Midtown Lunch

Aroy Dee Thai Kitchen has been open on John St. (btw. Broadway & Nassau) for a while now, and on a recent gross, rainy day I decided to stop in again for lunch. I’d already tried one of their protein over rice options soon after they opened in March.

This time, I happened to have a weird cold that made eating in warm weather challenging. In defiance of the warming temperatures outside, I opted to order a noodle soup. And it both soothed my throat and gave me the seafood that I craved.

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Bad news to start your Monday: It looks like Baoguette on Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton) is down for the count. I’d noticed the lights being off earlier last week, but by Friday a “for rent” sign had been strung above the space.

The chainlet was one of the only banh mi purveyors in the Financial District for a couple of years when it opened at the beginning of 2010, with the Banh Mi Cart at Hanover Sq. for company. Now of course we have Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches (and Yushi) selling a variety of the sandwiches. Still, I became addicted to the catfish sandwich at Baoguette soon after starting work in the FiDi, when I was across the street from their original location on Maiden Lane. I won’t miss the yellow turmeric stains I got from pieces of fish that fell out of the sandwich onto my pants, but I will miss those banh mi.

One of the constants in the food truck scene of the Financial District during the past year or two has been the Ambizza Cafe Truck which came blazing in with claims of the city’s best kofta kebabs. That wasn’t necessarily true, but as that was the only dish I’d tried it was time for a return visit.

The truck has been parking at Old Slip & Water every day, even after hurricane Sandy left all of you Lunch’ers down by Bowling Green with few dining options and many trucks abandoned us termporarily due to a lack of parking spots.

Anyway, the short story is I finally did a repeat visit to Ambizza and am happy to report they do a nice plate of chicken over rice for only a couple of dollars more than the street meat carts.  Read more »

There are times where online delivery sites like Seamless come in handy…mostly when I am looking for a new place to try and see somewhere I never knew existed. This happened last week when I spotted something called Wrap Star that had the same address as Texas Rotisserie & Grill on Fulton St. (btw. William & Gold).

A look at the menu showed more than 50 wrap options including vegetarian varieties, one with crab cakes and a few featuring barbequed meats. I had my eye on a wrap featuring all of the ingredients of a fried chicken dinner. See how this turned out, straight ahead!

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I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve walked by Pasha’s street meat cart in front of the Chase Manhattan Building on William St. (btw. Liberty & Cedar). In addition to the street meat, they also sell hamburgers and almost always have a special of curry chicken over rice on tap.

When a hankering for some street meat hit, I decided to finally fulfill my curiosity about how theirs stacks up, and find an interesting cooking method at play at Pasha’s. Let’s just say if you really like white sauce, this is your cart.

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We don’t have much in the way of Vietnamese specialties in the Financial District other than a couple of banh mi sources that also offer serviceable bowls of pho and bun.

Seemingly overnight, Eight Dumpling House morphed into A La Saigon much to the confusion of at least three customers I overheard trying to order their fix of General Tso’s chicken.

What I can report is the $8 lunch special I tried was pretty good, and a welcome counter to all that Americanized Chinese food of fried chicken in gloppy sauces.

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Today Roti Mediterranean Grill officially opens at the corner of Pearl St. & Cedar in the Financial District (their Web site says at 10:30 a.m.), but myself and many other Lunch’ers got a sneak preview on Friday when they were doing staff training.

There was an intimidating line out the door, but it went really quickly which bodes well for opening day. But what about the food? If you want meat and carbs, and to eat somewhat healthy food, you might want to check this place out.  Read more »