Midtown Lunch

If you work in Soho the options for finding the Midtown Lunch trifecta (cheap, filling and slightly gross) are limited. Tucked into a tiny space on Crosby St. (nr. Houston) next to the Housing Works store is Lahore Deli. It’s nearly out of bounds, and I didn’t even know it existed until I heard about its reliably good food. It is a lunch’er’s dream with its selection of curries and Indian and Pakistani foods. After eating so many disappointing Indian steam table lunches, would this finally be a good one? Read more »

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 »

There is a row of restaurants on Church St. that tend to be frequented by cab drivers, and you can add New Shezan (btw. Duane & Reade) to that list. This Pakistani/Bangladeshi steam table place seems to be popular with all sorts of people, judging by the crowd there for a late lunch. Like all of the others (Bangal Curry, Taste of Tandoor) and Pakistan Tea House, which is directly across the street, this one is no frills. They apparently have regulars, as I witnessed the girl who had dished up my food head out the door with a bag, which she handed through the passenger window of a cab. Hey, sometimes you want McDonald’s and sometimes you want goat. Read more »

There have been a couple of new additions to the downtown cart scene recently, and I spotted another one last week with the Biryani House Cart, on Liberty St. (nr. Broadway). Midtown has the famed Biryani Cart and the Kati Roll shop and I was always a little jealous that we didn’t really have a cart or shop where you could consistently get good biryani or kati rolls, aka, Indian burritos. You have no idea how excited I was when I saw this cart had been added to the collection on Liberty St.

I happened to check out Biryani House on its second day of existence, and was excited to learn that it’s not just a transplant from midtown like its next-door neighbor the 99% Vegetarian Food Cart. Nope, this is a spankin’ new cart, as its friendly owner from Bangladesh told me. Read more »

There’s a strange complex of restaurants on Fulton Street that I’ve never ventured into, including a subterranean Thai place, a Chinese restaurant, a Russian bath and restaurant, and Tandoor Palace. I had my eye on the goat biryani at Tandoor, but I was feeling a little under the weather the day I went and instead went for one of the the steam table combos so I could get in and out a little quicker without sneezing on anyone. The ordering process is slightly confusing, and the workers kept slightly yelling at me asking what I wanted (My predecessor Kevin had a similar experience at Bangal Curry on Church St.), but I finally made a decision and yelled my order right back. See where all the yelling took place, after the jump.  Read more »

We take recommendations very seriously here. So when Lunch’er brownbaglunch commented on my write-up of Ruchi and recommended Bangal Curry on Church Street as a good Indian alternative, I was excited to try it as soon as I could get over there. I wasn’t disappointed.

Thank you, brownbaglunch. I haven’t had much chance yet to give Church Street the exploration it deserves, but I was happy to start with such a winner. The food at Bangal Curry is very good, and you get a ton of it for $5. I’m tempted to end this post right there because, really, what else does a Midtown Lunch’er need to see?

Mouthwatering photos, that’s what. You’ll find plenty of them after the jump.

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I will start this review by confessing that I have never actually been to the beloved Pakistan Tea House. They may have the best Indian food on the downtown scene, but they’re a hike from my office, and I just haven’t made it up there yet.

What I do know is that I’ve got no use for Diwan-E-Khaas. I have to respectfully disagree with Daniel’s positive assessment of their food and say that nothing I’ve ever had there (and I’ve had a lot) has been very good, and some has been very bad. So I’m very happy to have a place like Ruchi around. Their food is neither awesome nor an amazing deal, but very good Indian food for under $10 is something this neighborhood needs. And Ruchi’s got that covered.

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