Midtown Lunch

I turns out the Taste of Times Square was good for something other than taking my aggression out on tourists eating riblets from Applebees.

Spice Fusion, my favorite all you can eat Indian Buffet in Midtown (despite the fact that they raised their price to $10.99) was serving kati rolls at the Taste of Times Square yesterday- the latest addition to their menu. Available at lunchtime to go, or to stay, they only had chicken tikka rolls at the festival, but assured me that at the restaurant they also had vegetarian, lamb, and paneer. For $2, how could i not… Read more »

Ever since the food court in the Manahttan Mall closed, faux roast beef lovers throughout Manhattan have been mourning the loss of the city’s only Arby’s.  But according to this email, there may be some sort of light at the end of the dark, beef and cheeseless tunnel:

I was outside eating lunch sitting by the fountain in front of the Chase building (on 6th Ave. btw. 49+50th) and saw a girl walk by with a clear plastic Arby’s cup with some sort of colorful, fruity, frozen concoction. It looked like she just got it as it was filled to the top. She was practically running by otherwise I would’ve asked her what she was drinking and from where. What’s up with that?! Did an Arby’s pop up around here undetected?

Interesting… there are many of explanations (which don’t involve a new Midtown Arby’s) for how this mysterious cup could have shown up on 6th Ave. & 50th St.  Check them out, after the jump… Read more »

I admit it’s not for everybody, but I love eating food off the street, here and abroad.  Meat on a stick in Bali, everything in Thailand, raw clams in Chile… I could go on and on.  There’s something about eating on the sidewalk that is fun and exciting to me, and here in Midtown we have some amazing food carts.  But there is also that step below food cart that pops up every once awhile- like the lady selling tamales in front of the Mexican Embassy, or the Japanese delivery guys selling bento boxes on 50th St. btw. 6+7th.  These are my favorite discoveries, and last week I finally tried a new one on 46th btw. 5+6th. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by this lady standing on 46th St. with a grocery pushcart filled with styrofoam packages.  Usually out there around 1pm, she sells containers of Ecuadorian food to workers in the area for $6-7.  I don’t know where she comes from, or where she goes when she’s done, but I can tell you this:  if there is a random lady, selling homemade food in styrofoam containers on a random street in Midtown, I want to know about it.  I want to eat her food.  No matter what is…  Read more »

Sent to the old Inbox this morning…

Where can I get a great milkshake in midtown? I’ve tried every Mr Softee and imitation truck around and find they’re all not thick enough and doused with vanilla syrup. Goodburger makes a decent shake, but I’m looking for something great, it is nearly summer after all. -Matt

Well Matt, you may be disappointed to hear this, but I’ve never had a milkshake in Midtown.  I think my reasoning is this… if I drank milkshakes at lunchtime, I would weigh 10,000 pounds.  It’s just science.  “No Milkshake Rule” = Zach is still alive.  So for this one, I’ll have to turn it over to readers.  Got a rec for Matt?  Post it in the comments below…

And as always, if you have a question, recommendation or news, email it to me at zach@midtownlunch.com

If you are a longtime reader of the site, you know my boundaries are well defined.  Central Park to the North, 8th Ave. to the West, 3rd Ave. to the East and… er… 32nd St. to the South.  Sure, *technically* it should be 34th, but then I wouldn’t get to eat in Koreatown “for work.”  Today, I found myself walking down 32nd St. btw. 5th & Broadway- past old Midtown Lunch standbys Woorijip and Mandoo Bar, the now closed Arang buffet, and places I have yet to write about, like E-mo.  I settled on the Han Ah Reum Asian Market, where they had noodles and brown sauce as one of their pre-made lunch box options.

$5.50 and you get a free soup… it was just ok, but doesn’t turn me off to trying more of Han Ah Reum’s lunchtime selection.  Next time I want noodles and brown sauce, I’ll get them from Shanghai Mong across the street.  More expensive, but I’m sure they’re better.

Also noticed a few other things… Read more »

I was so excited by the description of Shih Lee offered up by Profiled: Midtown Luncher “Kayoko” I asked her to join the slowly growing list of Midtown Lunch contributors, to write about the good places to eat in the out of bounds reaches of Midtown East (she works on 1st Ave. over by the U.N. building.  Kayoko has her own most excellent blog http://umamimart.blogspot.com/ but has agreed to pop over here every once in awhile to make everyone in Midtown proper (and now Donwtown) a little jealous every once in awhile.

To call where I work, off of 1st Ave near the UN building, “Out of Bounds” Midtown is an understatement. A TEN minute walk from Grand Central, just trying to navigate through the hoards of frantic workers and tourists in the station easily takes a few minutes every morning. Oh, the price we pay to work in the glorious east side of Manhattan’s Midtown.  And of course, as with all Midtown workerbees, there’s the great Midtown Lunch dilemma! My goal here is to try to make all you Midtown West and Downtown people wish you worked on the outskirts of the east side. WOOT! Let’s see if I could possibly top the bulgogi cart, or the banh mi jewelry shop (JEALOUS!) with Shih Lee, my personal favorite, at least one a week, East side lunch.  Read more »

More changes are in the works at the (former) newsstand on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th.  Just to give you a quick recap…  Full blown walk-in Midtown newsstand decides to start selling Gujarati Indian food out of a steam table in the back of the store.  Food gets so popular, they decide to get rid of the magazines.  The Blimpie next door, which also served spanish food, closes; spanish food joins vegetarian Indian food inside the newsstand with no newspapers (along with a generic deli sandwich counter that had been there all along).

Which brings us to the  newest round of changes.  The sandwich counter is now gone, leaving a big gap between the vegetarian Gujarati food on the left, and the decidedly not vegetarian latin food on the right. Add to that the new “Taj Delhi Chat”, which opened just to the right of the store’s front door, and you’ve got full fledged craziness!  Run by the sister of the guy who runs the Gujarati table in the back (which I consider to be some of the best Indian food in Midtown), the menu features over 30 different kinds of chaat (or small plates of Indian snacks), including various types of puri (fried, fluffy Indian bread) and pakodas (pakoras?).  $4.99 from Noon to 4pm, $6.99 after 4pm.

Check out the menu, plus a few other bits of news, after the jump… Read more »

I don’t know why I found this so funny.  Admittedly I know nothing about selling books, but if you are going to advertise “The Hot Latin Diet”, don’t you think there are better places than street carts?  And even if you must go with a sidewalk vendor as your canvas of choice, wouldn’t one of those fresh juice carts be a better choice?  And what was the vendor thinking?  Do you really want to remind people how fat they are, just before they step up to your cart for their 75 cent coffee with doughnut chaser?

Seeing as how I consider myself the prototypic street cart customer, I can’t see how this book will appeal to anybody willing to buy pastries out of a mobile tin can, parked on a Midtown sidewalk.  Unless “Hot Latin Diet” is one of those crazy weight loss programs (Atkins I’m looking at you) that involves eating more carnitas?  Does it involve stuffing your face with roast pork?  Because I’d buy that book.