Archive for 'Indian'

Flatiron Lunch: The All You Can Eat Buffet at Cinnamon

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.

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After a couple weeks in the ‘Flatiron’ part of the Flatiron Lunch area, I headed back to further my exploration of Curry Hill. One of my biggest challenges when walking down Lex is figuring out which place to pick, so I’ll be a little transparent here so you guys can tell me the right way to pick. Cinnamon over the million other places on this strip: First, it’s new, it opened up just a month or two ago, so I wanted to get the scoop. Second, unlike a lot of the dark, divey old school places with Christmas lights and ornamental chili peppers hanging everywhere, Cinnamon looks sort of, well, normal. Yeah, it’s a weak reason, but it’s true. Finally, there’s the financial reason. The $8.95 buffet seemed like a pretty good deal to me, so I went for it.

I’m not the expert Zach is, but a fat man’s instincts are all one really needs to navigate the all-you-can-eat buffet and I’ve got that. See what’s hot on the steam tables after the jump.

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Indian Buffet it Up For < $10 at Apna Taj

Apna Taj, NYC

Sometimes, I get the most random craving for Indian food – chicken tikka masala, specifically – so when I passed Apna Taj (on 55th btw. Lex+3rd) and saw they offer a $9.50 lunch buffet, it immediately sparked my hunt for a Midtown Lunch-worthy Indian lunch. Last year, Zach lunched at next door neighbor Darbar Grill to get in on the make-your-own-dosa action, so Apna Taj already had plenty of competition on the “fancy Indian buffet” front. But check out what you can get for under $10 after the jump… Read more »

Grill 44 is Now Serving Up Dosas

Grill 44 (on 44th btw. Lex+3rd) joined the kati roll revolution back in 2008 by adding ‘Indian burritos’ to their usual stream tray assortment of samosas, curries, lamb vindaloo and tikka masala. Now 44G is packing even more into their tiny storefront by serving a South Indian menu. It’s always dubious when a restaurant adds too many different items to one menu, but 44G seem to be pulling it off. I’m not a dosa expert by any means, but my taste buds know flavorful delicious food… so I set forth to expand my horizons.

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Bombay Eats’ Tandoori Chicken Pizza By the Slice is Not Bad

So I finally got a chance to swing by Bombay Eats yesterday, the Indian restaurant on 52nd btw. 8+9th that serves New York style pizza with toppings like chicken tikka and saag paneer.  The first time I visited, they weren’t selling the Indian pizza by the slice so I had to ask them to take a piece of cheese pizza and top it with saag paneer from their buffet (which is $10.95 all you can eat at lunchtime, but doesn’t include pizza.)  Of course after Midtown Lunch’ers descended on the restaurant in full force, they decided to finally offer the Indian pizza by the slice.

I stopped by yesterday to check it out.

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Utsav Has Their Own Takeaway Biriyani

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It’s been forever since I’ve been to Utsav, the fancy all you can eat Indian buffet on 46th Street btw. 6+7th. So when I was told by a friend over at Epicurious that they were now serving Biriyani for take out, I was pretty excited!  I’ve never tried their buffet (it’s too expensive!) but their take out food, which is available daily just inside the front door, is good (especially for those of you who prefer spending a little extra on slightly fancier Indian food.)

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Chola Is Making Some Amazing Chaat

Chola Chaat

For those who love the Indian street snacks known as chaat, the heart of Midtown is quite the wonderland.  But that’s little consolation for those who work in the NE corner of Midtown, where a little chaat might require a 15-20 minute walk (at least!)  Well, problem solved!  Lunch’er Chandrika (who translated the Taj Delhi Chaat menu for us last year) has tipped us off to the amazing chaat at Chola on 57th 58th btw. 2+3rd.  It’s slightly out of bounds, but completely worth it for those chaat starved lunchers in that area of our fine territory.

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Indian Pizza Meetup Unlocks the Mysteries of Bombay Eats

Lunch’er Adam used the ML Forums to organize a meetup at Bombay Eats yesterday so lunchers could sample the various Indian pizzas being offered by Bombay Eats (on 52nd btw. 8+9th Ave.) See, despite my pleading they don’t offer their Indian food topped pies by the slice, only as an entire pizza. They’ll jury-rig a slice of saag pizza if you ask nicely, but if you want to try the real deal you have to order a whole fresh pie. Not a problem if you can get 8 lunchers together for lunch… which is exactly what happened yesterday. Lunch’er “Adam Prato” sent in this report:

Lamb Keema Pie
Lamb Keema Pie. Photo courtesy of Jessica@Food Mayhem

We actually had a great turnout. At the start, 5 of us midtownlunchers (jessica@foodmayhem, wellerfan, stevenp, scottyelich, and I) showed up for the Indian Pizza outing. After some deliberation, we decided to order 2 18″ pies; stevenp had heard that the 14″ was too doughy, which was exactly my concern since the difference between most “medium” and “large” pies is how thin they stretch the same amount of dough. We went with the Lamb Keema and the Saag paneer. Shortly after ordering, 3 of my coworkers (all of Indian descent) had unexpectedly stumbled in after a meeting since I told them all about the “indian pizza” phenomenon. Though they were there for the buffet, we coerced them into the indian pizza. With the magic number of 8 people, we were able to order a 3rd pie! So we went with the Chicken Tikka.

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Saag Paneer Pizza? Bombay Eats Has Got You Covered

bombay eats

I’ve walked by Bombay Eats, the just out of bounds Indian restaurant on 52nd btw. 8+9th, a million times… but had only noticed this sign for the first time last week.  Indian pizza!?!  And not some strange Indian creation with some similarities to real pizza. This is real New York City pizza, with Indian toppings.  Tandoori chicken, minced lamb, chicken tikka, saag paneer (!?!)

I mean, how could I not right?

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Don’t Be Scared off by Kabab & Grill’s Funky Goat

Kebab and Grill

I had wanted to try Kabab & Grill (on 36th btw. B’way+7th) long before I read about their funky goat stew on the blog Food and Mouth. Anytime there’s cheap Indian (or Pakistani) food being sold out of steam tables for under $10 I’m going to try it.  Throw in a Latin food steam table, which is where the goat came from, and now pizza, and it becomes a pretty typical “how could I pass this up?” Midtown Lunch.  I finally got a chance to sample the Indian/Pakistani food from Kebab & Grill last week, and while it may not win any “best of” awards, it’s a perfectly good (and cheap) Indian food option for that area.

What I tried is after the jump…

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Touch of India Earns Redemption With New Breed of “Kathi Rolls”

Touch of India

Remember when Kati Roll was the only place in midtown that served kati rolls.  When they moved from 46th street to 39th street, the Biryani Cart jumped in and served their own version of the Indian burrito.  (And we all know how that turned out.)  They were followed by Indus Express’ naan wraps (on 48th btw. 5+6th), the standard kati rolls from Grill 44 on the East side, and even Spice Fusion (which is known for their all you can eat buffet) jumped on the bandwagon.

Now Touch of India (on 37th btw. 7+8th) becomes the latest to join the fray. I didn’t love their all you can eat buffet when I tried it last August, but for $9 it’s good enough.  And there’s no reason a mediocre buffet would stop me from trying their “kathi rolls”.

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