Midtown Lunch

Following in the footsteps of grilled cheese, barbeque and Japanese rice balls from Smorgasburg vendors, Yuji Ramen is bringing a test kitchen to the second floor of the Whole Foods at Bowery and E. Houston from March 12 to May 12. The ramen maker used to draw large lines at Smorgasburg, and then at a shop in Williamsburg before that shuttered. Yuji is now trying to raise money via Kickstarter to open a restaurant serving its mazeman, or dry ramen, pictured here from their Twitter. What will they be serving at Whole Foods? Find out straight ahead.

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Some of you have wondered in the comments how some of the other offerings at Blue Spoon Coffee are, and I’ve forgotten to investigate. The second location at William & Platt (the original’s on Chambers btw. Broadway & Church) has been my go-to for a cup of coffee or breakfast goods when I’m strapped for time, and it seems they either make everything themselves or source the food from good purveyors in the city.

I really like the vegetarian sandwich I got there after the FiDi location opened, and this time, on a cold and windy day, I went for one of the three soups they have on rotation each day.  Read more »

It seems like just yesterday that a tip came that the old Backyard Chicken space at John St. & Pearl was turning into another Mooncake Foods which already exists downtown in Soho. Then just like that, the doors were open for business yesterday at lunch. And I’d have to say – especially with similar places like OBAO and nearby BonChon on John temporarily down for the count due to the hurricane and a fire respectively, this is a welcome addition to the lunch scene in the Financial District. Read more »

I feel like the closer the proximity to all of the touristy sites along Broadway in the Financial District, the more generic the generic deli. Cafe Tomato on Fulton St. (btw. B’way & Nassau) has bucked that trend for awhile by offering noodle soups and a smattering of Korean food, but until last week I was unaware that they have a whole separate counter clear in the back devoted to these foods.

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Last week I wasn’t feeling so great, and come lunch time visions of noodle soup were dancing in my head. Ramen was the first thing to come to mind, but there aren’t many great options down here that didn’t require me to walk many blocks on a cold day. Instead, I honed in on good old reliable Soma by Nature on William St. (btw. John & Fulton) with every intention of trying their ramen or udon soup, but then I saw something called dumpling rice cake soup which was described as “dumpling rice cake, drop egg in beef stock.” I had no idea what this meant, but I ordered myself some and prepared to find out.

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Sometimes it’s a Chinese noodle soup kind of day – as yesterday with it’s clouds and rain was – and it gave me an excuse to check out one of the impressive roster of noodle soups at Ho Yip on Liberty St. (at Trinity Pl.). Yip’s seems to get all of the cheap Chinese noodle soup glory in the Financial District with its two locations, but Ho Yip’s selection blows theirs out of the water. I haven’t sampled the noodle soups from every Chinese hole-in-the-wall in the FiDi, but Ho Yip served me a version with some fabulous wontons.

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When the paper came down from the windows of the new Aroma Espresso Bar at Church & Barclay, I was surprised by how nice and gigantic it looked inside. We in lower Manhattan are often subjected to tiny Starbucks locations or the superior but still tiny Financier shops. And the upper-tier, non-chain coffee shops in Tribeca are mostly tiny and have little for lunch that’s going to fill you up for $10 or less. When I looked at Aroma’s menu, I noticed that all of their sandwiches were less than $10 and even some of the salads clocked in under than amount. I’ve had their coffee at other locations and found it to be solid. Could this be a chain that this site can get behind?

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