Midtown Lunch

Sweet Chili NYC isn’t the first Top Chef-helmed food truck, but let’s hope it’s the most successful after the untimely closure of the Frying Dutchmen. Chef Lisa Fernandes was a runner-up on Season 4 and she was known for cooking Asian food. The new truck’s menu (which you can check out here) describes itself as Thaietnamese with platters like Spicy Caramel Pork and Miso Glazed Tofu. You can get a taste of the food today at the food truck lot on Third Avenue between 48th and 49th. They’ll be there every Monday. Early adopters, let us know what you think…

Last week, I noticed a truck I hadn’t seen before parked on 46th street between 6th and 7th. Grill on Wheels is relatively new to the streets, adding a new certified Kosher option to the lunch scene. Their menu isn’t going to make Midtown Lunchers very happy, with most items passing the $10 mark, including shawarma, schnitzel and something called “crazy chicken.” But, the burger falls within budget, so maybe that’s worth a taste. You can follow Grill on Wheels on twitter for their location.

But wait… there’s more.
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Sunrise Mart Burger. Photo courtesy of Robert Sietsema

• Smokey Burger Organic and Sunrise Mart both make Sietsema’s list of Oddball burgers [Eater]
• S Dynasty is good for porn buns and sticky rice [Food in Mouth]
• Certe’s This Little Piggy gets honored by Restaurant Hospitality [RH]
• 40th btw. 8+9th isn’t as seedy as it used to be [Jeremiah’s Vanishing]
• This post looks like a familiar topic [SENY]
• More on the new Ippudo’s new Midtown “flagship” [Diner’s Journal]
• Looks like the Famous Halal Guys are expanding to the East Village [EV Grieve]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Subway Inn (60th St. btw. Lex + 3rd), has long been heralded as the dive of Midtown’s northern realm. On my journeys with Midtown bars, I’ve tried to steer clear of those that have been covered in the past. But Subway Inn had been beckoning, waiting for me to do an update since Mamacita visited over four years ago.

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The Midtown restaurant scene is always a capricious mistress, and sometimes that capriciousness comes to the surface. Spring (on 38th btw. 5+6th), which just opened in November with a nifty space for dumplings and northern Chinese fare, is being forced to vacate their space and close. Today is their last day, with dinner being a private event, so if you want to get some dumplings for lunch without having to trek to Chinatown or giving in to Rickshaw, today is your last chance to do so at Spring. The owners hope to be back to the area in the future.

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

Sometimes a ML post is purely selfish. This is one of those posts, because I love Mooncake Foods. Specifically, the spicy Thai steak salad. So yes, this post could be about just a steak salad. Considering ML contributors have already written extensively (at least for ML having written about 10 dishes tried), I held off on this post since it isn’t new territory.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Thompson

We told you way back in 2011 that Ippudo would be opening a branch of their super famous ramen shop in Midtown West,  and now Village Voice brings word that our dreams will finally be answered next month. Located on 51st btw. 8+9th the Midtown incarnation of the city’s most popular ramen spot had some kind of pre-opening party last night, even though they won’t be officially open to the public until July 13. It looks like the menu will be similar to the East Village location, but the broths will be made with dashi and there will be more Shojin options, as well as New York City’s very first gluten free and vegan bowl of ramen. My guess is we’ll have another amazing ramen spot in Midtown with another ridiculously long line.

A little over a month ago, Brian got a taste of the new Rhong-Tiam Supreme Burger Truck at Village Voice’s Choice Streets festival. Since then, the Asian fusion/burger truck has mostly been hanging out in the Flatiron District… that is, until now! I spotted the truck at 47th Street and Vanderbilt during my lunch yesterday, but it was already around 3pm at that point and the truck had closed shop. It’s not really clear if they’re going to be parking around these parts for good or not, as neither the Rhong-Tiam website or the Rhong-Tiam Twitter mentions anything about the truck being in midtown. Did anyone get a chance to try it yesterday?

With their impending storefront opening some time in the near future, the Wafels & Dinges empire will expand greatly. And they’re not just getting more space. They’re also creating new waffle concoctions for those lucky enough (or young enough) to hang out on Avenue B. Until then, they’re slowly testing out some of the new products on the truck. That means, we get to be their guinea pigs. Lucky us!

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Let’s face it. Buffalo chicken wraps are great. Back in college, my friends and I would visit the local dive bar for wings at least two nights a week, and ever since, I’ve had a deep appreciation for this thing we call “buffalo chicken.” Created upstate in Buffalo, Wikipedia describes the sauce as cayenne pepper hot sauce plus melted butter or margarine. When mixed with fried, breaded chicken and sharp, blue cheese, deliciousness is bound to ensue! Although not traditional, wraps are a convenient means of buffalo chicken consumption (it’s nice that the whole experience can be folded into a neat, handheld bundle) and they tend to be less messy than their sandwich counterparts. Over the course of the past week, I took it upon myself to try out several different buffalo chicken wraps around Midtown. I was actually a little surprised at how difficult it was to find these things for under $10, but in the end I managed to uncover four decent options.

Read my findings after the jump…

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