Midtown Lunch

Yesterday the New York Post reported that the Street Vendor Project was rolling out a program that would enable its vendors to accept credit cards. The pilot program, which launches today, is in the very beginning stages- so you probably won’t be able to charge that chicken and rice platter anytime soon but if it is successful it will be offered to all the Street Vendor Project members down the line (right now, a Soho hot dog vendor is the only food vendor in Manhattan accepting plastic.)  In Los Angeles practically all the new generation trucks accept credit cards, and it’s pretty awesome for the customers and the vendors. On the other hand, the lines at some carts are long enough- and the last thing the Biriyani Cart or Famous Halal Guys need is to be slowed down by a credit card machine!

It sounds like they see it that way too.  PIX filed a report, and ended up interviewing the Famous Halal Guys cart on 52nd and 6th.  Check it out after the jump…

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The blog Law & Food took it upon themselves to try every burger in Midtown East recently and came to these tough to argue with (?) conclusions:  Black Shack (on Lex btw. 37+38th) is meh, Sarge’s (on 3rd btw. 36+37th) is better for deli food, Five Guys (on 3rd btw. 43+44th) does its job but isn’t as good as Blarney Stone (on 3rd btw. 45+46th).  And the winner is… Rare Bar & Grill (on 38th and Lex), even though admittedly it’s a splurge, and Blarney would be their choice for a day to day burger.  Noticeably absent is the burger at P.J. Clarke’s (on 55th and 3rd), but according to AHT (our Mayor of all things hamburger) it’s not that good anymore.

Related:
2009 Readers’ Poll: Best Fast Food Hamburger

Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.

After a couple weeks in the ‘Flatiron’ part of the Flatiron Lunch area, I headed back to further my exploration of Curry Hill. One of my biggest challenges when walking down Lex is figuring out which place to pick, so I’ll be a little transparent here so you guys can tell me the right way to pick. Cinnamon over the million other places on this strip: First, it’s new, it opened up just a month or two ago, so I wanted to get the scoop. Second, unlike a lot of the dark, divey old school places with Christmas lights and ornamental chili peppers hanging everywhere, Cinnamon looks sort of, well, normal. Yeah, it’s a weak reason, but it’s true. Finally, there’s the financial reason. The $8.95 buffet seemed like a pretty good deal to me, so I went for it.

I’m not the expert Zach is, but a fat man’s instincts are all one really needs to navigate the all-you-can-eat buffet and I’ve got that. See what’s hot on the steam tables after the jump.

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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of New York Super Fudge Chunk, Ben & Jerry’s is launching an ice cream truck that will spend the next six weeks handing out free ice cream all over New York.  According to their website the truck will launch on Monday, and if Grub Street is to be believed it will be in front of Moma (although they have the launch date listed as the 28th.)  The truck will also be doing “office invasions” and is taking requests via their twitter feed.  Freeloaders, prepare to engage.

• No reservations needed at Mia Dona after the NYT review [Midtown Eating]
• Counseling is now available courtesy of Abdel in the forums [Philadelphia Eating]
• No lamb at the Jamaican Dutchy, but the curry chicken is a winner [Midtown Eating]
• Recs on the best Chinese market in Flushing? [Eating in Other Areas of NYC]
• Even resident veggie Sarah isn’t into the Vegan Double Down [Eating in Other Areas of NYC]

This just in from Lunch’er Dan:

There is a Tibetan food cart parked outside the Time Life building on 50th St & 6th Ave today. It looks like the Dalai Lama is appearing at radio City Music Hall from today through Sunday so this Potala cart from Queens must surely have decided to set up across the street because of that.

More after the jump…

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Even though my palate is not well educated on Thai cuisine, I’ve so far come to realize that Thai food sort of falls into the same pattern as Chinese food. On one hand, you have more Americanized Thai specialties like pad thai and pad see ew (aka something you’d get at A+ Thai.) Then you’ll get restaurants that’ll do the less known, regional dishes like khao soi (if you’re craving that, Talent Thai is the way to go.) Obviously pad thai can be very authentic and traditional, but in Midtown we would all probably just settle for a fairly decent tasting dish. When I walked by Chai Thai, on 8th ave and 55th, I was intrigued because it was packed. With a $6.95 lunch special, I decided to try that and a couple of other things on the menu.

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