Midtown Lunch

The newest addition to the genre of lunch spots serving many different types of things and having a by-the-pound buffet is Open Kitchen on William St. (at Beaver). The place occupies a huge retail area on the bottom floor of the William Beaver House condo building, and it’s perhaps the least-crowded lunch experience I’ve had.

Not all of the stations were up and running (still to come: Stir fry, ramen and specialty sandwiches), but most others were, along with the buffet which featured items that looked a bit tastier than the usual offerings. Prices are a bit higher than at the generic delis in the area, but the surroundings are also nicer, and they serve fancy Intelligentsia coffee. The good and bad about my lunch experience on what was essentially Open Kitchen’s opening day, straight ahead.

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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.

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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 »

We’ve had many sandwich chains open shops in Downtown Lunch territory, including the much-hyped Potbelly, but Jersey Mike’s Subs rolled into Maiden Lane (at Gold) with little fanfare. The first sign they were coming wasn’t a press blitz, but a red awning going up a few paces from many other chain spots on the same block. A look at the menu online showed hot and cold subs, cheesesteaks and wraps – nothing to get too excited about. But some of you vouched for the fact that Jersey Mike’s was better than the Subways and Blimpies of this city.

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It’s not often you get a glowing e-mail about a turkey sandwich. That was the case last week when Lunch’er Chris wrote in to say that he had checked out the new location of Simit + Smith on Worth St. (btw. Broadway & Lafayette), and had a “phenomenal” turkey sandwich. A great turkey sandwich at a place specializing in the bagel-like Turkish simit? This needed an investigation!

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It’s summer and when it’s hot outside sometimes a room temperature lobster roll sounds like the only thing good to eat, besides ice cream. The problem is if you go to the Red Hook Lobster Truck, Luke’s Lobster or any other place that serves seafood stuffed into toasted hot dog buns, you’re going to pay $15 or more for the privilege.

But! As we’ve discovered at Luke’s, sometimes the other seafood rolls are both cheaper and tastier (or as tasty) as the lobster variety. With this in mind, I hit up Red Hook Lobster’s kiosk at the South St. Seaport’s Smorgasburg pop up and sampled their shrimp roll. I was not disappointed.  Read more »

I’ve had nothing but hits with the sandwiches at French Cafe Gourmand on Maiden Lane (btw. Broadway & Nassau) and the other day when pressed for time I stopped by again to sample another of their creations that one of you Lunch’ers had recommended.

That would be for the Indian sandwich, aka, the French version of a chicken curry sandwich. It is delicious.

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