Midtown Lunch

The other day I happened to come across 44th Street Minar (between Lexington and 3rd ave) in the old 44 Curry House/Grill 44 space. For a brief while, I was convinced it was an entirely different establishment from the Minar on 46th Street and 6th Avenue (first reviewed by Zach in 2006), but after doing some Internet research, they actually look to be related (I guess the identical sign should have been a dead giveaway.) I’m always in the mood for quick and affordable Indian food, so I was happy to try out this other location of a Midtown Lunch staple.

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A couple of days ago I went and tried the slightly out of bounds location of Minar (on 31st btw. 5+6th). It’s never been featured on ML before, but the food is pretty much identical to the more famous Midtown location on 46th btw. 6+7th.  The original Minar was actually one of Zach’s earliest Midtown Lunches and amazingly enough, the post still resonates today, FOUR years later. Back in ’06 Zach wrote, “I went with the Chicken Tikka Masala (for sake of comparison with other places), the Lamb curry, and the Saag Paneer… but the curry was too watery.” I had the exact same order and the same qualities could be found in Minar today. I guess you’ve gotta hand it to them for consistency!

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My brother just got back from a vacation to jolly old England. Out of all his trip photos, I’ll admit that I was most captivated by a photo of a chicken tikka sandwich from Subway in London. Say what? Why don’t our Subways serve chicken tikka sandwiches?!! And more importantly, where can I get a chicken tikka sandwich in midtown?

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In the mood for Indian food today? Blondie and Brownie are big fans of two of the Friday specials at Minar (on 46th btw. 5+6th)… a cilantro chicken (which was highly recommended on Menupages) and their dum aloo (a potato curry.)

The complaints against eating in Midtown are many… but the one thing you can’t complain about is a lack of good Indian food.  There are tons of Indian places for every appetite and price range.  Expensive sit down restaurants, expensive buffets, cheap buffets, cheap take out, and even an Indian food cart.  When you look at the cheap options, it seems as if there is one for every neighborhood.  If you work on Park in the 50s, there’s the super cheap Indian food cart on 53rd.  If you work on the East side of Midtown in the 40s, there’s Hurry & Tasty Curry.  If you work on the west side there’s Minar.

Everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love Kati Roll (the “Indian Burrito” place)… but sometimes you just want the real thing.  And when that urge hits, Minar is right next store to feed my Indian food fix.  The one thing I’ve realized about these Indian food places is, you get what you pay for.  You pay $4 for Indian food out of a cart, it’s going to taste like $4 Indian food (it’s good, but not the best).  Minar costs a little more then that, and it’s a little better.  Not as good as a nice Indian restaurant where you are going to pay $10+ an entree, but if you are looking for some quick and tasty Indian food for lunch- and you work in this area of Midtown, you can’t do better then Minar.

What I got, pictures of the food, and the +/- after the jump…

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