Midtown Lunch

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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I had occasion to go up by City Hall the other day and on a desolate stretch of Reade St. between Broadway & Church streets saw two Japanese restaurants essentially right next to each other. The lunch menu at Sun Cafe looked better so I went inside to eat. The place was packed and they put me at the table always reserved for the solo diner, right next to the bathroom. After looking over the lunch menu I was trying to decide between gyoza and roast pork when I spotted the house special udon soup ($8) which contained both of these items. How could anything with roast pork and gyoza be bad? Read more »

I had a plan for lunch the other day, but that quickly got derailed by the intensely crappy weather. (It’s the second time in two months I’ve had an umbrella destroyed while in search of lunch). The cart I was looking for was MIA and I ended up at Niko Niko on Pearl St. (at Wall) to dry off and eat something hot. The ramen soups sounded appealing, but something involving a bunch of rice sounded better. And I wanted that rice covered in Japanese curry and fried meat. Read more »

If you’ve ever eaten at Yushi in the World Financial Center (or in midtown) you may have noticed that they’re hellbent on making you eat healthy Asian food. I had only eaten their food once at the Taste of the World Financial Center and wasn’t overly impressed with the Peking duck pancakes I had. But then I found out they started serving “king katsu curry” for $9.95 this week and I figured it was an excellent chance to head over to Battery Park City. It also begged the question: what happens when you bake katsu? Forge ahead to see what it looks like! Read more »

It’s getting to that time of year when the weather can make that generic deli across the street suddenly looks more appealing than your favorite cart a few blocks away. That’s when delivery comes in handy, and if you’re a fan of Japanese bento lunches, then you might want to check out Fuji Catering. I hadn’t heard of it until Lunch’er Kevin pointed it out in his profile. Who doesn’t like having cheap food delivered to them? Read more »