Have Indian Food Carts Left the Steam Table Joints In the Dust?
A couple of days ago I went and tried the slightly out of bounds location of Minar (on 31st btw. 5+6th). It’s never been featured on ML before, but the food is pretty much identical to the more famous Midtown location on 46th btw. 6+7th. The original Minar was actually one of Zach’s earliest Midtown Lunches and amazingly enough, the post still resonates today, FOUR years later. Back in ’06 Zach wrote, “I went with the Chicken Tikka Masala (for sake of comparison with other places), the Lamb curry, and the Saag Paneer… but the curry was too watery.” I had the exact same order and the same qualities could be found in Minar today. I guess you’ve gotta hand it to them for consistency!
Minor complaints aside, it’s still a reliable Midtown Lunch… although the prices have changed. Zach had his meal with a naan add-on for $8.25. I passed on the bread and it was $8.60 after taxes. However, I did notice right away there was only three chunks of meat for my tikka masala and lamb curry. A bit on the stingy side if you ask me. Is it possible to get more proteins for your money in this era of the great recession? In the years since the original Minar post, lots of quality Indian carts have popped up like the Biryani Cart, Famous Dal Cart, the Desi Food Truck, and the Dosa Cart. Is good, ML-priced Indian food only possible if we visit carts now? Do you guys have thoughts on this? Are you visiting brick-and-mortar Indian joints or heading to the carts for a quicker and more satisfying meal?
Minar, 5 W 31st St (btw. B’way+5th), 212-967-2727
Posted by Danny at 11:45 am, September 22nd, 2010 under Minar.
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Good post.
I do both. Grill 44 vs the 48th and 3rd cart. The random Indian Place in Grand Central is not bad considering it is in Grand Central.