Midtown Lunch

This site has previously had reviews of fried chicken noodle soup and other items from the Korean portion of Cafe Hanover at Hanover Sq. & Pearl, but for some inexplicable reason we’ve shunned the Kyedong chicken. This brand of Korean fried chicken is advertised in a poster in the window and in panels on the wall behind the front counter where you pay. Sandwiched between offerings of pork belly for $40 and whole chickens, there are portions of chicken at Midtown Lunch-friendly prices. Click through to check out the behemoth lunch box it comes in, housing equally oversized pieces of chicken.

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I’ve eaten a lot of things that are hard to take tasty-looking pictures of – i.e. every Indian steam table lunch ever – but when I took the lid off my latest Korean meal from Cafe Hanover on Hanover Sq. (at Pearl) my heart sank a little because it looked pretty unappealing. By that I mean it looked like there was an oil spill all over some udon noodles, and that became my introduction to the dish called jja jang myun on their menu, also known as jajangmyeon.

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There is no scientific evidence that eating fried foods in soup will make you feel better but I’m just going to pretend this is true. Also, I know doing a post on soup when it’s 70 degrees outside isn’t exactly logical either but I’ve been under the weather and thought it would be an opportune time to sneak one more hot food post in before that starts to sound disgusting. With my head in a fog I was thinking of possible places to get soup and for some reason Cafe Hanover came to mind since I knew they had a section devoted to udon and soba. And nothing cures you better than noodles, salty broth and fried protein!

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If there’s one place here in the Financial District that I can’t believe I haven’t been yet, it’s Cafe Hanover at 5 Hanover Square.   I have heard a LOT of buzz about this undercover Korean joint disguised as a generic deli and I always told myself “hey, you should go there next week.”  But things would come up, new places would come on my radar, and Cafe Hanover was being perpetually pushed back.  Well, my friends, “next week” has finally come and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. Read more »