Midtown Lunch

It’s taken me awhile to check out the Cocina Mexicana cart. They showed up amid the cluster of food carts at Liberty St. and Nassau before all of them were booted from the spot. While most of the others relocated, it was Cocina Mexicana and a smoothie cart that stayed put, moving over to the opposite corner along Liberty St. Some days the cart hasn’t been there when I’ve stopped to check it out, or they still had the window shuttered when I walked by around noon.

But one day luck was with me and I got in line to see what this cart could do. My hopes ran high as I saw the man working the window making fresh guacamole in a molcajete.  Read more »

One of the last lunch spots to open after flooding from hurricane Sandy in the Pearl St./Water St./Coenties Slip area was OBAO at the corner of Water & Coenties. It reopened at about the same time as Zigolini’s and its various offshoots next door, bringing Thai food back to the lowest part of the Financial District.

I was curious if they had changed the interior or menu after the long closure and decided to stop in for lunch. While I would recommend getting your food to go (no air conditioning!), I was pleased with the amount of food I got in my express lunch special, and it was certainly better than the pho.

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When last we visited Roti Mediterranean Grill on Pearl St. (at Cedar), it was a soft opening, the food was free, the lines were long and I was undecided as to whether I liked this place or not. That was back in May, and since then, every time I’ve walked by there’s been a line out the door (or they’ve been closed. That’s seemed to happen a lot too), and that’s a lot to say with so many lunch options on the same block.

So, I decided to actually purchase some food this time and see if it was better than what I got when they were doing staff training. My thoughts on healthified street cart fare straight ahead.

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Normally we don’t cover openings of chain convenience stores but the first 7-11 is about to open its doors and I think we can all agree that a Slurpee sounds so good right now. The store is at John St. & Pearl, and it looks pretty nice from the outside. It also looks as though they have more food to offer than hot dogs endlessly spinning around and taquitos.

Sometimes all you want for lunch is some protein, vegetables and rice. You could go for street meat or falafel, or a cheap Chinese special, but Thai is also at the top of my list when that feeling hits. And amazingly, we’ve never reviewed one of the cheaper sources of a Thai food lunch in the Financial District – Cafe Sage on John St. (at Cliff).

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There’s a program this summer called Water St. Pops which involves a bunch of entertainment options, as well as cooking demonstrations and, what we all care about, free food.

On Friday you can get free Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1 New York Plaza (South & Whitehall streets). They’re also doing a sampling at 200 Water St. from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Other events include lunch markets with Stone St. Tavern and Route 66 Smokehouse from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the Elevated Acre at 55 Water St. and again on Thursday at the same time and place.

At this point, I think I’ve tried most of the kati rolls available in the Financial District, at carts or brick and mortar shops. Some singed my hands with hot oil, while others were a more expensive revelation. Mostly I was looking for a happy medium between salty street meat and greasy paratha.

I still hadn’t tried the kati rolls at Shafiq’s Halal cart on Broadway at Liberty St. where I had a decent plate of chicken biryani soon after they started parking on the plaza. Believe me, it was hard to resist the lure of shrimp and fries or mini egg rolls on Shafiq’s sort of random menu, but I did.

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