Midtown Lunch

Even though it’s not easy to find a lunch under $10 at Grand Central Oyster Bar, I have to admit it’s one of my favorite places to eat lunch in Midtown. It’s a classic New York City establishment that opened 100 years ago along with Grand Central Terminal, and with the vaulted ceilings, the charm, and the ample and varied seating, (not to mention the delicious if expensive food), it’s one of my favorite places for lunch with coworkers. And this week, I found out that to celebrate 100 years, they’re offering a Happy Oyster Hour!

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The Oyster Bar Take Out window in Grand Central is a Midtown Lunch gem. Perfectly fried oyster po’ boys, lobster gazpacho, Maryland She-Crab soup … these are just a few of the dishes you can get within Midtown Lunch range, from a New York institution that’s decidedly out of the typical ML budget. That said, they do have a few items that sneak above the $10 lunch mark. One of those being their Tuna Burger. Some time ago I sampled nearly the entire menu with my fellow ML contribs, but the Tuna Burger wasn’t included because of the price ($10.95). As a big fan of their Grilled Tuna Sandwich, I’ll admit the burger piqued my curiosity so the other day when my errands brought me to the Grand Central area, I decided to give that burger a try, to see if it was worth it for the extra buck …
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Back in March, the ML team ate our way through the entire Grand Central’s Oyster Bar Menu. Well, almost the entire menu…the Oyster Bar offers three soups per day and two of those slots are typically taken by their classic New England and Manhattan Clam Chowders. The third slot is the wild card. We tried their excellent Tuscan White Bean Soup and I’ve had their Lobster Gazpacho, but I’ve never had their famous Maryland She-Crab Soup… until now.
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Last month I had the chance to check out most of the offerings from Grand Central’s Oyster Bar take out window with some of the ML crew. Their soup offerings were the surprise hit of the lunch and this week I discovered that the Maine Lobster Gazpacho is back in rotation.

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Grand Central’s Oyster Bar take out window has been a longtime staple of the Midtown Lunch Lenten coverage- after all, nothing says Fat Tuesday like a nice Fried Oyster Po’ Boy. And yet it still remains one of the more underrated, under-reported gems of the New York lunching scene.  We couldn’t believe there has never been an official full +/-, so last Friday six of us converged on Grand Central to try each and every ML priced item on the menu.

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It’s become a Midtown Lunch tradition to spend Fat Tuesday eating a fried shrimp po’boy at the Grand Central Oyster Bar Take-Out window, one of the closest examples of NOLA food achieved in this South-hating city. And this tradition isn’t going to die on our watch, but for this Fat Tuesday I wanted to explore the other Bayou-inspired item from said window, the Cajun Fried Rock Shrimp Sandwich with Creole Sauce. It’s like a po’boy in muffuletta clothing.

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Don’t know about you guys, but after last night’s game how could you not be in the mood for a po’boy today!  You could go to that place with the weird muffuletta on restaurant row, or that place on 9th Ave. that serves rice and beans (rather than beans and rice), but for us the best place in Midtown for some hot po’boy action is the Grand Central Oyster Bar lunch time take out window. It’s not as good as, say, Crabby Jack’s… but it’s as good as you’re going to get in Midtown. And considering this site’s long history with New Orleans (Zach got married there, took Ralph Brennan to Kwik Meal, and live blogged the food at Jazzfest a few years back) don’t be surprised if you see some Profiled Midtown Lunchers waiting on line with you.  (Not in the mood for a Po’boy?  Popeye’s, on 40th btw. 7+8th, would be an acceptable replacement!)

Related:
Celebrate Fat Tuesday With a Fried Oyster Po’Boy

If you’ve been reading Midtown Lunch since the beginning, you know that I never pass up a chance to talk about how amazing New Orleans is (for example, my senseless, nothing to do with Midtown, live blogging of Jazzfest). And since today is the final day of Mardi Gras, it’s time for my obligatory “this is where you should eat lunch on Fat Tuesday” post. I suppose you could go to Bourbon Street Bar & Grill for the faux N.O. atmosphere and not authentic at all muffuletta, but if food is what you care about there is really only one choice: the under-appreciated, not mentioned nearly enough, take out window of the Grand Central Oyster Bar (just off the under ground food court in the basement of the Grand Central Terminal).

Sure, the restaurant is super expensive, but the take-out window has got a bunch of sandwiches under $10… including a fried oyster po’boy ($8.25) that doesn’t quite transport you to New Orleans, but gets you pretty damn close. (And is certainly the best option in Midtown.)  I had it last year on Fat Tuesday (along with a good buddy of mind originally from Nawlins), and the only other place I’d recommend on a day like today would be the Popeye’s (on 40th btw. 7+8th), which incidentally enough is celebrating its 2 year anniversary today! (Provided you count years from one Fat Tuesday to the next.)  Either way it’s going to be a fat tuesday…