Midtown Lunch

Last week 6 carts (including 3 in Midtown) offered up special “This is Why You’re Fat” inspired dishes for a scavenger hunt, and we posted photos of all the deliciousness. But photos can only be so effective. What you really want to see is an adorable hipster scarfing down those dishes one after another on video. Thank god for Vendr TV. Their latest video, which features Dan Delaney eating all six specials one after another, is after the jump.

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I don’t know why I decided to eat at China Moon the other day. This Thai/Chinese combo (on 47th btw. Mad+5th) has been around forever, and while I’ve been tempted to try it on a number of occasions I’ve never quite pulled the trigger.  Anytime a restaurant serves up more than one kind of Asian cuisine it’s always a big red flag, but Asian Station turned out to be pretty good, and China Moon just went through some renovations, so I was feeling kind of lucky.

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Wasn’t it just last month that Toasties opened their 3rd Midtown location in the old Rosen’s Deli (on 51st btw. Mad+5th). Now it looks like they are also taking over the old Chicken Bar space on 52nd btw. Lex+3rd. I’ve never actually been inside a Toasties, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m missing anything here. I’ve always seen it as just another one of those generic Midtown delis. Am I wrong? Do they have some sort of toasted sandwich craziness that I have to try? Any Toasties fans out there? (The other 2 Midtown locations are on 3rd Ave. btw. 55+56th, and 48th btw. Mad+5th.)

Indus Express wasn’t the only Midtown Lunch to make Time Out New York this week. They also asked a bunch of well known chefs and food folks for their Essential New York Burger, and Josh Capon (the chef of Lure Fishbar in Soho) chose the Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien. He also had far and away the best answer: “I’ve always thought that it was really cool to go into this fancy hotel and see this neon sign that leads to this gritty hole-in-the-wall. I actually grabbed a burger there before brunch at Norma’s. My wife said, ‘Where did you go?’ and I said, ‘To the bathroom.’”   Sounds like my kind of guy.

Photo uploaded to the ML Flickr Pool by lifeaskew

East side Midtown Lunchers are inching closer and closer to two new spots, both on 3rd Ave. btw. 43+44th Street. The owner of Naya Mezze & Grill (the fancy Lebanese restaurant on 2nd Ave.) checks in to say that he hopes to have Naya Express, his fast food Lebanese offshoot, open by the end of the month.  As for their next door neighbors Five Guys, an employee at the 55th Street location says it’s two weeks away.

Related:
Five Guys is Coming to 3rd Avenue
3rd Ave. Golden Krust to Become Lebanese NAYA Express

All that talk about dumplings yesterday has put me in the mood for… well… dumplings. A quick look in the comments proves that there are no truly spectacular dumplings in Midtown. No one place here stands out as the best. (For that you have to head to Chinatown or to the outer bouroughs.) But there are some decent options, like the gyoza at one of the Japanese ramen spots (like Men Kui Tei, or Sapporo), wontons in chili oil from Szechuan Gourmet or Wu Liang Ye, or the new dim sum bar at Yushi. And of course there is the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, which has its fans (to go along with some very vocal detractors.)

For Korean dumplings (or mandoo) there is the well known “Mandoo Bar” on 32nd btw. B’way+5th . But the other day I read something in the forums about a new mandoo bar in Cafe Charlie, an otherwise generic Midtown deli on 41st btw. Mad+5th. Clearly an investigation was in order.

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