Midtown Lunch

There are days when you want a turkey sandwich because you’re trying to be healthy, and there are others when you just need a big, cheap helping of Americanized Chinese food. New Golden Chopsticks is one of the only remaining hole-in-the-wall Chinese spots in the Financial District that we haven’t written about. It’s nestled next to Terrace Fish & Chip off of Pearl St. and I can say it’s one of the better crappy Chinese food lunches I’ve had in a while, and I didn’t even get a gratis egg roll or watery cup of soup with it.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I think I’ve found my new cheap go-to source of Indian food in the Financial District. I decided to revisit what’s now the Desi Chef On Wheels truck (initially called Desi Food On Wheels) and I was so glad I did. Yes, the food comes off of a steam table, but the women who serve it are so nice and the food I’ve tasted has been so nicely flavored that I just want to keep going back again and again. The truck’s offerings lean heavily in the vegetarian direction, and while I loved the daal I had on my first visit, the fish curry I tried on the second visit was tasty and equally cheap.

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Some days, lunchtime goes awry and the place I want to go eat at is closed or no longer exists. The latter happened to me earlier this week, so when I walked past Peep on Prince St. (btw. Thompson & Sullivan) and remembered how good and cheap their Thai food was a couple of years ago I went inside to give the place a second go. You may know Peep as the place where you get an entree and appetizer for $8 or $9 at lunch, and this time my choices contained a win and a loss.

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It seems it’s been two whole years since I’ve written about Takahachi Bakery which sits quietly on Murray St. (at Church) baking up all kinds of Japanese-inflected goods both sweet and savory. They also have sandwiches, salads and soup some of which I’ve already tried, but when I stopped in recently I was drawn to the hot case which has little lunch boxes containing a sandwich that’s heftier than it looks and a little side of some sort for $8.25. I was mighty pleased with the meaty, gingery beef concoction I grabbed. Read more »

The section of Broadway on the fringe of Tribeca has two options for $1 pizza slices – Roll And Go (at Franklin, and Canal & W. B’way) and Joey’s Pepperoni Pizza (at White)- but did you know there’s another option? Alif Deli & Salad Bar on Church St. (Thomas & Duane) has a sign outside proclaiming there are 99 cent slices within or you can get toppings for extra. And you can get a whole cheese pizza for $8 (or is that $9? Red lettering on a tan background should be outlawed). Maybe it’s time for another cheap slice comparison.

Alif Deli & Salad Bar, 200 Church St. (btw. Thomas & Duane), (212) 537-0362

I think we all know that the words “healthy” and “pizza” should set off alarm bells for anyone who enjoys food. I enjoy pizza of all stripes and quality levels from fancy Neopolitan to trashily delicious Totino’s Party Pizza, but what I encountered at the newly-opened Stamina Grill on Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton) made me utter the words “Oh, noooo.” out loud as I opened the box of my personal pie.

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Is it just me or did Thanksgiving sneak up on anyone else? I saw on Twitter that GRK on Fulton St. (btw. Nassau & William) was serving turkey gyro with cranberry tzatziki as a pre-Thanksgiving special and then I realized the holiday is next week. On my first day back to work in the Financial District since hurricane Sandy mucked things up, I headed over to see what happens when you put turkey on a rotating spit and pair it with cranberry-spiked Greek yogurt. (It turns out that magical, crispy things happen).

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