Midtown Lunch

A while ago one of my friends persuaded me to eat at Dim Sum Go Go on E. Broadway (at Chatham Sq.), and it wasn’t bad. No, you don’t get the charm of the carts going by, but if you’re looking for a somewhat quick dim sum lunch near City Hall and the government buildings and courthouses it’s a good option. While there I noticed they had a 10-piece dim sum platter on the lunch menu for precisely $10 and decided to go back and see if it was worth bypassing the cheaper options in Chinatown.

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This winter hasn’t really been a nasty one, and so it is that at the beginning of March when it’s 60 degrees out, I think nothing of heading to an outdoor kiosk for lunch. Snac’Meal is next to Centre Melts on the northeast side of the 1 Centre St. building and has a hodgepodge of a menu for both breakfast and lunch that includes sandwiches, soup, falafel, shish kebab, pita pizza and curly fries. It was the “Spanish torta” sandwich that caught my attention, partly for the lunchtime price of $3.95 ($3.50 before 11 a.m.) and the fact that you could pair it with curly fries for an extra $1.50.

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Here’s a confession: I’m not a huge fan of grilled cheese. That was why I was kind of perplexed when I heard there was more than one truck devoted to this sandwich hitting the streets of New York City, and after eating at the first one to launch, I was even more confused. Why would people pay nearly $10 for two slices of bread with some cheese in it? Couldn’t I make this at home with little effort? Centre Melts, one of the new kiosks around 1 Centre St., opened a while back and I was curious if it was going to be any better than the mobile competition. To the analysis! Read more »

It is definitely hearty, carb-filled food weather but I have grown tired of the options down in the Financial District. Sure, there’s the Hot Soup Cart when something warm sounds good, but I’ve found that hit or miss, and I can only eat the pho at Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches so many times before that too becomes boring. This is when I look for an excuse to head to Chinatown and I found that with a Serious Eats post on the food at Bo Ky on Bayard (btw. Mulberry & Mott). The shrimp rolls looked like something that needed to be consumed (by me), and I am always OK with noodle soup in its many glorious forms. Read more »

If you’re like me, you don’t really go to the area of Centre St. near City Hall unless you’re on jury duty, get arrested (I would imagine) or you work there and/or are defending someone in a court of law. The other option is that you are a tourist or just really like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. One day after getting off the subway at the City Hall station, I noticed a couple of food kiosks had popped up in a weird triangular area at the base of the bridge. They were Choza Taqueria and The Pantry, and they make up half of the Open Air Cafe. Two other kiosks for Lucky Buns (not this kind, sadly, but burgers) and an Italian pizza and pasta kiosk called  Sauced are on the opposite side of the massive 1 Centre St. building. I had originally ventured over to check out Choza’s tacos only to find the place closed. So I walked over to the neighboring Pantry to see what they had on offer.

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I don’t get out to Flushing nearly as much as I want to these days. Or pretty much ever. It’s just so far. The only time I really get out there is if a friend has an extra Mets ticket and is looking for someone to go with ‘em, which, quite frankly, also doesn’t happen often enough. But getting on topic, with all that great Chinese food I hear about out there, when one of those Flushing legends finally landed in Manhattan, I had to go. There was no if’s, and’s, or but’s. I had to go.

Xi’an Famous Foods, located on Forsyth (careful, the address is tricky), is that place. I had heard so much hype about it, particularly the noodles, I had to get up there and see what it was all about. And as you can probably predict, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.
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No, no, you’re at the right place! This isn’t Midtown Lunch: Philadelphia, I promise, though after Jamie’s video about how to eat soup dumplings, it doesn’t look like such a bad place to be.  Which is why I’ve chased down a little corner of Philly and taken a closer look. Carl’s Steaks has been on the collective ML radar for awhile now, Zach having reviewed it back in the day up in Midtown, but for some reason the Downtown outpost has eluded us. But not anymore. Last week I went in, shook hands with Carl himself, and took a big, greasy bite out of Philly.

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