Midtown Lunch

Oh Chinatown, you just keep serving up the delicious and cheap food in true Midtown Lunch style, and my latest venture to one of your restaurants made me love you even more. That place is Wah Mei Pork Chop Fast Food on Hester St. (btw. Baxter & Mulberry). It’s one of two Taiwanese pork chop places in that neighborhood, the other being Excellent Pork Chop House on Doyers. Wah Mei has a pretty limited menu consisting of pork chop or chicken over rice or noodles, soups and fried rice. Clearly, if pork chop is in the name, that is what must be eaten when you first go there. Read more »

A while back when I was reviewing Tandoor Palace on Fulton St., to what did my wandering eyes did appear but…a Russian/Turkish bath house with a restaurant. The unnamed restaurant is within the enormous Wall Street Bath & Spa 88 (seriously, I could have gotten lost in there), and they serve a just out of Midtown Lunch price range three-course lunch for $11.95. “This is amazing,” I thought to myself. And so, one day I rounded up a co-lunch’er and went with an empty stomach and thoughts of erasing the vegetarian lunch I had the day before from my mind. Read more »

I’m not going to lie – there are some times that I don’t want a big meaty plate of street meat. Not that I would go so far as visiting a place like Just Salad, but I have been known to walk over to the Whole Foods in Tribeca for some buffet ceviche, mostly because you can get a whole lot of it for cheap because it’s so light. So it was with this mindset, and blazing hot temperatures, that I ended up at the 99% Vegetarian Cart on Liberty St. (at Broadway) to check out its vegetarian platter. The cart defected from midtown in May, possibly due to run-ins with hot dog cart ruffians. They used to be called the Healthy Vegetarian Cart, but then changed their name after adding grilled chicken. Read more »

Last week, lunch’er Serene wrote in to say she went looking for the Picnick Smoked cart and that she was basically led on a wild goose chase at the two Picnick kiosks in Battery Park looking for supposed BBQ items served there. Indeed, the Picnick Web site says that the “full BBQ menu is available at the kiosks.” When I went to look on Tuesday, that was definitely not the case. Read more »

If you’ve ever taken the J,M,Z (soon to be just the J) line to the Canal St. stop, I’m sure you’ve either seen or smelled the food from the two carts sitting on Centre St. between Walker & Canal. I’d always wondered where the strong scent of fried chicken was coming from as I came up out of the subway as there were no obvious restaurants or Popeye’s within sight. I was actually on my way to review another place when I figured out the source of the smell and decided to instead check these two dueling carts out for a super-cheap lunch. Find out if I won or lost this gamble after the jump. Read more »

A new spot selling Japanese baked goods and bread, Takahachi Bakery, officially opened yesterday on Murray St. (at Church), a month later than planned. I stopped by to see what they had (you can also read about it here), and of course couldn’t get out of there without buying something from their intimidating selection. Read more »

There are a lot of places serving slices in the Financial District, and I’m always on the hunt for my favorite. I think I may have found a new front runner with It’s A Pizza on John St. (btw. Broadway & Nassau) – a place that caught my attention with its sign that makes it look like a chain even though, to my knowledge, it’s not.

They have a very busy front window that displays a number of signs for what they sell including pizza (99 cent slices from 3-5 p.m.!), pastas, a chicken over rice special and sandwiches. Things only got more awesome when I got inside and noticed they had some very un-Italian specialties listed including something called a samsa and some dumpling-looking things called hinkali. Part of me wanted to order all of these crazy things, but since it was my first time visiting I thought I should actually eat some pizza since it’s the place’s namesake. Read more »