch, and the thing was large and filling.

If you’re tired of falafel or looking for an interesting meatless lunch, maybe hit up Birdbath. Just go for a later lunch and you’ll be golden.

Birdbath Bakery, 200 Church St. (at Thomas), (212) 309-7555

I went to check out the new Dirty Bird To Go on Chambers St. when it was supposed to open on Monday, but alas, the windows were still papered up and it didn’t look close to serving fried chicken. (The opening has since been confirmed as indefinitely delayed). I surveyed my options nearby, and ended up at Birdbath Bakery on Church St. (at Thomas). I’d had an awesome chicken cilantro sandwich there soon after it opened and there were several other sandwiches that looked great, including a catfish variety, but then a turkey sandwich with potato chips and beer mustard caught my eye. I wasn’t entirely sure what beer mustard was, but it sounded promising.

My first disappointment with my $9 turkey/potato chip/beer mustard sandwich was (other than the price tag), the fact that when I opened the box there was no side salad as I had gotten with the cilantro chicken. Was this an oversight? Did they discontinue the side salad? I felt gipped. And yes, for the record there are times that I eat salad with my lunch rather than chips, fries or some sort of rice. Hell, in this case I would have been happy with a handful of chips or anything to justify spending $9 on a turkey sandwich.

The second disappointment was the sandwich itself. I was starving, and although there wasn’t anything technically wrong with it I thought there could be a little more of the roasted turkey or some more vegetables or something to flesh it out. Because the sandwich was premade the potato chips were well on their way to sog city by the time I ate them, and had mostly lost their crunch. The beer mustard tasted more like a variation on mayo, but it was tasty.

So basically, if you find yourself at Birdbath and are in need of a fancy sandwich, stick to the cilantro chicken or just make yourself a lunch out of the City Bakery cookies and call it a day.

Birdbath Bakery, 200 Church St. (at Thomas), (212) 309-7555

Tribeca seems to be a magnet for a certain type of bakery/ lunch spot hybrid, especially the farther north you go in the neighborhood. That’s why I wasn’t too surprised when Birdbath Bakery opened the latest in its continuing expansion of “green” stores on Church St. (at Thomas) late last week. I had been meaning to check out the SoHo location that opened not too long ago, strictly for the chicken cilantro sandwich which had been recommended. But thanks to my procrastination, I didn’t even have to take the subway! Find out what a “green” bakery looks like, after the jump.

I was there the second day they were open, and umm…let’s just say that toddlers and people disgruntled by the fact that they didn’t yet take AmEx cards were also checking out the goods. They had three sandwiches on offer, some soup and a bunch of cookies and other baked goods to ruin your appetite.

I ordered that chicken cilantro sandwich ($7.50) and a chocolate chip cookie ($2.50), which came out to exactly $10 including tax. The sandwich had slices of what I think were provolone cheese both on top of the chicken and between the two layers, which would have been great if it was fully melted. Instead it was kind of rubbery, but that could have been because I walked for about 5 minutes before finding a park bench to eat on.

If you are a cilantro hater never fear: I couldn’t even really taste the cilantro that I’m guessing was in the herb oil mixture on the chicken and cheese? There definitely weren’t giant sprigs of cilantro.

And now let’s talk about the oil (the orange on the bread in the above photo), which was kind of like a pesto but tasted a little like the flavoring on sun dried tomato Wheat Thins. It was delicious and propelled this sandwich into kick-ass territory. Since this is a bakery you would expect the bread to be pretty good, right? Well, it was, especially with the crisping it got in the sandwich press and with the oil soaked into it. The chicken was in white meat breast form and there was plenty of it.

Other sandwich options (which they tried to sell me on without even mentioning the chicken cilantro) were a hippie-looking veggie sandwich and one with smoked chicken.

The salad was basically giant leaves of lettuce, as in it wasn’t even chopped up. I ate it anyway to make myself feel more healthy. It’s pretty nice that they throw that in without charging you more and it makes the price of the sandwich seem even more reasonable.

Surprisingly, my least favorite part of lunch was the cookie. Before you start judging me, it was mostly due to personal preference as it was really crunchy and had an extremely buttery taste. I’m more in the chewy cookie camp, and plus this thing was huge! They do have other baked goods that were mostly between $3 and $4.50, but that was too rich for my blood.
THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• I feel like I’m killing the earth less when I eat here.
• The sandwiches come with a salad that makes me feel healthy.
• Three words: chicken cilantro sandwich.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• They don’t have a lot of lunch choices.
• If you want anything other than a sandwich you’re probably going to break $10.

Birdbath Green Bakery, 200 Church St. (at Thomas),