Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Gayatri who isn’t afraid to say she eats at chains come lunchtime and is looking for a certain Japanese dish.

Name: Gayatri Nair

Occupation: Project/business manager

Where you work: Wall Street

Age:29

Favorite Kinds of Food: Mexican, grilled/BBQ, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern

Least Favorite Foods: Raw food, anything with cinnamon on top or raisins in it.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: The Mexicue Truck for the smoked chicken and BBQ beet tacos, and the Souvlaki GR Truck for chicken stix and veggie pita. Recently, thanks to a colleague I found Pita Press on Cedar (btw. William & Pearl). Their zucchini feta fritter pita is divine.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: When I’m in a hurry and don’t want to think too much, me and my co-worker end up at Shinju Sushi or Pret. At Shinju Sushi on Pearl (btw. Pine & Wall) we ALWAYS get the sweet potato tempura rolls. At Pret (Multiple Locations), the Moroccan lentil soup & the hot falafel wrap is my favorite.

Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Downtown: Red Mango on Fulton St. (nr. Dutch). I ate there for the first time two days ago. I was never a ‘fro-yo’ fan, and I have been converted. Read more »

Attention Potbelly Sandwich Shop fanatics: You’ll be happy to know the store on Maiden Lane (nr. Gold) starts serving food at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow as I found when I thought they were open today, but instead found it was an invitation-only friends and family event. If you’re not familiar with the Chicago-based chain they sell sandwiches, shakes, soups and salads along with fresh-baked cookies. I’m eager to check it out to see what all the fuss is about, but one thing they have going for them is sandwiches top out at $5.80. Also, if you have any recommendations on what to eat here let us know in the comments.

Up until Milk Street Cafe opened on Wall St. last week the options for kosher food in the Financial District (OK, and most of the area this part of the site covers) was limited to glorified generic delis, a place that consists of a take-out window and another place with not a whole lot of seating. Milk Street is the classiest option that the kosher among us have, and nearly everything on the menu is more than $10. If you don’t keep kosher then you might not eat here just because the prices are higher than you’d normally find, but the food seems high-quality and there are options galore. Read more »

Everyone needs more gelato in their lives, like this from La Cremeria. Courtesy of Eating in Translation. 

• Parks in Tribeca and SoHo are getting some kick-ass food options. [DNAinfo]
• Paris Sandwich has a banh mi involving omelette. Breakfast banh mi? [Lunch Studio]
• Help decide what goes in the old Bangal Curry space. [Tribeca Citizen]
• It’s out of ML price territory, but this lamburger sounds like it’s worth it. [Serious Eats NY]
• The Manhattan outpost of Mile End might be worth heading out of bounds for. [Grub St.]

There’s been a lot of work going on behind a huge black plywood wall on the corner of Fulton & Nassau for a few months now – since shortly after the demise of Terrace Fish & Chip. I’d been monitoring it since I was pretty sure it was going to be a restaurant of some sort, and according to a Twitter post yesterday from someone who peeked behind plywood, it’s another location of Financier Patisserie. There’s no visible signage up, but if you look at the top of the picture there is a nice greenish-yellow paint job and some black lamps which seems very Financier to me. If it’s true, this would be the third location in the Financial District. Update: There’s now a sign up saying the store opens on July 7. Maybe there will be free food involved…

Have you ever been devouring a plate of lamb or chicken over rice from your favorite street meat cart and thought to yourself, “Wow, this food is really bad for me?” If the answer is yes, then I’m going to point you in the direction of Mimi’s Cafe on Church St. (at Reade) in Tribeca. It’s eye-catching with a wall of photos of the sandwiches and other vaguely healthy things found inside plastered all over the outside. It’s just a few doors down from another place also serving slightly healthier versions of street meat – Baba Ghanouge, aka, the place that stuffs french fries in its sandwiches. What drew me into this den of healthy food was the promise of an alternative form of gyro.

Read more »