Midtown Lunch

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

I’m going to have to say that Pizza Italia has the best Grandma slice I’ve had downtown. I specifically went to check this joint out at the recommendation of two blue shirts I met at the Taste of Downtown festival. We were chatting about the food when I asked where their favorite places to eat down here were. One guy said his favorite slice of pizza was definitely “the triangle Grandma slice at Pizza Italia.”

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Thanks to Feisty Foodie for pointing this out in the comments:  Mention Daily Candy and it’s buy one get one free burger at La Cense Burger Truck. They’re parked on Wall Street today (btw. Water+Front), so Midtown’s loss is Downtown’s gain. (Feel free to mention ML too, to avoid the embarassment of admitting you read Daily Candy.)

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) You all know how much I love sandwiches stuffed with fried plantains. But check out this sandwich where the fried plantains are THE BREAD!

When I heard you could get a sandwich made using fried plantains as bread at Sazon, a downtown newcomer serving Puerto Rican food on Reade street, I had to check it out. I was hoping for the outdoor seating I had seen available my first time passing it but this week was told that’s only for dinner time hours now. *kicks ground*

The inside is a bit cheesy/clubby and not really what I’m looking for when having lunch, plus I realized that with sandwiches starting at $9, I’d break the $10 Midtown Lunch barrier (once you added tax+tip), but I just had to try this sandwich. In other words, my stomach won the battle over my wallet. I decided to sit at the bar with my dining companion and we ordered the Cubano ($9) and the Jibarito (the sandwich with the fried plaintains as bread). You can get it with grilled chicken inside for $10, but I decided to splurge ($11) for the bistec (steak) with onions, cheese, and avocado (although for some reason that last ingredient wasn’t written on the menu).

Check it out, after the jump.

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I know it’s not friday, but here’s two fun burger items for all you Downtown Lunchers: The La Cense Burger truck is on Wall Street today (btw. Water+Front) until 3pm.  And if that wasn’t enough, Grub Street is reporting that a Checkers may be opening on Chambers St. tomorrow. Enjoy!

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) This week he hits up L&L Barbecue, which Kathy YL Chan (our resident expert on all things Hawaii) calls the Hawaiian McDonald’s.

I hope I didn’t make a mistake by not ordering anything with the word “Hawaiian” in the title on my visit to L&L Barbecue. Then again, I didn’t see anyone eating any of those menu items so I felt pretty confident going with the strategy of ordering what everyone else was eating.

I overheard a customer saying how good the curry chicken katsu is, so I was tempted to go with that- but in the end became mesmerized by the BBQ roasted meats at a different table (probably for bit too long, since the guy put his arm over his plate and gave me a look.)

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent. Every Friday he writes up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

When Mix Grill on Church Street closed I didn’t really shed a tear. The food was ehh and I hadn’t been there since I checked it out for a downtown lunch writeup. So when I saw Baba Ghanouge moving in about a month ago, I was excited to see what they were going to be offering in the same storefront.

Huge spinning towers of meat, one lamb one chicken, stand close to the window, drawing in carnivores with their glistening red-coil-cooked meat.

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