Midtown Lunch

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’s Alex, a healthy public affairs manager who hates cake.

Name: Alexandra

Age: 26

Occupation: Public Affairs Manager

Where in Philly do you Work?: Comcast Center, 18th & JFK

Favorite Kind of Food: Tons of veggies, especially beets, carrots and cucumbers. I also love fish, cheese, bread and steak.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I don’t like any kind of cake.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Ralph’s Cafe (43rd Floor of the Comcast Center- it’s a cafeteria but it has the some of the best views in the city), Matyson, Butcher & Singer (1500 Walnut St.), Pikkles Plus (1801 Market Street).

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For about a year now, several Reading Terminal purveyors have offered a $7 lunch special. Pearl’s Oyster Bar is located at the entrance of Reading Terminal with several counters for seating and a menu full of fried and raw seafood. Their lunch special consists of a soda, your choice of Manhattan or New England clam chowder, and a fried cod sandwich.

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Photo Courtesy of Metropolitan Bakery via Meal Ticket

• Manhattan’s famous H&H bagels coming to all Capogiro locations! [Grubstreet]
• Reading Terminal had its busiest year of all time, serving over 5 million visitors in ’09 [Phoodie]
• This spring an Indian Bistro is opening in Washington Sq West  [Foobooz]
• Metropolitan Bakery’s new under $5 pizzas look like a nice lunch, especially the fig, prosciutto and candied pecans pizza [Meal Ticket]
• Midtown Lunch: Downtown tries out Manhattan’s version of the Philly cheesesteak [ML Downtown]

Pho Ha is one of the many traditional Vietnamese noodle soup (pho) joints located in the shopping plazas of  Washington Ave. What I like about Pho Ha is that the menu is user friendly and each ingredient can be customized to your preference. Ha’s menu clearly lists the meat components in their pho from least to most scary. The “small” pho starts at a mere $5.60 and is HUGE. Since these restaurants deal with such high volume of similar pho orders, they are prepared to get it to the table incredibly fast.

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