Midtown Lunch

It’s starting to get cold and gross outside and when that happens I go in search of things to eat that are usually off limits during the summer. One of those items is soup because who really craves a piping hot bowl of broth when you’re already sweating? A couple of people have tipped me off to Cafe Doppio on Broad (at Beaver) but I have yet to make it over there. When I perused the menu and saw they had soups like pozole and chicken paprikash I was intrigued because normally the most exotic thing you find is three bean chili. Read more »

There’s a style of pizza I grew up eating that was baked on a cookie sheet by moms for birthday parties or at semi-crappy pizzerias. I love NYC-style pizza as much as the next person, but sometimes it’s nice to find a little variation whether it’s in fancy Neopolitan pies or a grandma slice. When I went to Adrienne’s Pizza Bar on Stone St. (nr. Hanover Square) for lunch I was not expecting to have a blast from the past put in front of me. Read more »

The hunger for Vietnamese sandwiches knows no bounds (unless you make crappy ones), and with that comes a new branch of Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches on Nassau St. (at Ann). They are already a sort of institution in Brooklyn and the East Village with cheap and tasty sandwiches. I was walking to get myself some street meat and then I spotted a grand opening sign in a mini-mall of sorts and Nicky’s became my new lunch destination. Read more »

After a disappointing slice experience recently, I’d kind of shied away from pizza for a while. One day that I didn’t have much time for lunch I headed over to Majestic Pizza & Calzone on Cortland (btw. Church & Broadway) on the intel that they had a good grandma slice with fresh basil. I have maybe eaten one grandma slice in my life (unless you count what those in the Midwest call pan pizza, of which I have eaten a lot), so I was happy to make this No. 2.

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There’s a little bit of a silent battle brewing (or so I’m imagining for the sake of this post) between two carts on the increasingly-crowded plaza on Broadway between Liberty and Cedar. First you have the Biryani House cart that came on the scene with its namesake dish, kati rolls and the standard meat over rice options (OK, and hot dogs). Then there’s the Bombay Biryany cart a falafels throw away that at first glance looks like your standard halal cart until you notice the chicken biryani sign in the front, with bonus special green sauce. Read more »

It’s tough working in the Financial District when all you want for lunch is some Thai food that doesn’t leave you broke or hungry two hours later. Sure, there might be some good places in Chinatown, but sometimes delivery or taking a subway lunch is not in the cards. The lunch menu at Bennie’s Thai Cafe on Fulton St. (at Gold) is promising and cheap at $5.95 to $7.95 for your choice of meaty entree and some rice. And it may come from a steam table somewhere in the back, but at least if it is you can pretend it was made fresh for you in two minutes. Read more »

I don’t really know what voodoo I was expecting Chickpea to perform with its baked falafel to make me forget it wasn’t fried, but it didn’t happen. The chain is focused on healthy eating, and nothing there is fried. Don’t get me wrong, in the absence of Maoz way downtown, I’ll take Chickpea if I’m not in the mood to eat outside or at my desk. What can I say, I’m a sucker for falafel chains with fixin’s bars? Read more »