Midtown Lunch

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Asian Station was first called out on Midtown Lunch for having too many cuisines on one menu: Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and the inevitable Chinese food. However, it turned out that it was better than we expected. I stopped by recently to see what was new and I am sad to report that the 3 sushi roll lunch for $10 has increased by a buck and you now only get a choice of soup or salad, not both. On the other hand, I was drawn in by their inexpensive Happy Hour.

From 4 to 8pm you can satisfy your thirst with 50% off beer, sake, sake-cocktails, and wine. The décor is what you’d expect: hip and modern. There’s neon blue back lighting to the bar, sushi chefs milling around looking like they can sashimi any fish in the sea, and cute young hostesses that are eager to seat you and offer you a sake-tini. However there was one problem…

Read more »

As much as I love Asian food of all kinds, there is one thing I can’t stand.  The Asian Combo Restaurant.  You know what I’m talking about.  The Chinese food restaurant that serves sushi, or the Vietnamese food place that serves pad thai.  I’m not talking about fusion cuisine, which is an entity all itself.  I’m talking about the restaurant that decides they are going to serve something for everybody- and inevitably ends up doing it none of it well.

So when Asian Station opened on 52nd btw. Lex+3rd, I was naturally skeptical.  In fact, I had written the place off knowing that it was probably too expensive for Midtown Lunch purposes. But once Lunch’er Joe forwarded along the all under $10 menu, I knew I’d have to check it out.  My cheap Asian food loving stomach won out over my combo restaurant hating brain.  And boy am I glad it did.

Read more »

I’ll admit I completely dismissed Asian Station, the new semi-chic looking Asian restaurant that opened over a month ago next to Bombay Bistro on 52nd btw. 3rd+Lex. Aside from it being a little too cool for school, they didn’t have a menu in the window- and from the looks of it, there was no way it was going to be cheap enough for Midtown Lunch’ing purposes. I do love Asian food though, so I was excited to hear yesterday that their lunch specials are actually well under $10! That’s the good news. The bad news is, they serve Japanese, Chinese, AND Thai food.

Lunch’er Joe was kind enough to transcribe the menu for us. It’s after the jump…

Read more »