Midtown Lunch

There’s a string of cheap places to eat on Church St. that included Pakistan Tea House, Taco House, and their neighbor Mike’s Papaya on the corner at Reade St. Well, apparently we’re down a hot dog and drunk food purveyor as Lunch’er Dan wrote in to tell us that the gate’s been down for a couple of days (as you can see from the picture he snapped). They weren’t shuttered by the Department of Health, so it’s a little bit of a mystery why they’re closed. I never ate there but I’m sure those not wanting to eat at the Paki Tea House perhaps turned to Mike’s for lunch in a hurry. If’ it’s truly closed, it better not become a Subway (or a nail salon).

One of the highlights in my year-and-a-half as your guide through the lunches of downtown Manhattan was discovering a $7 all-you-can-eat buffet at the delightfully-named Sea World in the gross upper reaches of Church St. When word came Friday that the place had closed and was possibly being taken over by pizza shop Saluggi’s, I couldn’t stop a “Nooo!” from escaping my mouth. Read more »

It’s unclear when it happened, but Lemongrass Grill on William St. (at Maiden Lane) has shuttered. This was one of the fancier Thai places in the Financial District and was mostly out of Downtown Lunch price range, but they did have really good noodles (or was it soup?). This basically leaves Bennie’s Thai Cafe as the best Thai option for the $10 and under budget in this part of the FiDi.

As the Bon Chon on John readies an offshoot selling tacos and sandwiches, the former Bon Chon location on Chambers St. that was forced to become “Bon Chicken” after being caught using unapproved sauces has closed its doors. Honestly, it’s surprising it took this long since that mess went down in July of last year, but judging by the photo of the interior , and the fact that the sign’s been taken down, they’ve sold their last inferior piece of Korean fried chicken.

Cafe Sage had the shutter partially down on Friday afternoon, and apparently I wasn’t the only who noticed that the Thai restaurant on John St. was closed. A tweet from a downtown lunch’er alerted me that there was a yellow Department of Health sticker affixed to the restaurant. Sure enough, according to the DOH Web site they were shuttered with 40 violations included presence of mice and roaches. Suddenly, eating from that quick and cheap lunch steam table they were popular for isn’t sounding so great.

Our fellow bloggers over at Grub St. brought the sad news late yesterday that cheap (and delicious) Korean lunch spot Jup She on Grand St. ( at Baxter) has closed and the inside empty of furniture. It was one of the only affordable spots for Korean in that area and the lunch boxes were a good deal for anywhere in the city. Perhaps the allure of dozens of cheap Chinese and Vietnamese (and Italian) restaurants nearby was enough to keep people from eating here?

If you don’t eat meat and work in the Financial District, it’s likely you’ve been to Little Lad’s Basket in the basement of the 120 Broadway building. Lunch’er Marco wrote in to tip me off to a note on their Web site saying the cheap-ass buffet spot is closing this week (the site says Aug. 5, but apparently there’s a note on the door saying they’ll shutter on Aug. 12). But fear not! According to the note on their site, it looks like the restaurant may be looking into relocating. Click through to see what the health food gurus have to say. Read more »