Midtown Lunch

When last week Lunch’er KD1005 commented that we should check out a cart being run by a former worker at the venerable Sam’s Falafel, my ears perked up.

For you see, Sam’s is one of the longest running carts in the Financial District serving some of the best falafel platters and sandwiches, and anyone who worked there must have absorbed some of that awesomeness. Sure enough, a visit to the two-month-old Yummy Fawl & Falafel cart at Church & Barclay streets yields a similar falafel platter but there’s no line.  Read more »

Since being spotted in Midtown in June, the Chipsy King truck has been trying out spots in various areas of downtown. According to their sporadically-updated Twitter, they have parked in Soho, and lately, at Wall & William which is where I spotted them on Monday.

They aren’t great about updating where they will be parking daily. If you’re in the mood for a heaping helping of Belgian fries, perhaps check out Wall St. come lunch time and you’ll be rewarded by this truck parking there. Hopefully the truck doesn’t go the way of the Frying Dutchmen truck.

When last we visited Roti Mediterranean Grill on Pearl St. (at Cedar), it was a soft opening, the food was free, the lines were long and I was undecided as to whether I liked this place or not. That was back in May, and since then, every time I’ve walked by there’s been a line out the door (or they’ve been closed. That’s seemed to happen a lot too), and that’s a lot to say with so many lunch options on the same block.

So, I decided to actually purchase some food this time and see if it was better than what I got when they were doing staff training. My thoughts on healthified street cart fare straight ahead.

Read more »

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 »

Sometimes all you want for lunch is some protein, vegetables and rice. You could go for street meat or falafel, or a cheap Chinese special, but Thai is also at the top of my list when that feeling hits. And amazingly, we’ve never reviewed one of the cheaper sources of a Thai food lunch in the Financial District – Cafe Sage on John St. (at Cliff).

Read more »

At this point, I think I’ve tried most of the kati rolls available in the Financial District, at carts or brick and mortar shops. Some singed my hands with hot oil, while others were a more expensive revelation. Mostly I was looking for a happy medium between salty street meat and greasy paratha.

I still hadn’t tried the kati rolls at Shafiq’s Halal cart on Broadway at Liberty St. where I had a decent plate of chicken biryani soon after they started parking on the plaza. Believe me, it was hard to resist the lure of shrimp and fries or mini egg rolls on Shafiq’s sort of random menu, but I did.

Read more »

I realize Super Linda on W. Broadway (at Reade) has been open for some time, and they began serving lunch soon after. A look at the menu at first wasn’t promising with all of the tortas more than $10, and a single taco running from $3.50 to $5. That did not sound like a good deal.

But then they added a taqueria lunch special for $10 which nets you two tacos from their full lineup along with rice and beans. Now this sounded like a lunch.  Read more »