Midtown Lunch

There are many sources of maki rolls in the Financial District, and many of them involve refrigerated cases in stores like Zeytuna or the swanky new Duane Reade (shudder). There are a couple of places that offer lunch specials with two rolls for less than $10 but most limit you to the more pedestrian varieties like salmon, tuna or California. When I noticed Taste of Tokyo on Beaver (nr. William) had a two-roll special for $8.25 I took a look at the menu and noticed some more exotic rolls were included in this special. Omelet roll anyone?

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Generic-looking deli Cafe Tomato on Fulton St. (nr. Broadway) still looks pretty generic, but they now have Korean food! I have never eaten here after an initial walk-through yielded nothing special, but this changes the game, especially since it’s a lot closer for those of us in the upper part of the Financial District than Cafe Hanover.

Last week I got an e-mail from Ziaul at the Halal Gyro Express cart that’s a fixture of William St. between Maiden Lane and John St., rightly saying that this site has never given them a review even though they’ve been there for seven years. I was kind of confused when he gave the name of the cart, but quickly figured out it it must be the generic-looking Xpress Power Lunch cart that I’ve walked by a million times but never eaten at. Did they have “the best street food downtown” as Ziaul said? That was up to my stomach to find out.

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When the Frying Dutchmen truck first launched they only sold one item: Belgian fries in either regular or sweet potato varieties. The hook was they had a bunch of dipping sauces, but as I discovered, although their fries are delicious it’s hard to shell out more than $5 for fried potatoes. A while later they added chicken wings to the mix, then some chicken sandwiches and the latest innovation is burgers which naturally go very well with fries. They used to park in the Financial District a lot but either due to parking issues or lack of interest they’re largely found elsewhere these days although they do stop in Soho at least once a week (they’re at Varick & King today). That’s where I caught up with them to see if their other food offerings were any good.

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Unless you work near or at City Hall or the surrounding area (or are going to court), you’re probably like me and forget about the kiosks near the 1 Centre St. building. The other day when Korean food sounded like an excellent lunch idea, I realized I hadn’t been back to Koki & Vegi since they opened. I was impressed with their bulgogi that cost less than $10 and figured that based on the extreme enthusiasm of the people working there that the bibimbap was going to be pretty good too.

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When I first walked into Earl’s Court on Monday when it officially opened, I was impressed that they seemed to have replicated some sort of corporate cafeteria or food court in a European airport. The food offerings are far less exciting than at first envisioned when the list of food options in this place was announced. And if the food doesn’t excite  you, perhaps the fact that you can drink there after work will.

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A couple of weeks ago a friend who also works in the Financial District told me they had eaten at Burger Burger on Pearl (at Stone) and had an extremely disappointing experience involving a way overdone patty and fries that were nearly cold when they got them. I’ve never eaten there and Daniel reviewed this place way back in January of 2009. He seemed impressed with his Aussie burger (which did look pretty good from the pictures) but a lot of things can go so very wrong in more than two years, so I decided it was time to do the only reasonable thing and go eat some grilled meat and fried potatoes.

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