Midtown Lunch

At the end of my Monday piece on Aoki, the sushi restaurant on 48th btw. B’way+8th with the 3 roll lunch special for $10, I predicted they would raise their prices soon. I didn’t think 24 hours soon. From a commenter yesterday:

ZACH, get this. i went to Aoki today for the first time and all the menu prices were whited-out… it’s now two rolls for $9, three rolls for $11 (and for the record, I got two rolls and they charged me $9.50) … seems my honeymoon’s over before it even began. :(

My initial thought was, “Shit, I’ve ruined it for everybody.” My second thought was “Shit, my co-workers who told me about this place, and convinced me to write about it, are going to kill me.” My goal is to help people find good, cheap lunch, not to hurt them by unearthing deals that are too good to be true, only to have them yanked as a result of the exposure (Del Frisco’s, I’m looking at you). I would have become really depressed if it wasn’t for the little part of me that was proudly surprised that the stupid site I started almost two years ago as an excuse to eat gross food for lunch, was now having a marked effect on the way Midtown restaurants do business.

Thankfully, it turns out I had nothing to do with the price increase- which went into effect a few weeks ago, and only effects the lunchtime combo if you eat in the restaurant. The take out price is still $8 for two rolls, $10 for 3 rolls, although the lady I spoke to at Aoki did imply that the take out/delivery price would probably have gone up as well, but they had all these take out menus printed with the old price. So, like I said on Monday, enjoy the deal while you can, and whatever you do- don’t take a menu. We need those things to last as long as they possibly can…