Midtown Lunch

There is no scientific evidence that eating fried foods in soup will make you feel better but I’m just going to pretend this is true. Also, I know doing a post on soup when it’s 70 degrees outside isn’t exactly logical either but I’ve been under the weather and thought it would be an opportune time to sneak one more hot food post in before that starts to sound disgusting. With my head in a fog I was thinking of possible places to get soup and for some reason Cafe Hanover came to mind since I knew they had a section devoted to udon and soba. And nothing cures you better than noodles, salty broth and fried protein!

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After a recent trip to Italy I’ve been thinking about all of the great food I ate there including a number of top-notch sandwiches. The problem is that most of the options near my office are more of the giant Italian-American parm variety. And I love Alidoro in SoHo but it’s not exactly convenient for those of us in the Financial District. Then I remembered Sandwich House on Ann St. (btw. Nassau & Park Row) served some Italian sandwiches that may just be what I was looking for. Daniel seemed to be impressed when he ate there a couple of years ago in search of his Rosario’s replacement so I decided to give it a shot.

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As you’re probably aware there are two carts serving West Indian food in the FiDi. I knew about both Veronica’s Kitchen and Trinidad & Tobago carts before I became editor of this site but I hadn’t ever eaten at them. Why? Well, I live in a neighborhood where for a long time the only food options other than crappy Chinese were Caribbean places. My very first meal after moving to NYC and unloading all of my belongings was at a West Indian takeout place. So I guess I figured since I could get this food any time I didn’t need to stuff my face with it at lunch. Then the other day I really wanted roti come lunchtime for some reason I can’t explain, and it was a toss up which cart to get this from. Veronica’s has already been written up a couple of times on this site so instead I headed way down to the T&T cart on Whitehall St. (btw. Bridge & Pearl) to see how Ms. Shirley’s roti stacked up.

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We’ve all been there: You go to a by-the-pound buffet and have to hold back on the heavy items for fear of paying $20 for lunch. A couple of Indian restaurants in Tribeca offer all-you-can-eat lunch buffets, including Salaam Bombay on Greenwich St. (btw. Duane & Reade) and Taj Tribeca. But they’re also both a few dollars over the $10 mark that I try to not top unless it involves Russian spa cuisine. So when I saw that in addition to the eat-in buffet at Salaam Bombay, you could also stuff a takeaway container for $10 I smelled a challenge. Read more »

A couple of weeks ago while alerting you all that Sophie’s Cuban was now selling its legendary green sauce I realized something shameful: I have never eaten at Sophie’s. Sure, I’ve had roast pork from other downtown spots like the West Side Coffee Shop on the fringe of Tribeca, and at the Roxy, but Sophie’s eluded me. I’d also been meaning to try the pernil at Lane Cafe that I stumbled upon a while back. And so on two different artery-clogging days I got pernil plates from each place to see which one was better. That’s right, it’s a roast pork battle the likes of which the Financial District has never seen. Read more »

A lot of places open in SoHo and Nolita but it’s often sad scanning their menus because more often than not everything on them is $10 or more, even at lunch. There are ways around that by going vegetarian or ordering nothing but a sandwich but sometimes it’s nice to eat somewhere a little nicer but still at ML prices. Rubirosa opened on Mulberry (btw. Prince & Spring) – an outpost of a beloved Staten Island bar pie purveyor – but sadly the cheapest pizza on the menu is $14 for a small and there is no mention of slices. But then I saw that they were named the best slice of 2011, and that there was a way to get a cheap lunch here after all. Read more »

Greek food isn’t something we have a lot of downtown. There are places like Zeytuna and Koyzina Cafe that sell some vaguely Greek items but most of it is more Middle Eastern. When it was pointed out that something called Pita Press had opened on Cedar St. (btw. William & Pearl) I had no idea what it was and assumed it was another falafel shop. You can’t miss the blinding sign and interior of the shop that proves if you are selling Greek food you must use blue as a color scheme. What really caught my attention, though, were the words “Greek rotisserie.”

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