Midtown Lunch

The world can always use another good sandwich shop, and if that shop also sells churros then I think we can all get behind that. La Churreria, next door to parent restaurant Socarrat Paella Bar on Mulberry (btw. Prince & Houston), opened on Monday after some delays, and I happened to get there about an hour after they unlocked the door. There are three different kinds of sandwiches: Breakfast varieties on a roll ($6), bikinis which are toasted on regular bread and comes in four triangular sections ($6), and the larger bocatas ($9.50) on baguette which was the category I ordered from.

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There are so many small cafes in Soho that it’s hard to distinguish which of them could possibly have food that’s not expensive without scouring their menus. I recently saw a couple of reviews of sandwiches at Fiat Cafe on Mott St. (nr. Spring) on Serious Eats and while the visuals didn’t blow my mind, the prices were pretty unbelievable for the neighborhood. It’s pretty rare to find a great, filling sandwich here for less than a 10 spot, but Fiat Cafe’s top out at $7.50 – even the ones with meat on them! I could definitely get behind this place.

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There have been many times where food from Saha Thai on Centre St. (btw. Grand & Broome) has been featured on another site that features lunch, and I’ve vowed I would go check out their cheap specials. And then I don’t. It’s in that weird no-man’s land that’s not quite Chinatown and not quite Soho, and it’s often easier to just hit up the $4.75 Chinese buffet place a couple of blocks down Centre before getting there. I’m sure a lot of you Soho office workers eat at or order from this place (if you’re not going to Peep), so I resolved to finally make my way to Saha.

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There are a handful of places downtown that offer Thanksgiving sandwiches year-round but some of them are more than $10 (yes, really) or others I shun because they throw it all in a wrap instead of between slices of bread. Last year I found a good specimen and this year I decided to branch out and try the Thanksgiving Leftovers sandwich at ‘sNice on Sullivan St. (btw. Prince & W. Houston). The difference between this and most other turkey/cranberry/stuffing sandwiches out there is that this one’s not just vegetarian, but vegan. Read more »

There are times when you want a greasy New York-style slice and others when something more refined sounds good. Since we are lacking in fancy, affordable Neopolitan-style spots in the general downtown area, I decided to go check out the newish Piazza Seventeen on Cleveland Place (at Lafayette), purveyor of square Roman slices. When they first opened the gimmick was that you could buy slices of pizza and pay by the pound so I was curious as to how much pizza I could get for my $10 budget. My dreams were dashed when I stepped inside the small shop, heeding the call of the “Eat Pizza Here!” sign out front.  Read more »

I’ve long been meaning to check out Sunrise Mart on Broome St. (btw. Wooster & W. Broadway) but I knew it would require a train ride and the focus of a ninja to avoid leaving this place with enough food for five lunchers. The other day I had some extra time on my hands and decided it was time to see what kind of lunch I could get for $10 or less.

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Soho is pretty barren in terms of carts or restaurants specializing in falafel, unlike other parts of downtown this site covers (OK, mostly the Financial District). There are a couple of generic street meat carts scattered around, and others like Taim Mobile and Crisp On Wheels make stops once or twice a week but that’s about it. Maybe that’s why everyone got excited when Ba’al Cafe & Falafel opened on Sullivan St. (btw. Spring & Broome). And after eating there twice, I really wish whoever owns this place would expand to the FiDi.

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