Midtown Lunch

I love Pad Thai and I’m always on the hunt for a tasty and filling version of the classic noodle dish. Hells Kitchen has no shortage of Thai restaurants, but only one of them got the two thumbs up from veteran Midtown Luncher, Talida of Talida Bakes. Talida’s parents are both from Thailand and I’ve seen her in action ordering dinner for a dozen food bloggers at Sriprapai, so when she told me that Olieng was her go to place for real Thai style Pad Thai, I had to give it a try.

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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.

One of the benefits of the Flatiron Lunch beat for me is going to be finally having a good excuse to explore Curry Hill. I confess, in five and a half years of working in Midtown South, I’ve rarely partaken in all the Indian delights to be found just a few blocks to the southeast. So, with few preconceptions and no recommendations, I took a walk down Lexington to see what I could find.

I took to the Midtown Lunch basics and sought out the smallest most unassuming hole in the wall I could find. That was Kathi Rolls, a tiny spot that apparently used to be called Kebab Factory- but changed names at the beginning of the year. It’s an offshoot of Bhatti across the street and is unrelated to the Kati Roll shops of the orange signage in Midtown and the Village or the Biryani Cart, which makes what are still my favorite kati rolls.

To call Khathi Rolls a restaurant seems to miss the point. It’s more of an indoor street cart with seating. As soon as you walk in the door, the veneer of quaint tea shop disappears almost immediately. The striped awning, cute sign and single table sitting in the window belie the heart of Kathi Roll, which is all street meat.

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If you’re a big fan of Panini Tozt (the weird little sandwich shop on 50th btw. Mad+Park) you may want to hit it up for lunch today. Back in September a commenter noted that their building was slated for demolition, and on Wednesday it was finally confirmed in the forums: Panini Tozt will be closing by the end of this week. That means today is the last day to get that french fry filled panini (provided they haven’t closed already.)

Related:
Don’t Mess With the Panini Tozt

• Trust us, your coworkers do not want you eating more sardines at your desk! [Miscellaneous]
• Does anyone know what happened to the XPL on B’way? [Midtown Eating]
• Are you a Tasti-D-Lite ice cream fan? [Midtown Eating]
• Shilling your cafe in the forums never ends well [Midtown Eating]
• If you didn’t check the forum yesterday then you missed out on a 31 cent Baskin Robbin’s ice cream cones [Midtown Eating]

On the way back from lunch yesterday, I came across this in the old AI Friedman space on Madison Avenue between 33rd and 34th. Just down the block from Tina’s Cuban is a sign for a new place called Nanoosh, a “Mediterranean Hummus Counter.” I’ve never heard of such a thing, so I did a little googling. Apparently it’s a chain with locations on the UWS and UES whose schtick appears to be topping pretty much everything (from salads to wraps to entrees) with hummus, tahini or both.  Anybody been to the other two locations?  Should we be excited for this?  Or is it just another in a long line of trendy, brightly colored, well marketed chains popping up in Midtown these days? According to their website they’ll be open in May.

Related:
Zaro’s Bakery to Become French Pasta Chain?
Yummy Yummy Falafel Bar Coming Soon

Midtown can always use more spicy tofu dishes. Just ask the the profiled Midtown Luncher from this week. Even though what we have today isn’t exactly a ‘stew’, it does have all the elements of a good spicy tofu stew – soft luscious tofu, fiery heat, and some meat/vegetable element to compliment the flavor of the dish. A tofu dish is exactly what one would expect from a restaurant named Mapo Tofu. This location used to be a Wu Liang Ye and was embroiled in some contraversy about who the owners are. We’re not exactly sure what the real truth is about the restaurant, but when in doubt- we choose to side with the food!

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