Midtown Lunch

There’s been no shortage of food trucks serving tacos appearing over the last couple of years, but nearly all of them have been fused with some other cuisine. We now have tacos mixed with BBQ, Korean, Japanese and tofu edamame falafel, but sometimes you just need a taco filled with deliciously-spiced pork. The Mexico Blvd. truck is where to go when you want a straightforward taco that you might encounter in Mexico, and as I found on a recent visit, they’re representing just fine.

Read more »

Everyone moans about how terrible the burritos are in NYC, which perhaps explains why there’s a line out the door at every Chipotle come lunch time. There are some decent burritos, in my opinion, but I’m no expert. Lupe’s East L.A. Kitchen has been selling Mexican food on Sixth Ave. (at Watts) for 20 years according to their Web site, and I’d heard good things about their burritos so I decided it was time to give them a shot. Would I find the burrito of my dreams a short subway ride away?

Read more »

Domo Taco Truck launched last fall and seemed to get off to a choppy start, being spotted in Midtown and then disappearing for a while. Brian tracked them down to try the tacos and nacho tots a couple of months ago, and gave the food an overwhelming “meh.” The truck’s been parking at Water & Broad on Fridays and so I took it upon myself to go try them when I had the chance. Since much of the menu has already been reviewed (and frankly, the picture of those tacos on flour tortillas drowning in crema didn’t do it for me, although it looks like they’re getting better?), I went for the rice bowl ($8). Straight ahead for what you can expect.

Read more »

There are always fancy/trendy restaurants opening in Tribeca and they don’t get a lot of coverage on this site because the lunch menus are usually well over the $10 Midtown Lunch price cap. It was a nice surprise to see newish restaurant Super Linda on W. Broadway (at Reade) roll out a lunch menu with not one, but three things that you could actually consider a meal for $10 or less. According to a menu released last week, you can get a trio of tacos, a chorizo sandwich or a breakfast burrito within the price range, or there are some other delicious sounding items for more than that. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that some other fancyish restaurants should get on board with the $10 or less lunch. Click through for a look at the lunch menu.

Read more »

Up until a couple of months ago, there was a place called Shorties Deli Cafe on Church St. (btw. Leonard & Franklin) that was a taqueria masquerading as a generic deli selling the usual bagels and sandwiches. Those in the know went there for the burritos or tacos, but if you were simply walking by it wasn’t blatantly obvious that Mexican food was available within. Thankfully, whoever owns the place figured out they were doing a disservice to the delicious food served inside and changed the name to Burro Borracho Taqueria. Now when you walk in, there is no pretense that this is anything but a place selling Mexican food.

Read more »

Earlier this year I checked out Sabor de Mexico on Trinity Place (at Thames) back when it was Caliente Mexican Grill. I’m not sure why they changed the name, but they were serving a decent burrito and some Americanized tacos at a price comparable to their closest comparison, Chipotle. I was mostly impressed by the fact that the sauces and everything seemed to be made from scratch although I could be wrong about that. Since I never went back after that initial visit I figured I would check in and see if they’d added anything to the menu and if the quality had changed (it did).

My test of this was ordering fajitas ($7.95) and what I got wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it did lead me to discover that they are cooking up some fine meats.

Read more »

I was not expecting the new Kortako (Tagline: “It’s Tako! not Taco…”) on Nassau (btw. John & Fulton) to be so uncrowded on opening day, but it was probably a good thing since the place is essentially a long hallway. The space is extremely narrow and since you have to order from the end of the counter farthest from the entrance, you’re left smooshing yourself up against the wall behind people who are ordering/paying. That being said, I had studied the menu beforehand and decided what carby delivery vehicle I wanted my Korean/Mexican fusion food to come in, and you can see the burrito with two types of kimchi that I ended up with straight ahead.  Read more »