Midtown Lunch

If you work in the Financial District and have a craving for kati rolls where do you turn? Up until last week I thought the only options were a couple of carts at Liberty & Broadway – Bombay Biryany and Biryani House – where you can get street meat chicken or lamb gyro put into paratha with standard street cart sauces. The price is right at $5 or $6 for two of them, but they weren’t anything special, and I’d rather get the namesake dish or street meat from either of these carts.

Profiled Lunch’er Yury asked where to get the best kati rolls downtown, and all of the suggestions came from Murray Hill or Greenwich Village where they’re more abundant. I remembered seeing kati rolls listed on the menu at Bombay’s on Pearl St. (btw. Coenties & Broad) but hadn’t got around to actually eating one. Well, I finally did, and I don’t know if my expectations were really low, but the chicken tikka one I tried got me all kinds of excited.

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When lofty claims such as “the best kofta kabab in NYC” emblazon the side of a food truck, I feel they must be investigated through eating. After asking you all if Ambizza Cafe truck was worthy of a review, a few of you said it was so I headed over for a kabab platter ($8), although there’s a wide variety of meats cooked on sticks available as well as a couple of burgers and some vegetarian options such as falafel and a vegetable sandwich. Really, though, this trucks seems to cater to the carnivore.

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Last year shaved ice purveyor Wooly’s Ice went home a winner for best dessert at the Vendy Awards. The cart was in ML Downtown territory last year – first starting next to the 1 Centre St. kiosks and later moving up to Elizabeth St. This year they’re on the move again and starting today will be parked for the summer season at the South St. Seaport, right at Pier 17. Danny Che from Wooly’s gave us the low down on some changes to the cart’s ices and some other information. They were expecting to be up and running by the beginning of May but as often happens there were some unexpected setbacks which is probably fine because it hasn’t exactly been warm enough to crave icy treats. Straight ahead for what you can expect to help you deal with the heat this summer.

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Every time I see a clump of people heading down Maiden Lane with one of those Just Salad plastic bowls in their hand, I shake my head and wonder why they’ve chosen that fate as their lunch. Well, I can only be a little judgmental because some days when I need some vegetables in my body and/or when it’s hot out, my mind sometimes turns salad which my brain turns in “You should go to Cosi because they have delicious bread. Oh, and you should get a salad while you’re there, too.” And that, my fellow Downtown Lunch’ers is why I’m writing about Cosi (located at Broad & Exchange and in the WFC) today, because their flatbread is awesome.

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In a continuation of my quest to tell you about some delicious food that I haven’t gotten around to sharing with you on Downtown Lunch yet, today’s installment comes from Fanelli Cafe on Prince St. (at Mercer). I’ve never eaten anything at Fanelli’s other than the burger and vegetable burger, and I really don’t think there’s much else worth ordering except alcohol. This bar is one of my favorite old-timey spots in the city and is one of the few non-pretentious places to get a beer and some decent food after dealing with the hordes of tourists in the area. But back to this veggie burger. I think it’s the sum of its parts that make it great, or perhaps the fact that it doesn’t fall apart into a pile of mush when you bit into it. And dare I say it tastes a little meaty?

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This week marks two years since I’ve started writing  for you fine people on Midtown Lunch: Downtown and I thought it might be fun to tell you about some non-review lunches that I’ve eaten on a regular basis since I started working in the Financial District but haven’t ever written about. I’m saving my most shameful guilty pleasure lunch for the end of the week, but today you get the lunch that I’ve probably eaten the most when I’m crunched for time or can’t think of anything else imaginative to stuff in my face. That would be the catfish banh mi from Baoguette, extra spicy.

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I’ve walked by the Ambizza Cafe Truck that’s been parked at Old Slip & Water, but haven’t had the chance to try it. There was a substantial line there yesterday and a glance at the menu shows they do meat kebabs and “the city’s best kofta” as well as a lamb burger & fries for a cheap price. Has anyone tried food from this truck? I might have to check it out, simply because I don’t want to miss out on the best kofta this city has to offer.