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, Emily reminds me how badly I want to go to Spain and Singapore and San Francisco and…

Name: Emily

Occupation: Trade Show Coordinator

Where you work: FiDi- Bowling Green

Age: 26

Favorite Kind of Food: I love potato chips, noodles in soup, congee, …there’s just too much to list. I love everything Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian. I will try anything and everything once; maybe except bugs.

Least Favorite Food: I can’t think of any dish or cuisine in particular. I do not like cilantro.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: I usually bring my own lunches, but during the days that I do go out to buy I like the eggplant parm pizza from Grotto Pizzeria, Pret A Manger’s soups and salads, hot buffet from Yip’s especially their string beans and curry chicken, and anything from Sophie’s Cuban.

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At Midtown Lunch we’re always looking for outstanding dishes, but we also like to get as much food as we can for as little money as possible. Cafe 52 may not serve the best food in the Financial District – not even close – but if you’re looking to stretch a dollar, and maybe your waistline as well, this is the place for you.

Tucked away in the back corner of the United Federation of Teachers building at 52 Broadway, Cafe 52 is unassuming to say the least. But a sign inside the door reveals what might be the best bargain in the area: $4.75 for a sandwich/salad/pasta, a cup of soup, and a garlic knot. That may only sound OK at first, but the portions here are huge. The food isn’t amazing, but it’s pretty good, and you definitely won’t leave hungry…

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Bereket’s Doner Kebab, courtesy of Always Hungry NY

• Just this side of Houston lives one mean doner kebab [Always Hungry NY]
• The Feed and Fork in the Road give us their top 10 Chinese restaurants. Wish I’d had this last week. [The Feed & Fork in the Road]
• Yvo gives us a look at Paris Bakery’s new $5 bahn mi/green tea waffle combo [The Feisty Foodie]
• The NYC Cravings truck isn’t the only one with Porken [Plantains and Kimchi]
• Ice box cakes have a special place in my heart… and my stomach [Serious Eats NY]

“Every weekday, in broad daylight, a tahini-splattered falafel war is waged in Liberty Plaza Park, Wall Street’s great outdoors lunchroom.”

This kind of battle, described so eloquently by Rob and Robin in New York Magazine, is one that this otherwise peacenik Lunch’er can definitely get behind.

The other partisan in this fried chickpea conflict is, of course, Sam’s Falafel, which Daniel gave a thumbs up to back in 2008. I would have raved even more about Sam’s food that he did, but as much as I love Sam’s, I had to give the competition a try.

So who has the best falafel in the plaza? Whose fried chickpeas reign supreme? The winner is…

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