Midtown Lunch

There are few things worse then stepping out of the N train stop at 49th Street and getting bombarded by lumbering tourists and fast talking theater sales men in Times Square. It was enough to turn my usually patient, well-tempered friend into a cranky malcontent within the short block from TGI Fridays to Olive Garden. However, with a quick turn onto W 47th Street the hellacious chaos turned down a notch and we ducked for cover at the Mean Fiddler.

The Mean Fiddler is a restaurant and pub with a late night dance club in its lower level- but this isn’t a night club review so let’s stick the brass tacks. Zach had tipped me off on this place and despite its typical Irish bar façade it had one deal that caught both our eyes. Happy hour is 12pm to 7pm with 4 sliders for $4 dollars. Given that sliders are usually $10 on the regular menu this was quite a deal. But wait there’s more!

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Got this message in the old ML Inbox this morning from Lunch’er Mark:

“A sign in the window of Mantou (on 53rd btw. 2+3rd) says they will be open “the week of July 13″. The menu is intriguing–a combo box is $9.95 and comes with choice of two sandwiches, green salad and shrimp chips. The sandwiches must be small because they offer two in a combo and a la carte prices range from $2.95 to $4.95. Sandwich choices include pork bun, short rib with kimchi, spicy pork, mackerel, chicken meatball with chinese bbq sauce and angus beef with spicy sambal. Also, they offer kimchi as a side order.”

But when he walked by at lunchtime they were already serving food…

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What does 3 years of hardcore Midtown Lunch’ing do to a psyche?  For one thing it alleviates all food fears. I will pretty much eat anything at this point.  (Except for a sandwich from Walgreens… but that has nothing to do with fear.)  I feel kind of proud thinking back on some of the ways I’ve sacrificed my body in the name of of this site. Eating at Tad’s Steaks after being dared by a reader gave me a sense of personal accomplishment, although no dare was necessary to get me to try that street ceviche from the Ecuadorian lady on 46th Street (although some called me insane for that one.)  I admited to being incredibly frightened of the Kashmir Buffet.  but surprisingly less scared of the jury duty tripe lunch from that Chinatown cart (in fact it was a revelation.)  But all those seem like child’s play compared to this…  a liver sandwich- from a Midtown Halal cart.

Remember that cart with the liver sandwich I posted about back in February (on 55th & Madison)? Well, I finally tried it on Tuesday… and amazingly, survived to tell the story.

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When the new, just out of bounds, location of 2 Bros Pizza opened on 9th Ave. & 40th Street in April, lunchers immediately started wondering if and when they’d be adding the popular $1 fried chicken pieces that are served at their St. Marks location Chelsea location on 17th & 6th Ave.  Don’t know when it happened, but the $1 fried chicken has finally been added to the menu- along with french fries, rice, and a few other steam tables items.

Taking on 99 Cent Fresh Pizza, just one block away, was an interesting decision… but taking on Piece of Chicken (on 45th btw. 8+9th)?  Well, that’s downright nutty.

Related:
$1 Slice Alert: St. Marks’ 2 Bros. Pizza is Officially Open

I try my best not to be too negative on this site, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to vent. Every once in awhile I’ll share some of the more angry useful emails I get in a post called “Airing of Grievances”. (If the Eater Complaints Dept. would like royalties, I’ll be happy to pay up…)

Photo of a Random Mr. Softee Vendor (Not the one being complained about)

Here’s a particularly bad email I got yesterday from a guy who was ripped off by a Mr. Softee truck yesterday, and on his birthday of all days!

“So yeah, the guy at 36th and 7th in the Mister Softee truck is a monster prick. I went up to him, asked him for a small cup. He hands it to me and I thought to myself “wow, that’s a huge small” – he didn’t tell me how much it was, but I gave him a 20. When he handed me $13 back, I said “$7? For a small?”

He claimed that he showed me the large cup and I said that’s what I wanted (that NEVER happened). I said “well, do you have a small cup?” and he showed me the smaller (presumably much cheaper) cup. I said “that’s what I wanted. I asked for a small cup.”

He then proceeded to get in my face about it…”

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Remember Tripie, the crepe cart that was parked in Columbus Circle a few weeks back before getting chased away by the cops?  Well they popped up on Grub Street yesterday, who has video of them in action. We knew they were now parking on 8th Street and 4th Avenue, but I didn’t realize how amazing their list of crepe fillings is (guacamole and candy bars!?!)  Looks pretty awesome… I wonder if we can convince them to come back to Midtown!