Midtown Lunch

In the course of doing my “fieldwork” (aka, eating) for reviews I often have to dine in some pretty small and poorly-ventilated dining areas. Terrace Fish & Chip on Pearl (at Coenties Alley) takes the cake though for leaving me smelling like I ate in a place that only serves fried foods. I went there to check out the fish burrito that lunch’er Mel recommended. I don’t think the location that was shut down on Fulton St. served this, but there it was, advertised prominently on the front counter. I was a little concerned about eating a burrito from a place that specializes in frying everything, but I figured if I could take a chance on an all you can eat buffet at a similar establishment and survive, I’d be OK. Read more »

While out and about yesterday I spotted a papered over window for a place to “Eat.Drink.Enjoy” called Earl’s Court on the corner of John St. & Gold. At first I thought it was an outpost of the Earl of Sandwich that’s coming to midtown, but that’s not the case. I have no idea when the paper went up (even though it’s next to the gym I technically belong to but rarely visit) and a quick web search turned up nothing, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it’s anything good or just another fancy looking generic deli.

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 Rachel who is having difficulty finding good lunches near her Soho office.

Name: Rachel W.

Occupation: Integrated marketing at a cable network

Where you work: Hudson St./King St.

Age: 24

Favorite Kinds of Food: I’m game for almost anything.  For lunch I can go for a big suburban Italian hero, street meat, sushi, pizza, Mexican, Thai, ramen.

Least Favorite Foods: I’m not a big fan of Greek food or falafel.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Joe’s Pizza on Carmine (at 6th Ave.); Rheon Café on Spring (btw. Sullivan & Thompson) for their duck sandwich; Breakfast & Lunch Cart on the NW corner of Hudson & Charlton for halal; Grand Sichuan (Multiple Locations); Ear Inn on Spring (btw. Greenwich & Washington); Pepe Rosso on Sullivan (btw. Prince & Houston, and Pepe Verde on Hudson (btw. Perry & W. 11th) – Rosso for takeout, Verde for seating; Alidoro on Sullivan (btw. Spring & Prince); Keste on Bleecker (btw. Jones & Cornelia); Tauro Restaurant on Hudson (btw. Broome & Spring); Faicco’s Pork Store on Bleecker (nr. Leroy). Read more »

Here’s a confession: I’ve always wanted to eat at the Pearl St. Diner based solely on its sign. You just don’t find places with awesome neon signs like that anymore. Plus, whenever I walk by its location on Pearl (at Fletcher) it always looked packed with a diverse crowd of people and it just seemed like a good place for solo dining. On one of our many recent days of gross weather, I headed over because clearly eating outside was not going to happen and there aren’t a ton of places in the FiDi to have a sit-down lunch within ML price guidelines. Off I went with visions of greasy diner food dancing in my head. Read more »