Midtown Lunch

Thanks to Lunch’er “Leslie” for passing along this news…  Grill 44, the Middle Eastern/Indian hybrid on 44th known for their dosas and kati rolls, has become 44 Curry House.  According to Leslie, the Middle Eastern food is gone… “Seemed like a relatively limited menu, but it was packed in there, and I heard a lot of people talking about ordering the biryanis.  I think they had 3 of them – chicken, lamb, and vegetarian.  They had the typical specials – 2 veg. curries, 1 meat and 1 veg., etc. and I’m pretty sure they were all under 10 dollars.” Sounds good to us!

We were hearing some rumors floating around on Friday that the new Souvlaki Truck was going to try and park in the 30s today for lunch… but they’ve decided to hold off for one more week.  From the owner: “After a huge first week… we realize that we need MORE food, MORE hands, and MORE hours in the day to prepare for the onslaught of Midtown Lunch. We are going to take this last week of summer while the city is still somewhat sleepy and get 200% ready for it.”    Can’t wait until after Labor Day for some Souvlaki Truck action?  They’re going to be testing out Union Square nightly this week, and Soho over the weekend before starting up “official lunches” next Tuesday.  You can follow them on Twitter for more details.

Related:
Souvlaki Truck Bringing Greek Street Food to the Streets

Eater reported this morning that Mono + Mono, a new music-centered Korean Fried Chicken spot is opening in the East Village this fall with another branch to open in Koreatown. Now, before you get too excited for even *more* Korean fried chicken on 5th Ave., it turns out that Mono + Mono’s K-Town branch is none other than Mad For Chicken (on 32nd and 5th, 2nd Floor). I stopped in during lunch and found out that the new location will be tied to a re-branding of MFC, which was (clearly) lacking a decent name since leaving the Bon Chon franchise last year. There’s no eta on the renaming, but according to the staff, there isn’t much that’s expected to change immediately. (Photo courtesy of Eater)

Related:
Korean-Fried-Chicken-Palooza: Kyochon vs. Bon Chon vs. Mad For Chicken

Last week, perennial ML favorites, Tri Tip grill (in the Rock Center concourse), introduced a new burrito menu item. A chicken burrito will cost you $7.99, but for an additional dollar one can substitute tri-tip steak. Personally I’m a big fan of the tri-tip steak sandwiches, and the transition to Tex Mex is a welcome menu addendum. However, given the format of the burrito, it’s impossible not to draw parallels to that other chain burrito joint… the restaurant that shall not be named… the ‘C-word’. So how does the Tri-Tip burrito stack up?

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Thanks to everyone who tipped us off to this one (including this post in the forums.)  Chiyoda Sushi, the upscale portion of the Japanese holy trinity on 41st btw. Mad+5th (along with Cafe Zaiya & Yagura), has closed.  As of Friday there were some serious renovations going on, and a letter posted on the door said that the restaurant will reopen as Mai Cuisine on September 2nd, “providing all-natural sushi and Japanese cuisine, with the highest quality ingredients.” Uh… sounds a lot like Chiyoda if you ask us!

Find out what’s not on the sign after the jump.

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