Midtown Lunch

• Cream cheese balls on a pizza? Pizza Hut’s gone too far [Miscellaneous]
• Where can we find a very buttery garlic bread? [Midtown Eating]
• Yellow or white rice? What do you prefer with your street meat? [Midtown Eating]
• Searching for sweet snacks around 40th & Broadway [Midtown Eating]
• So you want a ML application for your phone, huh? [Miscellaneous]

Don’t know how long ago this happened…. but poor Times Restaurant!  If it’s not the DOH, it’s lawyers from the New York Times. Apparently their name change (font and all) didn’t go unnoticed by the big brass in the building across the street.  The buffet formerly known as Kashmir (on 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) received a letter asking them to change their sign, and they obliged (naturally).  The whole thing is kind of hilarious if you ask us… obviously the New York Times has their customized font trademarked, and clearly “The Times Restaurant” was infringing on that trademark.  But is anybody really confusing this run down Pakistani buffet with a restaurant that might possibly be affiliated with the paper of record?  Doubtful.  Most of us just look at the sign and laugh.  The lawyers for the New York Times? Clearly not amused. Time’s Halal Food cart, you’ve been warned.

It’s not all bad news though… it looks like the buffet has been reduced to $9.95 again. Thanks to Lunch’er Adam for the photo.

Related:
Buffet Formerly Known as Kashmir Goes Insane
Kashmir Becomes “The Buffet of Record”?

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Kyle, a graphic designer who is not picky but is kind of scared of street meat.

Name: Kyle

Age: 33

Occupation: Graphic Designer

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 39th & 6th

Favorite Kind of Food: I’m not picky AT ALL when it comes to food. I’ll try anything once. Favorite is hard to say, maybe Thai. I love a (medium/hot) red curry. Could eat it everyday. I also like anything that comes with sour cream. Sour cream has to be my all time favorite condiment, so I like Mexican food. Have you tried the tater tots at HB? If not you should! I like sushi, but don’t eat it a lot (not sure why), I’m kinda a bar girl, so a really good burger and maybe some chicken wings to start, (with a cold beer) is always good! (but not normally for lunch).

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Again, not picky, but I don’t care for Italian food, unless it’s pizza. And I will only eat pizza in the NYC metro area. I’m not big on pasta and most Italian restaurants have too much breading on everything and they smother it in sauce.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Madeline (on 39th btw. 5+6th), CRISP (on 40th btw. B’way+6th), Hale and Hearty, Szechuan Gourmet (on 39th btw. 5+6th), Olympic Pita (or whatever it’s called now), Cafe Zaiya (the one in the book store on 6th), Macaron Café (on 36th btw. B’way+7th). Their Tuesday special, is wonderful, and so is their farm salad and you have to pick up a macaron too. I like to try new things so I visit midtownlunch everyday to see what’s going on and what good. In the summer I love to go to one of the delis get a sandwich or salad and sit in Bryant Park. I keep a blanket under my desk at work for such days.

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Shilla, the Korean restaurant on 32nd btw. B’way+5th that has been known to offer $5 and $6 take out lunch specials, has been doing a little PR lately… inviting bloggers to come sample food for free so they’ll write about it. Their sit down lunch specials are $9.95-$14.95 and include kimchi jjigae, gop dol (a dolsot bi bim bap sounding kind of thing shown on the left), plus a galbi box for $11.95. As good as it looks– we here at ML don’t accept special free meals from the places we write about, but we’ll gladly give the free food to you! Shilla has agreed to let us give away the free tasting menu to one lucky Midtown Lunch’er and a guest. Just comment below and let us know why you should be the one, and you’re entered to win. Contest ends on Friday at 5pm. Good luck!

Photo courtesy of Ultraclay

There is no shortage of 99 cent pizza on the fringes of Midtown…  9th Avenue, 8th Avenue, Lexington and 3rd. But now it looks like the $1 slice is finally going to land smack dab in the center of Midtown.  2 Bros, the St Marks institution that started invading Midtown last year, will be opening its 3rd Midtown location on 46th btw. 5+6th.  They plan on being open sometime this week.

Related:
$1 Pizza Not For Bloggers, Cabbies, or Pizza Lovers… It’s For Homeless People

Wait a second… we have pretzels.  We have pizza.  And we have Philly cheesesteaks.  So why is it that we have not attempted the “Philly Prizzasteak”?  Jamie shows us how it’s done over on Midtown Lunch: Philadelphia, creating this South Street special using a slice from Lorenzo’s, a soft pretzel from Jim’s Pretzels, and a cheesesteak from Jim’s Steaks. Who will step forward and accept the challenge of making one of these in Midtown?!  Also making us jealous today… the po’boys and the potato wedge stuffed chicken sandwich that Andrea discovered Downtown, and the red chicken grease covered french fries and Chinese food w/ eggs and home fries (!?!)  that Zach ate in Los Angeles last week.