Midtown Lunch

After both Express BBQ in Tribeca and the Picnick Smoked mobile unit left us the lone remaining seller of barbequed meats (at least that I’m aware of) was Texas Rotisserie & Grill. I ate there as one of my first lunches for this site but got the rotisserie chicken and a chicken sandwich. But they also sell “Texas platters” of BBQ beef, pork or chicken and also beef brisket. I was intrigued by the brisket (and also really wanted the cheap fried chicken meal, which has nothing to do with BBQ) but instead I got the BBQ pulled pork platter ($9). This restaurant seemed to be on the same level as Dallas BBQ, but I figured I had to at least try their “real pit smoked BBQ” advertised on the front of the menu. For research, of course.

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Sometimes you want good quality sushi in a nice setting, and sometimes you just want some cheap Japanese food to eat in a random public indoor location or at your desk. Enter Shinju Sushi on Pearl St. (btw. Pine & Wall), that may give you the most in their lunch box for the least amount of money in the FiDi. I went in with low expectations for what my $8 lunch box would contain, and other than one fail I was pleasantly surprised. This isn’t Haru, but at least they make their sushi fresh!

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Today is the day that Crisp finally introduces the Financial District to its “falafel handbag sandwiches” with its newest location on Fulton St. (nr. William). I went yesterday to check it out during a soft opening for friends and family (and lunch blogs!) and found out that this location is one of 10 more they hope to open around the city, although I was assured they are not trying to be the next Subway. They have all of the creative interpretations on falafel that exist at the two stores in Midtown, plus a couple of new things they’re trying out like opening at 7 a.m. and serving breakfast. What you will find is some fried chickpea balls thrown together with ingredients foreign to most purists (goat cheese and nachos anyone?). What you will not find is a falafel lunch at the rock-bottom prices you’re accustomed to from a trip to Sam’s or Alan’s carts.  Read more »

I had one of those days recently where come lunchtime all I wanted to do was eat greasy food and get my recommended daily salt intake in one sitting. While I had many options to do that I opted to head over to Oriental Express on Cedar (btw. William & Pearl) to check out the buffet. I haven’t eaten at a by-the-pound buffet since New China Red in Tribeca scared me with its buffet sushi and communal soy sauce. I hadn’t quite committed to the buffet when I went down the stairs into the underground dining room, but it looked pretty good and at $5.95 a pound I wouldn’t be losing a whole lot of money if it did suck. Read more »

We here at Midtown Lunch like to harsh on generic delis a lot, especially if they are of the chain variety. Usually when I see that a place serves the holy trinity of paninis, create your own salads and steam table pasta I run the other way (or at least turn and walk out the door). A while back, though, I got an e-mail from lunch’er Lou asking if I’d tried Lane Cafe & Deli on Maiden Lane (btw. William & Gold). I’d walked by a thousand times and dismissed it as the weird deli that had fake hot dogs and boxes of crackers in its window, and served an interesting lunch special. Here’s his argument for the place:

Have you tried Lane Deli and Catering? Actual homemade food, usually have 3-4 meats, a few pastas, and some veggies/rices. That’s in the back. They also have a typical deli/panini counter, but the back section has the best selection in the place. I usually get flank steak over vegetables with a sweet potato. 10 bucks might be a little steep for an every day meal, but I’d rather have food made in the back of the house than the paninis shipped in from a production shop. Let me know if you get a chance to review it, interested to see what you think.

Lou also talked up the roast chicken and plantains. Wait, plantains? You can’t find that at Europa!  Read more »

Nothing makes me happier than seeing an independent eatery that I was afraid wouldn’t make it thrive. That’s the case with It’s a Pizza – the sort of weird Italian place also serving Uzbek food that I first wrote about last summer. I hadn’t made it back to try anything other than pizza on the menu so I decided to rectify that situation and took a co-lunch’er along to see how they were doing. When I was there last they hadn’t been open long and were mostly focused on pizza and pasta with some other random things thrown in, including crepes. What I tried was good, but I was worried that with all of the Fulton St. Transit Center construction nearby they might not be seeing enough customers to survive. When I walked in the other day I could see that was definitely not the case.  Read more »

In the course of doing my “fieldwork” (aka, eating) for reviews I often have to dine in some pretty small and poorly-ventilated dining areas. Terrace Fish & Chip on Pearl (at Coenties Alley) takes the cake though for leaving me smelling like I ate in a place that only serves fried foods. I went there to check out the fish burrito that lunch’er Mel recommended. I don’t think the location that was shut down on Fulton St. served this, but there it was, advertised prominently on the front counter. I was a little concerned about eating a burrito from a place that specializes in frying everything, but I figured if I could take a chance on an all you can eat buffet at a similar establishment and survive, I’d be OK. Read more »