Midtown Lunch

Last March I visited Maru Global for their takoyaki and lunch bentos. The $10 lunch bento came with a lot of food, and were a good value, but now a brand new option is available. Maru just started a mini lunch combo option with prices ranging from $5 to $6 dollars. The combo comes with miso soup or salad, a drink (homemade  unsweetened green tea or standard soda), and a choice of  yakisoba, curry rice bowl, curry burrito, and chicken katsu.  I had to go for the chicken katsu, which are fried chicken cutlets, but somehow this didn’t sound like  enough friedness for me, it is Channukah after all, so I also ordered two new fried appetizers.

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tofu stew shot courtesy of Drew Lazor

• More details on former Bebe’s owner path to becoming Fergie’s new chef [City’s Best]
• Village Belle started serving mixed meatball sliders on housemade garlic buns [Grub Street]
• $8 Strip Club burger is lovely and the scenery is not so bad either at The Penthouse Club [Table Matters]
• The spicy soondubu at Giwa sounds perfect for the cold weather [Meal Ticket]
• Bobby Flay battled Paesano’s in a brisket sandwich Throw Down… I know who I would bet on [The Insider]
• La Viet gets 2 bells from LaBan and he loves the $6 pho [The Inquirer]

I was in the mood for shwarma, so I stopped by Kamal’s in Reading Terminal. The menu is exactly what you would expect: falafel, shwarma, dips, etc. with options in platter or sandwich form. How could you mess up shwarma, right?

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Heinz Ketchup is in Philly this week, giving out free fries with their new Dip and Squeeze Ketchup. Today they will be in Center City from 12-1:45 at 16th and Chestnut, Unversity City from 2:30-4:15 at the 200 Block of S. 40^th Street at Locust Walk, and at 30th St Station from 5-7. Tomorrow they will be at 2nd and Market from 5pm-11 and Saturday at 18th and Walnut from 2pm-6.  The first 20 people today get a free t-shirt. Report back if you get some free stuff.

Besides serving Bassetts ice cream and giant cake slices, More than Just Ice Cream has a full lunch and dinner menu. The ice cream is served when you walk in, and dining seating is to your left by the open kitchen, including some cozy pillowed bench arrangements.

The lunch menu has a selection of salads and sandwiches, and they sure love grilling things here: grilled, cheese, grilled tuna, grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled portobello, grilled tofu… Another thing to note is that a lot of the sandwich options are standard, but with some weird random twist, this will be explained after the jump.

As for combo deals, there are 2 levels of lunch specials. You can get a grilled cheese or blt with a side for around $8. But I went for the first class combo, a choice from a wider sandwich selection with a side and a drink for $10.

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As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week, it is Dan,  local “yenta“, as we say,  for the Daily News.

Name: Dan Gross

Age: 32

Occupation: Philadelphia Daily News columnist

Where in Philly do you Work?: Broad & Callowhill

Favorite Kind of Food: Tough choice, maybe Chinese.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Bleu cheese. It should be outlawed.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: For a late lunch, the Kobe sliders/hot dogs at Sampan’s Happy Hour (124 S. 13th) are excellent and as disgustingly, and shamefully decadent as it is, so is the Cheesesteak Pretzel Burger at PYT in the Piazza at Schmidts. I also like the vegetarian ham dish and corn and tofu soup at Charles Plaza (10th & Vine) None of these are particularly regular spots for me, but they’re all good.

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