Midtown Lunch

When I first began working in Midtown, one of the reasons I was intrigued by our beloved Midtown Lunch blog was the deliberate coverage of “hidden gems” that are often found in freight elevator hallways or on second floors of buildings. The unexpected restaurant locations reminded me of Chungking Mansions, one of the cheapest places to find an apartment in Hong Kong, and a building peppered with retail shops and Indian restaurants inhabiting the space meant for an apartment flat. This was one of my favorite places to eat when I did a brief stint partying studying in Hong Kong. MJP did a great post on Nick’s Place earlier this summer, which happens to be the only freight-elevator-hall restaurant I was lucky enough to stumble upon a few months ago. The rest of the places are so hidden, I can only find them by using Midtown Lunch as a reference. El Sabroso, an Ecuadorian restaurant tucked in the hall next to the freight elevators of a building in the fashion district, is as traditional and just about as lowbrow as you can get.

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Hidden gems are possibly my favorite part of Midtown Lunch’ing.  There are varying degrees of hidden of course.  The Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is always referred to as a hidden gem, but who doesn’t know about that place?  Then there are the ones on 47th St. that you could have the street addresses for and still not find them (Taam Tov, Diamond Dairy and the Ecuadorian El Rincon del Sabor).  And of course, there’s the latin food in a Blimpie.

But El Sabroso is on a different level.  At least those other places are actual restaurants.  El Sabroso is just a counter, with a few stools.  A counter, inside a hallway, leading to the freight elevator of a building.  Yup.  My first lunch in a freight elevator hallway.  And while the menu is mostly standard Latin fare (pernil, pork chops, stewed and baked chicken, rice & beans), on Fridays they serve a few Peruvian specials- courtesy of the Peruvian lady who makes all the food.

What they’ve got, freight elevator food porn and a +/- after the jump… Read more »