Midtown Lunch

I’d been aware that Di Palo’s Fine Foods on Grand St. in Little Italy sold porchetta, but it wasn’t until I happened to stop in that I learned the exciting information that they will make it into a sandwich for you. The place primarily traffics in Italian meats and cheeses with a sideline in prepared foods, pasta and other imported goods. The day I was there they hadn’t made the porchetta because of something about a meat shipment, but I was informed by the nice guy working the counter that they would not only have it the next day but he would make me a sandwich out of it. The next day come lunch time, I was on my way there faster than you can say “pork sandwich.”

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It’s always frustrating when a craving for Thai food hits me because as most of you know our options for that cuisine are mediocre in the Financial District. Bennie’s Thai Cafe is the best of the few options we have, although there was one I had yet to try because it’s off the beaten path and I tend to forget about it. That would be Budtharasa (also known as Bunrasa) on Washington St. (btw. Carlisle & Rector) over in the weird area of Irish bars, tourists and fancy hotels below the World Trade Center site.

Chris had christened it his go-to Thai spot in the FiDi after he had the chicken curry back in 2009. Since then, the scaffolding covering the front has come down and they have a lunch box for $8 that I thought was my ticket to checking this place out.

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If you’ve been in the prime shopping area of Soho, you’ve probably walked past SoHo Park without even noticing it (or stopped at Hampton Chutney Co. before getting to it). It’s on Prince St. (at Lafayette) and is one of the cheaper lunch spots you’re going to find in the neighborhood, especially if you want a burger. It just so happened that all last week I was intensely craving a burger and fries, but I felt like this site has reviewed many of the options that are $10 or less, of which there aren’t that many. I thought about heading for Brinkley’s for the massive $14 burger that Serious Eats so loved, but instead decided SoHo Park was more in the ML budget and deserving of a look.

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I got really excited when I discovered the walk up window at Koko Asian Fusion on Greenwich (btw. Carlisle & Albany) where you could get quality General Tso’s chicken at a rock bottom price. When I walked by recently I noticed they’ve changed things up and are offering a different special over rice for $5.95 at the window every day. If you like restaurant quality Americanized Chinese or Thai food on the cheap, this is the place to get it.

As you may have heard, people are really into this truck called Phil’s Steaks which aims to school us New Yorkers on what a Philly cheesesteak should actually look/taste like. They use bread from Philly and  poached some of their staff from Philly. But how are the sandwiches once you get past the hype? We’ve already gotten a take from Rachel when the truck parked in Midtown and she generally said it was good, and straight ahead are what a couple of Downtown Lunch’ers thought, as well as the menu.

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I know many of you are fans of Alfanoose on Maiden Lane (btw. Broadway & Nassau), but based on the couple of times I’ve eaten there I have to say I just don’t get the hype. Maybe at one point their falafel was phenomenal, but these days I’d rather head over the Crisp for one of their wild concoctions. One place that often falls under the radar and offers many of the same items as Alfanoose is The Country Kebab over at Fulton & Gold. A look at the menu showed something called muchver, aka zucchini patties. I’d had something similar at Pita Press and was interested in how Country Kebab’s version compared. Read more »

If you’ve been paying attention to the ML Downtown Twitter Tracker, you may have noticed Big D’s Grub truck mentioning they have rice platters every once in a while. The truck mostly sticks with tacos and grinders with Korean meats, and they were quiet about introducing this new menu item that isn’t available every day. Yesterday they were in the Financial District and I decided that some Korean meat over rice was just what I needed to perk up a dreary day.

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