Midtown Lunch

Today, stop by the soft opening of Freshii at the Ritz Carlton (1414 S Penn Sq) with free food throughout the day. Starting at 7am (NOW CHANGED TO WEDNESDAY), the first 30 people get free breakfast and drink. From  7 to 10:30 get a free coffee or tea with your breakfast purchase. From 10:30 to 12:30, the first 200 people get a “free meal”, whatever that may be. From 12:30 to 2 they are doing 2 for 1 meals. After than, from 2-4:30, get a “free snack” and lastly from 5 to 7 get half priced “bowls and salads.” According to their general franchise menu, it looks like a lot of salads, wraps, and rice bowls.

And until the 28th they are offering the following specials:

• Thursday, Jan. 20th : 2 for 1 bowls
• Friday, Jan. 21st : 2 for 1 wraps
• Saturday, Jan. 22nd : Free snack with any meal
• Monday, Jan. 24th : ½ off breakfast total
• Tuesday, Jan. 25th : Free side of soup with any meal
• Wednesday, Jan. 26th : 2 for 1 bowls
• Thursday, Jan. 27th : 2 for 1 wraps
• Friday Jan. 28th : Free snack with any meal

Let me know about what the “free meal” or “free snack” actually are.

Today is an exciting day, first and most importantly we are celebrating the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I am about to head out for a day of service in North Philly and hope that those of you who have off from work/school are doing something similar.

Secondly, its our birthday! A year ago today Midtown Lunch Philly was launched. It all started  with my trip to Rangoon. Now here we are, over 300 posts later. It has been a great year exploring the good, the bad, and the fatty of Philly’s lunch scene.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a visual montage of my year in lunches:

Isn’t she a beauty to behold? Or are you a little sick that I have consumed all of that…I know my mother is.

As a birthday present to ML Philly, it would be awesome to hear everyone’s favorite lunch report from this past year. Thanks so much for reading guys!

Photo courtesy of Ellen Dunkel

• Laban heads to Chinatown and is all about Ting Wong and its soy sauce chicken noodle soup [The Inquirer]
• A video on Zavino’s fresh pizzas [NBC]
• Nick’s Vegan opened in Fairmont Park [Phoodie]
• R2L has started serving lunch in coordination with Restaurant Week. Meal Ticket has the menu [Meal Ticket]

Luncher Aubre is on a serious mission to find the best Indian Buffet in University City. Recently she reported back on the Tandoor India Buffet, and today we’ll see how it compares to New Delhi.

Two weeks ago, when a thwarted trip to the New Delhi buffet landed me at Tandoor India, I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of my lunch. One of my lunch partners suggested that we return to New Delhi, not on a Monday, and do a comparison to decide the better of the Indian lunch buffets. For exactly the same price($8.95), someone needed to come out on top. The gauntlet was thrown down.

On Wednesday we walked to 40^th and Chestnut and, for some reason– perhaps the fancier  dining space and buffet set-up– expected New Delhi to surpass Tandoor India. At New Delhi the main buffet station sits in the middle of the dining room, while another, smaller station for salads and sauces sits against the wall. Visually, New Delhi is more enjoyable. The dining area has been recently redone to a much more modern look than Tandoor India and the buffet stations look newer and better maintained– making New Delhi feel like an upscale cafeteria at lunch time. Unfortunately, the food at New Delhi is also reminiscent of a cafeteria at lunchtime. The main offerings, although beautiful and of seemingly more variety than Tandoor’s, lacked the unique, bold flavors that I was really looking for.

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Today, we are getting another report from profiled luncher Stephanie, this time on the superior sandwiches available in the Fairmont area.

A hop, skip, and short bus ride away from Center City lies the charming neighborhood of Fairmount. Wandering around this charming city-suburb, you can find baby strollers, tree-lined streets, and one of the best sandwich shops in town.

Plain and simple, Rybread makes good sandwiches. Deviating from the recent trend of delicious frou-frou sandwiches a la exotic banh mi or the ultimate roast pork sammich, Rybread’s repertoire of sandwiches hail from classic recipes. That is not to say, however, that Rybread is not gourmet; they are. Yet, there is undoubtedly a focus on putting together simple ingredients that result in simple goodness.

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