Midtown Lunch

A few things have happened since Kathy YL Chan (from A Passion for Food) compiled her Food Porn Guide to Navigating Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) for Midtown Lunch. Beard Papa is now gone, replaced by a coffee and dessert bar.  Since Kathy is our resident coffee, dessert, and Cafe Zaiya expert we told her to go whole hog on their new offerings and report back.  Here is what she found…

Since you’ve already had a first look at the menu and set up of Cafe Zaiya’s new coffee and dessert station, let’s just get straight to the point. The best thing on Cafe Zaiya’s new drink bar menu is SHAVE ICE. It’s near impossible to find shave ice in this city, much less a decent bowl of shave ice. It’s a terribly painful fact for someone who grew up in Hawai’i, consuming shave ice bowls on a daily basis. Zaiya’s shave runs $3.79 for a small and $4.29 for a large, and comes in one flavor: Green Tea. Unlike most places which fill the cup with shave ice and then put on the syrup, Zaiya fills half the cup with shave ice then pours on green tea syrup and plenty of condensed milk. Then more ice, till it forms a decent mound, and then more syrup and condensed milk.

How about the toppings?

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Shortly after we posted about the new Tripie Crepe Cart in Columbus Circle, they disappeared.  The owner checked in at the end of last week to fill us in on what happened.

“We moved downtown, 8 street bet. 3+4th ave, because we had troubles with the hot dog vendor and then when the police that told us to go… It was very disappointing and unpleasent. I hope that we won’t face the same problems in our new location.”

But were you in a legal spot in Columbus Circle?

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Darbar Grill, which serves up an excellent $10.95 Indian buffet on 55th btw. Lex+3rd, will be changing things up a bit for the next two weeks. Starting today they’ll be celebrating the “diverse cuisine of India” by offering an all you can eat lunch buffet highlighting regional specialties from all over the country. That means dishes like saag paneer from the North, dosas and idly from the South, coco mustard sauce from the East, and a few Goan dishes from the West. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’ll be raising the price to $14.95! It does sound pretty good though, so part of me wants to make an exception. Although I’ll be very unhappy if after two weeks they decide to keep this whole $15 buffet thing permanently.

This should mean some extra business for Apna Taj, the $9.50 Indian buffet next door. They should get some spillover from the cheapos who don’t want to spend $15 on a buffet. The “special” Darbar Grill buffet lasts until July 3rd. Early adopters, let us know if it’s worth spending the extra $3.

Related:
Apna Taj Indian Buffet Lowers Prices to Compete With (the Most Excellent) Darbar Grill

My kid eyeballing lunch at Kosher Deluxe (on 46th btw. 5+6th)

• Your first look at the new Port Authority Greenmarket [Diner’s Journal]
• A few of the best scones in NYC can be found in Midtown [Dessert Buzz]
• How to get lunch from Whole Foods for under $7 [BLD Project]
• Not everybody loves Margon!? [Latinfoodie]
• KFC Is getting sued over their free grilled chicken promotion [TMZ via Eater]
• Your first look at the Southwest/’wichcraft “porch” in Bryant Park [Elaine Perlov]
• Slashfood is the latest blog to jump on the street food coverage bandwagon [Slashfood]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

You’d have to be a blind drunk not to notice the multitude of Irish pubs in Midtown. There’s practically one on every corner and most of them do not rise up above the fray to distinguish themselves as a great ML hangout. This week we continue the Irish theme with Clancy’s Pub and Restaurant. Though I will make no claims that this is not just another generic pub, what did lure us in was a good happy hour that lasted till 8pm, where most on this block ended at 7pm.

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Without sponsors this site would not exist… actually, who am I kidding. Of course it would. Everyone knows Midtown Lunch is just an excuse for me to stuff my fat face. That being said, it is nice to have help paying for my weekly lunch bill.

This month that funding was generously provided by the Artisanal Cheese Center on 37th Street and 10th Avenue, which hosts Wine & Cheese tastings almost every night, and ships gourmet restaurant quality cheese (and paired wines) to your door. Plus for a limited time only they’re offering Midtown Lunchers 15% off their entire schedule of classes or any cheese purchase from their website. Just enter the Promo Code “MDTOWN” in your basket before checking out. Great for yourself, or as a gift for Dad (hint hint).

I guess technically it’s frozen yogurt, and I think the cookie was made of some sort of granola, but it tasted good to me. And it was full size, and free. 7th Ave btw 34+35th, on the west side of the street. Freeloaders engage.

If it wasn’t clear before, the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck (which parks in Midtown, and Downtown, a few days a week) has become quite the love ’em or hate ’em kind of vendor.  We’ve read the hate, and seen the love.  I fall somewhere in the middle.  I love me some Chinatown dumplings, and don’t think that Rickshaw comes even close to being what I’d consider a “great dumpling” (and they’re shockingly overpriced to boot.) There’s not enough filling, and the wrapper doesn’t stick together.  They’re also steamed, so you don’t get that delicious crisp of the far superior pan fried dumpling. If you think the dumplings are terrible, I can’t really say that you’re wrong.  Did I mention that they are freakin’ expensive? And most Midtown Lunch commenters hate them. I get it.

But here’s their one saving grace (and it’s probably why they are starting to build up a Midtown following among those who don’t frequent Chinatown.)  They don’t taste terrible.  For all their faults, the dumplings use quality ingredients, and have a decent flavor.  (Unlike, say, the NYC Cravings vegan dumplings.) Plus you can’t argue with their dipping sauces. Would I pay for Rickshaw Dumplings? No.  But a lot of people do.  So in the spirit of the +/-, I went to check out their newest special: the peking duck dumplings.

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