Midtown Lunch

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

Downtown at Liberty park you can find a pretty nice selection of fancy food for lunch these days. Meridith’s Bread has a stand where you can buy a $7 quiche.  Red Jacket Orchards and Migliorelli’s Farm both have plenty of good looking food as well. But when you want your lunch to be less than a gallon of gas (who would have thought we’d ever say that?) try Sam’s falafel. When I checked it out earlier this week the line was about 8 people deep. Everyone on line who had eaten there before said it was the best they’d had downtown, so I knew I had to wait it out. The line went surprisingly fast thanks to owner Yasser’s 3 man assembly line (although his name isn’t Sam he says people call him that and he likes it.)  Read more »

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)  But now he’s starting to make me mad.  Super cheap Chinatown food?  Fine.  Vietnamese?  Ok… a little angry, but I can take it.  Mexican corn?  Urgh… but Korean fried chicken??!?!?!  Now I’m super pissed.  You’d think with Koreatown being part of Midtown Lunch, we wouldn’t have any trouble finding the stuff.  There are a few options in and around 32nd street but none of them are open for lunch (bastards!)  Oh… but Downtown?  They’ve got one.  (Cue the steam exiting ears.)

Bon Bon Chicken doesn’t look super inviting on the inside. I felt more like I was in a train station or a waiting area. I never thought about eating there until Zach screamed at me one day, “dude do you realize there’s a place downtown where you can get Korean fried chicken for lunch?!” Relax guy… “it’s just chicken,” I said.

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Daniel’s review will be up shortly, but if you’re downtown and looking for a good lunch today, somebody just emailed me this: “There’s an Indian street festival featuring a variety of Indian foods in the Financial District” from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m on Maiden Lane/South St.  What stop on the subway is that?  I wonder if I could make it down there and back to Midtown in an hour…

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) 

It looks like Mosco street is undergoing an renaissance. On my way back to having another satisfying cheap lunch at Yee Eng Home Cooking, I found another interesting development just before the steps of my newfound cheap Thai paradise. At the top of Mosco street two guys took over a bubble gum stand and are now selling skewered meat; but not just any skewers, they have Mongolian lamb! The meat is tender, plentiful, and a bit spicy (if you ask for it.) All in all, a pretty amazing deal for $1.25. You can also get chicken teriyaki which has a nice sweetness to the nuggets of meat.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) 

Mosco street is one of the coolest blocks in NYC. It’s basically one big ramp, starting at Mott and sliding down to Mulberry. On it you can find one of the best Thai grocery stores in the city, a funeral parlor for all your otherworldly needs, and a dumpling shack (it’s inferior to Tasty D around the corner though). And now it’s home to Yee Eng Home Cooking, the newest Mosco street addition…   Read more »

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) 

Capri Caffe is a real “Midtown Lunch” Downtown gem of a spot (does that even make sense?) located on 165 Church street between Chambers and Reade. It was recommended by a random guy I met early this week who lives in the area and swears by it. He eats there “once, sometimes twice a day.”  Not sure if he was exaggerating a bit but I had to check this place out.

When I first walked in I got the immediate feeling the dishes were going to be a bit too pricey to fall within the rigorous Midtown Lunch guidelines. Luckily everything seemed to fall under the $10 price cap, like the oh so attractive to me manicotti, which was $8.50.  Toss in the fact that the pasta for that particular dish was made fresh in-house and I was pretty stoked.  I may have even exclaimed “Mama Mia!” but if questioned I’ll deny it.  (It just doesn’t sound that authentic coming out of my New York Jew mouth.) The owners who seem just as authentic as the food will greet you with smiles, wearing their Italian bicycle hats with the fronts turned up. If you ask what’s the best thing to order, you’ll get a confident albeit not surprising “everything is good!”   Read more »

Serious Eats New York posted a thing I just wrote about this amazing sandwich I ate at Alidoro, a tiny pretty well known shop in Soho that I really wish was in Midtown.  [Bonus Reveal: I’m having a kid. I know… it’s frightening. Thankfully my wife has good genes.]