Midtown Lunch

A few weeks ago, I announced a continuing mission of mine while writing for this site: to find the best street meat downtown.  This week, the journey continues.  But first, I want to thank everyone who posted street meat recommendations last time around.  With the launch of this new site, the focus is going to be all on you Downtowners and great new places for you to eat.  As much as I feel I have to share with you, I know I’m gonna miss more spots than I nail.  So please, if at any time in my tenure here you’ve got an awesome place you think people should know about, just shout it out. Let me know what you’re thinking and I’ll do my best to get it done.

With that being said, on the sage advice of one chris6sigma, I took the fight back to the streets this week and went to check out Adel’s located on the corner of Maiden Lane and Front Street.

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Seth – fellow downtowner, lunch enthusiast, trusted advisor, and soon-to-be profile subject – made a really good point to me recently about midtown vs. downtown lunching: While midtown has the advantage in quantity, variety, and value of eats, downtown has some really terrific and beautiful places to dine.

More on this in general soon, but one place that’s just a nice place to sit and eat is Perle Restaurant and Wine Bar on Pearl Street near Broad. Much of the menu is over $10 and not Lunch’er fare, but I wandered in the other day and found a very tasty Croque Monsiuer for $8.

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As it 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 Monique, a devoted lunch’er who’s been itching for a chance to be profiled on Midtown Lunch but never really fell within the proper boundaries. Lucky her, we Downtowners now have our very own profile.

Name:Monique AKA Mo Diva

Age: 26

Occupation: Secretary and amatuer foodie/blogger

Where do you work?: Chinatown/Little Italy Area

Favorite Kind of Food: I love food too much to limit myself to one favorite food. I am a lover of all foods. But among my favorite cuisines: Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, French, Italian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Indian, and Mexican. I LOVE street meat but I haven’t found any in the downtown area that are worthy of the astronomical calorie count (within a short walking distance I might add). Big fan of Bread, Noodles, Soup, Rice, Cheese, and Crispy Pig Fat!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I am no vegetarian, but I do enjoy a veggie burger every now and again… I despise with a passion a veggie burger that is made to taste like meat. Everything from the smell to the texture of a fake burger grosses me out. I loathe spaghetti squash, soggy pizza, mushy rice, anchovies, dry chicken, most frozen foods, and the smell of dumplings  and congee in an office building.

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Does this photo even look like it was taken in New York? I think you’ll agree that the very fast food-like facade of Planet Gyro on Rector Street is not terribly enticing, but I’ll leave no stone unturned for you hungry Lunch’ers.

Yelpers seem to hate Planet Gyro with a fiery passion. I try not to put too much stake in Yelp ratings as a general rule, but in this case, I totally don’t understand where those folks were coming from.

As with Express BBQ, there were some red flags beyond the entrance, most notably a number of “creative” gyros on the menu, but there was also a spit loaded up with some very juicy-looking lamb. I took the plunge, ordered my gyro, and was quite pleased.  What’s the story, Yelpers?

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Gyro from the halal cart on Broadway, below Prince – Photo courtesy of Lunch with Front Studio

• How to eat a messy gyro in Soho. [Lunch with Front Studio]
• New Subway suspended from Crane at WTC. Will it cover downtown in artificial bread smell? [Fox]
• Yvo is too good for the ramen at Cafe Water. [Feisty Foodie]
• Sam Sifton loves the new Chinatown branch of Xi’an Famous Foods. [New York Times]
• Burger Shoppe introduces new mac and cheese burger.  Too bad it’s $15! [Gothamist]
• The Downtown forums are heating up. What is your go-to lunch in the Financial District? [Downtown Eating]

My new gig as your humble  downtown grub correspondent has gotten me paying close attention to every storefront I pass, even on blocks I’ve walked down a thousand times. For three years, Tokyo Kitchen on John Street between Broadway and Nassau has somehow managed to tuck itself into my culinary blind spot. No more.

Once I took a closer look, this narrow Japanese joint seemed like a Lunch’ers dream find: Tiny. Ethnic. A little grubby. Busy. Bilingual. Jackpot.

Well, kind of.  My first dish from here–chicken katsu don–left me unimpressed, but I was so grabbed by the aesthetic of this place that I had to give it another shot. I am happy to report that Tokyo Kitchen redeemed themselves with their udon, and that I’ll be back to explore the rest of this menu soon.

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