Midtown Lunch

I wasn’t sure what to expect when walking into Maid Cafe NY on Centre St. (at Walker) in Chinatown. Would I be accosted by ladies dressed as maids? Would the food be terrible? Neither of these turned out to be entirely true, although the cafe is probably better used as the source of Japanese sweets than a solid lunch.  Read more »

Last week the Banh Mi Cart at Hanover Sq. and Pearl started serving beef noodle soup (aka, pho) which was a departure from their roster of sandwiches, spring rolls and drinks. This is kind of great news for the winter months when a heart soup may sound better than a sandwich, but could pho from a cart be any good? The answer is yes, but with some caveats.  Read more »

The South Street Seaport businesses are slowly coming back to life, but there are still many that are closed for good or still under construction. Along Front St. are many eateries that have managed to reopen. Some got lucky because they are raised up off the street, while others like Barbarini Alimentari struggled. News came that the dual owners had parted ways, but one opted to reopen Barbarini as Barbalu. The menu is somewhat the same with reasonably-priced sandwiches and more expensive pastas. They had good food before and I had faith that the sandwiches would remain tasty. I was right.

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The Old Traditional Polish Cuisine truck started trolling the streets of the city a while ago and has been consistently parking at the World Financial Center north food truck lot on Wednesdays. I finally caught up with them, now that it’s not humid or warm enough to make eating a plate of Polish classics sound as appealing as standing on the subway platform at rush hour. The good news is that no matter what you order you’re not likely to go away hungry.

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We have a lot of new restaurants that open downtown that are pretty far outside of Midtown Lunch’s price boundaries of $10. When Route 66 Smokehouse announced its opening I took a peek at the menu and saw a bunch of items that sounded delicious including a pulled pork BBQ sandwich that I’d already tried at a pop-up, brisket, and a fried oyster po’ boy. The last one is pretty rare in Lower Manhattan, although you can find an awesome shrimp and oyster po’ boy at Cheeky Sandwiches on the Lower East Side.

I love a good po’ boy, so I took a trip to Route 66 to try an expensive version of a classic sandwich.  Read more »

Somedays, against my will, I crave a lunch that’s kind of trashy. My mind wandered back to a delicious fish sandwich on white bread that I had at the defunct Sea World in Tribeca, and I wondered if I could find something similar in the Financial District. The answer is yes, because you can find something similar at Terrace Fish & Chips just off of Pearl St. (nr. Stone). But would it be as good?  Read more »

When looking at the menu of Lovely Day on Elizabeth St. (btw. Spring & Prince), you may wonder if you’re seeing things. A full Irish breakfast is listed, along with Thai noodle dishes and Japanese ginger fried chicken. Oh, and there’s also a burger. When you combine that with the old-timey interior that reminded me of a French cafe, it’s doubly confusing. What is this place?  Read more »