Midtown Lunch

When the Duane Reade flagship store opened its fancy-pants doors on Wall St. (btw. Nassau & William) I marveled at the fact that they had guys making sushi rolls a short stroll away from the pharmacy. Also on offer is a juice bar and various grab-and-go items as diverse as quinoa salad and Fat Witch brownies. The other day when the parade for the Giants made working in the Financial District something akin to hell, I didn’t want to have to walk far for lunch, and that’s when I decided to check out the sushi rolls sold by a drug store.

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There are many sources of maki rolls in the Financial District, and many of them involve refrigerated cases in stores like Zeytuna or the swanky new Duane Reade (shudder). There are a couple of places that offer lunch specials with two rolls for less than $10 but most limit you to the more pedestrian varieties like salmon, tuna or California. When I noticed Taste of Tokyo on Beaver (nr. William) had a two-roll special for $8.25 I took a look at the menu and noticed some more exotic rolls were included in this special. Omelet roll anyone?

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We are somewhat lacking in quality ramen soup options in the Financial District, or rather I should say, quality options for $10 or less. Most of our ramen comes from glorified delis or places like Niko Niko. When I saw that Koodo Sushi on Nassau (at Liberty) had a new ramen soup special I decided it was worth a shot since a real restaurant had a better shot at giving us the good stuff than a deli sidelining in Asian food.

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I’ve long been meaning to check out Sunrise Mart on Broome St. (btw. Wooster & W. Broadway) but I knew it would require a train ride and the focus of a ninja to avoid leaving this place with enough food for five lunchers. The other day I had some extra time on my hands and decided it was time to see what kind of lunch I could get for $10 or less.

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When the weather gets disgustingly hot, sometimes the idea of eating anything above room temperature sounds as appealing as eating a certain lobster salad sandwich. So this week I didn’t want to walk too far to get lunch, wanted something light and after considering a banh mi instead ended up at JR Sushi 2 on W. Broadway (btw.  Chambers & Warren). You may know it as “that place that sells bubble tea” as that seems to be what they advertise the most. They also have a decent selection of lunch specials for less than $10 and I headed into the air conditioning to get a bento box.

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As frequent readers may have noticed I don’t often get sushi for lunch, not because I don’t like it, but because getting a bento box or something else at downtown Japanese places nearly always seems like a better value to me. Now that the weather has gotten more hot and humid sushi has started sounding better than a hot bowl of rice and meat. That’s how I ended up at Sushi A La Kawa on Maiden Lane (btw. Nassau & Broadway) because I work nearby and saw they have a pretty great maki lunch special, and better yet, the rolls haven’t been festering in a refrigerated case waiting for someone to buy them.

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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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