Midtown Lunch

Like most of you, I was heartbroken when Menchanko-Tei called it quits last year, but happy that next-door neighbor, Katsuhama 55, was willing to pick up some of Menchanko’s dishes, with the exception of Rachel’s favorite Midtown oyako-don. When I feel like splurging the extra $0.75 more than the regular midtown lunch, or when I’m just flat out cold because winter is intruding on spring, you’ll find me choosing between the “black” or “red” ramen at Katsuhama 55.

On my most recent ramen splurge this week, I noticed that something new is being constructed at the old Menchanko-Tei location at 43 West 55th Street. Building permits and some Internet sleuthing have led me to believe that the forces behind Natureworks Restaurant at (113 East 31st between Park & Lex) could be behind whatever’s going on at the old Menchanko-Tei location. Until the new restaurant is unveiled, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed for something a bit more interesting than a salad bar…

We on this blog are no strangers to hearing the news that one of our favorite noodle joints, Menchanko-Tei, has temporarily closed. Again. Most recently, the 55th street location closed for “renovations”, but here’s an interesting development: the 55th street Menchanko-Tei is now permanently closed, and its menu has been absorbed by its neighboring sister restaurant Katsuhama.
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Luncher Harry noticed that the 55th Street location of one of our favorite noodle soup spots, Menchanko Tei, is closed. This is not the first time they’ve been closed temporarily, so I called the 45th Street location to get the final word. The lady who answered the phone informed me that they are simply closed for renovations and plan to re-open in about 3 to 4 weeks. If any business is used to closing and re-opening, it’s Menchanko Tei so I guess we’ll see what happens.

Thanks to Lunch’er Matthew for sending over this one. It looks like the Menchanko Tei on 45th Street (btw. Lex+3rd) has been closed by the Department of Health. Hopefully they’ll be able to fix things and re-open soon, but looking at their record on the DOH website isn’t exactly reassuring. Back in August they scored a 65, before addressing the issues and getting a re-score of 16. That didn’t last long though. In December they were back up to 52, before scoring a 5 on the re-grade two days later. Flash forward to Monday, and their pre-Valentine’s Day score was a whopping 83! It doesn’t say how they got the score, but hopefully it isn’t anything too gross…

Yesterday’s nice weather afforded me an opportunity to take a lunchtime stroll and I spotted a sign that I wished I had seen, um, four weeks ago. Apparently Menchanko-Tei (my favorite ramen place in midtown) is offering a May lunch time promotion. It’s only at the 55th street location (sorry East siders) and it’s only for dine-in customers from 11:30 until 5pm. The Hakata, Shoyu and Assari Ramen are all $5.75 (normally $8.50). I hope I’ll have a chance to squeeze one of these lunches in before the end of the month.

Menchanko Tei, 43-45 W. 55th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-247-1585

Let’s face it – It’s only February, and we still have at least a month of cold weather left before we can put away the sweater, scarves and jackets. Bundling up is one way of beating the cold weather, but the contributors here at Midtown lunch like to reach for a hot bowl of soup to warm up. We’ve asked each of the contributors to share a favorite bowl of soup in Midtown, so read on to find out where we like to get our soup on.

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Got some sad news from Midtown north on Friday… the Menchanko Tei on 55th btw. 5+6th has been closed by the DOH.  We don’t know for sure why they were closed, or when they will reopen- but they did have an inspection about a month ago and the results aren’t pretty. If you don’t want to read the specifics, and we don’t really blame you if you don’t, we’ll just tell you that they got a 61 (28 and below is passing.)   Then again, roaches didn’t stop us from going to the 45th street location, so this probably won’t keep us away from the 55th Street location.

And here we are, the fourth Friday in Lent. You can do it Catholics, two more to go! We’ve covered some of the fried fish options, but what if you gave up fried things (Brownie!) or have been sick enough that someone (Zach!) told you that if you’ve called in sick to work on Wednesday, you shouldn’t go have burgers off a truck as a sick-day lunch. Well, then it would be Asian vegetable soup time.

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Some people take their medical advice from oh, I don’t know, a doctor, but when I have a cold I know the only things that are going to help me kick it are rest and plenty of fluids. And by plenty of fluids I mean a giant bowl of spicy soup. And when I need a giant bowl of spicy soup recommendation in Midtown, I head straight for the ML forums.

Lunch’er “Shivery McPickles” found herself in a similar predicament last fall. When I saw that she had commended the cold curing properties of the Hakata Ramen from Menchanko-Tei, I knew I finally had to give the reigning ML Reader’s Choice for Best Japanese Soup a try.

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Fresh on the heels of our cold noodles post yesterday, the website 89th and Broke sends word of this supposed free deal: “To celebrate its 20th year anniversary, Menchanko-Tei, a Japanese ramen/noodle house in midtown west is offering to pick up the tab… if you win a one-shot game of Jan-Ken-Pon (Rock-Paper-Scissors) with the restaurant’s manager.” A call to the restaurant confirms that the promotion is being held at both locations, but there’s one downside… they’re not doing it at lunchtime!  It’s only for dinner, and it’s not every table.  They choose 5 tables randomly throughout the night (starting at 5pm.) According to 89th and Broke, it’s just until Friday.  Good luck!

Related:
Original Menchako-Tei Post (10/23/06)