Midtown Lunch

If you’re like me you didn’t know Goodies existed in that weird mall of sorts on Fulton St. (btw. William & Gold) where you will also find Tandoor Palace and the infamous Spa 88 and its three-course lunch. And even if you knew it was there, you probably never thought about eating there. It was touted in the forums as being underappreciated so I decided to go check it out since I hadn’t had good, greasy Chinese for lunch for far too long.  After looking it up online I discovered that there used to be a place called Goodies on East Broadway in Chinatown, and I can’t imagine this is a very common restaurant name. This made me pretty excited to go eat there because we are lacking in good Chinese in the FiDi. Read more »

If you were outside yesterday then you know there were sub-freezing temperatures ahead of the snow, but that didn’t stop you lunch’ers from freeloading! When I got to Hot Clay Oven on Maiden Lane (at Pearl) at about 12:45 p.m. the line was nearly to the end of the block. It later grew longer as people walking by couldn’t resist the siren song of free food. After about a 30 minute wait outside, I got inside only to wait 30 more minutes to order my food. This wasn’t because of a lack of organization, but partly because people cut the line and partly because of the sheer number of people waiting. See what I scored for my patience after the jump. Read more »

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve scavanged in the basement of Zeytuna on Maiden Lane (at William) for a decent lunch, and usually ended up with soup or a random container of stuff from the by-the-pound buffet. Yes, even serious lunch’ers have lame lunches once in a while. When I’ve ventured further afield to the Mexican station or tried the falafel I’ve only been met with disappointment and regret. Lunch’er Mel recommended the pizza (and Indian) which I’d never thought to try. Grocery store pizza, here we come! Read more »

When I think about all of the food voids that we have in the Financial District, customizable pasta doesn’t immediately come to mind. Good Indian, Korean – hell, more food trucks on a regular basis – we’re missing them all. Now we have Hello Pasta and I am mostly thankful it’s not another generic deli. Two locations have already opened in midtown and the first impression seemed to underwhelm, but it didn’t classify as terrible. How would the new location on Maiden Lane (nr. Water) measure up? I headed over on opening day to stuff my face with pasta and find out. Read more »

If you work in Soho the options for finding the Midtown Lunch trifecta (cheap, filling and slightly gross) are limited. Tucked into a tiny space on Crosby St. (nr. Houston) next to the Housing Works store is Lahore Deli. It’s nearly out of bounds, and I didn’t even know it existed until I heard about its reliably good food. It is a lunch’er’s dream with its selection of curries and Indian and Pakistani foods. After eating so many disappointing Indian steam table lunches, would this finally be a good one? Read more »

I have been blogging from my hometown of Mitchell, South Dakota this week, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sample Culver’s, one of the Midwestern chains represented here. It’s based in Wisconsin and its specialties are butterburgers and frozen custard. As I will never pass up the opportunity to eat new, gross lunches I went to check it out. Read more »

We don’t get much of the fad foods downtown, unless you count The Meatball Shop or the million cupcake places. A new Italian place called Da Mikele opened on Church St. (btw. White & Franklin) recently and while I was scanning the menu my eyes immediately skipped to the words “pizza cone.” Those of you who read the midtown site may recall the hype and rapid flameout of K! Pizzacone, which I could tell just by the pictures I would not want to put in my body. I was pretty sure the cones at Da Mikele were going to be a step above and not just a vehicle to get a wad of cheese into my stomach. And I found a co-lunch’er to go along so I could also justify sampling the pizza. Read more »