Midtown Lunch

I have never eaten a Vietnamese breakfast, but if I did I’d want it to be the egg and pork roll banh mi from the No. 1 Banh Mi Cart. We’ve eaten most of the conventional fillings from this cart but there are usually eight to 10 on offer and some (sardines in sunflower oil, roasted eel, tuna fish) are more on the edge. There was breakfast served at the cart for a time, and I’d like to think the pork roll and egg sandwich ($7) on the lunch menu is a legacy of that.  Read more »

The Financial District has many carts and trucks to choose from and it’s not uncommon to hit up one of them each day of the week. But what about stopping at six different carts and eating something from each one in a span of two hours? There is a tour company called Turnstile Tours that has taken it upon itself to show people (mostly tourists) some of the finest eats in the FiDi on Wednesdays. The tour guide: sometime Midtown Lunch contributor/ice cream maker/actor Brian Hoffman who talks far louder and is more animated than I could ever be. I was invited to tag along on his tour and while I came away with a full stomach, I also found out a lot of fun facts about some of the carts, trucks and people I’ve bought food from for more than five years.  Read more »

Sometimes the best of lunch plans go awry against your will. How can that happen? Well, take my lunch at Shafiq’s Halal cart on Broadway & Liberty where I went last week to check out the dosa that popped up on their menu. When I got there super early at 11:30 a.m. I was told they had dosa, but after waiting for 10 minutes, was then told that no, they were out. I don’t have unlimited time for lunch, so it was time for plan B which involved ordering the cart’s chicken tikka.

Read more »

The last time we checked in with A-Pou’s Taste cart they were still at their spot on Liberty St. & Broadway. One Citi Bike station and a couple of failed spots later, the cart is trying to put down roots on William St. between Maiden Lane & John St. in between Biryani House and Halal Gyro Express carts. As I walked up to the cart to ask if they were planning to park in that spot long term (they are), I noticed there were a couple of new dishes being advertised including a pork chop over rice and shrimp fried rice for $6 each. I’ve generally enjoyed everything I’ve eaten from this cart, but I’d have to say the fried rice may be a weak link.

Read more »

Is it good or bad when you swear out loud due to the size of the lunch served to you? This was the question I asked myself after unwrapping my sandwich from the Fried Chicken & More cart.

I’d first tried the cart’s namesake fried chicken after they started serving food at Park Place & W. Broadway in January. The chicken was reasonably good, and most of all, dirt cheap. Since that first taste, the cart has expanded its offerings by leaps and bounds with several kinds of fried chicken products (nuggets, popcorn, wings) on the menu alongside cheeseburgers, a fish sandwich, falafel, pizza rolls, biscuits and fries. Unless you only order a single piece of chicken, you are not likely to go away hungry here.

Read more »

The collection of carts along the water outside the World Financial Center has been a mixed bag since they launched a couple of years ago with burgers, lobster rolls and tacos among the foods on offer. The choices have changed, as the food scene at the WFC has.

Now that the indoor food court is closed for renovations, the carts and food trucks that park outside daily have picked up the slack. I was surprised to see a crop of mostly new vendors among the carts alongside mainstay Quality Burger, among them hot dogs, tacos and rotisserie chicken. Check out my experiment with mixing a Moroccan sausage with Vietnamese sandwich toppings straight ahead!  Read more »

Late last week I stopped by the bank just as a cart on the corner  of Greenwich & Murray streets outside was being readied to be driven away at the end of the day. That cart was BIA Best Food, and it had an intriguing menu that included biryani, chicken curry, teriyaki chicken, sweet chili chicken (they must really like chicken) and then there was dal for the low price of $4.

Carts are sometimes lacking in vegetarian options outside of falafel or vegetables over rice, and so I was intrigued that they had another cheap non-meat option. At only $4, it was a cheap gamble to take to see if it was any good.  Read more »