Midtown Lunch

A couple little Midtown tidbits for you…

1.  The Au Bon Pain in the tunnel underneath the FoxNews building had closed.  I was always tantalized by their pictures of weird and magical special items.  Luckily for the “Lunch Challenged” there are plenty of other crappy chains in the area to replace it.  Of course those places won’t have the Wasabi Salmon Bagel, or the Cajun Shrimp Harvest Rice Bowl.

2. The sandwich place T.A.O.S. has closed, and will be replaced by a Blue Pig Ice Cream Parlor.  They already have two locations, one in Brooklyn Heights, and another in Westchester County.  It’s not as exciting as the Yolato news, but we’ll take it.  Speaking of Yolato, the owners plan on having the new Grand Central location open by the end of June. 

Soft shelled crabs at Ressie Mae’s????  After the jump Read more »

KushiQ (3rd Ave. btw. 45+46th) opened on Monday, introducing their special brand of fast food yakitori, in a hip setting.  I’m all for meat on a stick, and I’ve been pretty pumped up about this opening.  Grub Street gave it a nice write up yesterday, but it looks like the early word on the street is not so great.

First the mixed…

The food was okay.  They sell a box combo, where you can choose a base of rice, salad or bread (that looked terrible) and then three skewers on top of it.  I tried the combo with 1 chicken, 1 salmon, and 1 beef stick.  The beef and the chicken were both very good, the salmon was eh.  They put a whole bunch of crap on the rice (sauce, sesame seeds, seaweed) and also those yellow pickles that you get as banchan in Koreatown.  

Is it a good deal?  No.  My box, with tax, was $8.56 (it did come with miso soup, which was fine.)  Is it worth a try?  Yeah, [but] I absolutely refuse to pay for a stick with literally only three pieces of vegetable on it.  Lame.

By far the coolest thing is the skewer cooking machine, which mechanically lifts and dips each skewer into some sort of cooking/marinating liquid -Sara (via Email)

I am intrigued by this meat on a stick dipping machine. At least she ordered something. Comments from three walkouts- after the jump Read more »

A lot of disappointed people walking away from the store ready for thei
$5 Katsu special…

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a Midtown Lunch’er for their recommendations of places to eat Lunch in Midtown. Meet “DDR”, a Lawyer who hates salads (agreed!) and anything his wife likes (DO NOT AGREE!  What are you crazy, saying something like that?  Not very smart…)

Name: DDR

Age: 28

Occupation: Attorney

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 46th & 5th Ave.

Favorite Kind of Food: Middle Eastern, BBQ, Indian

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Salad, any food that my wife likes, and the $9 turkey sandwich (aka “the Midtown Special”)

Favorite Place to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Olympic Pita (38th b/w 5th & 6th). It’s not logical for a kosher place to have the best shwarma in Manhattan… but there it is. Order it in a laffa and have them to throw some french fries and fried eggplant in there. It’s the best $10 you’ll spend for awhile, if you can finish it. Beats the pants off of Bread & Olive and Kosher Deluxe.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Manhattan Cafe, Cosi. Just typing those 3 words makes me wince.

Place you discovered thanks to MidtownLunch: The Kati Roll Company (46 btw. 6+7th), Hing Won (48th btw. 5+6th). By the way, if the LA Weekly’s restaurant critic can win a Pulitzer for criticism, why can’t Midtown Lunch?  (Agreed!  Winning a Pulitzer is obviously the reason why I started Midtown Lunch.  -zach)

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes?: 1 Central Park West (Jean Georges); Cornelia St. near Po, because their lunch menu (duck sloppy joe!) makes me salivate, but I am never in that area at lunch time; or if I could do my job from a booth at Katz’s Deli — that might be heaven.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers?:  Has anyone ever eaten at any of the Brazilian places on “Little Brazil” and if so, are they worth visiting?

I was very excited when I heard that the famous Olympic Pita in Brooklyn would be opening a Midtown location.  But there’s only one problem.  It’s impossible to spend less than $10 for any of the delicious meats they serve (or is there some lunch special I’m missing???).  The laffa is baked fresh on site, in this sweet ass brick oven- and looks amazing (picture after the jump)  Read more »

When I started this blog a little less than a year ago, I quickly set up boundaries that defined exactly where a “Midtown Lunch” could be.  We’ve only got an hour for lunch (and some of us less), so there had to be a border.  8th Ave. on the West, 3rd Ave. on the East.  Central Park to the North, and 32nd St. to the south.  The south part was pushing it a little, but I was biased by my love of Koreatown.  The whole point of doing this is to give me an excuse to stuff my face every day at lunch… how could I leave out Koreatown? 

There have been many temptations to cross those imaginary lines. Thai food on 9th Ave. has been recommended to me often, and people seem to love the falafel at Azuri Cafe, which requires you to trek almost all the way to 10th Ave!  I thought I was going to crack for the new Bahn Mi place on 2nd Ave., but luckily they charge way too much for what I’ve heard are pretty mediocre sandwiches, making it a little easier to skip (I still may end up trying it, we’ll see).  It’s been tough, but I have managed to hold it together.

Well, I finally met my match.  A few weeks ago, I received an email tip about something that I just could not ignore.  A place that embodies everything a Midtown Lunch should be (under $10, unique and adventurous), while combining the qualities of two of my favorite cuisines (Latin & Asian).  And they’ve got a lunch special to boot.  Readers of Midtown Lunch… I give you… BAYAN CAFE.  Filipino Food in Midtown.  That’s right.  Filipino.  What’s Filipino Food?  I’m not exactly sure.  But it’s freaking good.  So what if it’s East of 3rd Ave.  What’s an extra 15 feet for something that exists nowhere else in Midtown? And for that, I will now break my self imposed, meaningless to everyone but my feeble brain, Midtown Lunch boundaries. 

What they got, photos and the +/- after the jump…  Read more »

It’s the day before Cinco de Mayo, which means you can take your chances that Kristy will be at Blockheads today… or you can check out one of my two favorite taco places in Midtown.  If you are on the East side, Pampano Taqueria is the way to go.  But if your on the westside, take advantage of the nice weather and make the trek to Tehuitzingo on 10th Ave. btw. 47+48th.  You won’t be disappointed!

MIDTOWN LINKS

• Sorry Morgan Stanley.  No Hawaiian Tropic Zone for you! [NY Post]
• A great piece about the economics of Street Carts [Daily News via Serious Eats]
• TONY likes the same taco places I do! [TONY]
• Yolato is coming to Grand Central!!! [Gawker]
• Ever wonder how lunch at Le Bernardin would seem to 15 year olds? [NY Times]
• I tell David Chang where to stick his Momofuku III [Eater]
• Hey… that Jazzfest food looks familiar! [Serious Eats]
• Go Go Curry set to open on Saturday [TONY]

Next week… an amazing Filipino place that will blow your mind!  Plus, more on the openings of Go Go Curry & Kushi Q.  Have a good weekend!

“What’s the best Chicken and Rice Cart in Midtown for lunch?  I’ve heard a lot about a famous one on 53rd & 6th.  What’s the deal with that place?”  – Jason, 32

Ah yes… the infamous chicken and rice question.  Technically, the “famous” chicken & rice cart on 53rd & 6th is not a Midtown Lunch, because they don’t open until 7:30pm. (Bummer!)  If you base it on the line alone, than it wins hands down, and it was also nominated for a Vendy Award.  If you’ve ever driven down 53rd st. late at night, than you’ve noticed the lines at this cart.  It’s impossible to miss, and it’s usually there until 4am serving up a combo of chicken, lamb, rice, white sauce and hot sauce.  Every time I have to work late, I’ll usually head over there to check it out- but the lines have always been too long to wait.

During the day, there is cart on that corner- and there always seems to be a long line.  I’ve always wondered if people *think* that’s the famous chicken and rice cart (it’s not, by the way.)

My favorite chicken and rice in Midtown, PLUS a trick to eating at the late night, famous chicken and rice cart- after the jump… Read more »

Here’s some good Midtown Lunch’ing news:

1. Kushi-Q (3rd Ave. btw. 44+45th) –  It looks like Kushi-Q is finally set to open.  According to Zagat.com, tomorrow (5/3) is the big day- but that news was posted two weeks ago.  Based on picture I took yesterday (seen above), I’d be really surprised to see them open tomorrow.  Kushi-Q is a Japanese chain that specializes in healthy grilled skewers.  I don’t know about the healthy part, but I’m all for Asian meat on a stick.  More on this tomorrow.

2. ‘wichcraft (Multiple Locations in Midtown) – According to Grub Street, Tom Collichio’s sandwich shop ‘wichcraft is planning on opening their third Midtown location in the food concourse underneath Rockefeller Center.  Just what that food court needs… more overpriced sandwiches.

3. Maharaja (on 45th btw. 3+Lex), one of my favorite Indian places in Midtown East, has decided to end all confusion by replacing their “Hurry & Tasty Curry” awning, with a boring Maharaja Awning.  It may be more accurate, but nothing says good, and fast Indian food, like a giant sign that read “Hurry & Tasty Curry”

That’s not all…  new info on the Korean Cart front, after the jump… Read more »