Midtown Lunch

Who doesn’t like a good blood sausage? Courtesy of Serious Eats NY

• Spanish food purveyor Despana has a menu ripe for nibbling and picking for lunch. [Serious Eats NY]
• The sandwiches at Grandaisy Bakery in Soho are a good substitute when the line at Alidoro is too long. [Lunch with Front Studio]
• Not all pork buns at Mei Li Wah Bakery in Chinatown are created equal. [Food In Mouth]
• Eating at Congee Village nets some hits and misses, but it’s large and has a full bar. [Feisty Foodie]

I had been wanting to check out the food at the Qba Cuban Kitchen Truck, but it seemed like whenever they were down in the Financial District I couldn’t make it over. The stars aligned one day, though, and I headed over to try one of the two remaining menu items that hadn’t already been sampled. They were parked on Wall St. (check the truck’s location on Twitter) and there was a small line when I got there. I was a little worried because it didn’t seem to be moving too swiftly, but I actually didn’t have to wait too long to place my order with the super-friendly woman at the window.  Read more »

In a review of Bon Chon Chicken on Serious Eats NY, it was noted that the location on Chambers St. has lost its affiliation with the company. Sure enough, a look at the company’s home page offers up an oddly-worded note titled “Official notice for 98 Chamber St. branch.” Apparently they have been receiving complaints that the chicken tastes different, and the company concluded they have gone rogue and are using different, unapproved sauces.   The note refers customers to the John St. location.  This is similar to what happened last year with a Midtown location before it became a Mad for Chicken. Has anyone gotten chicken from the Chambers location recently and noticed a difference?

I’ve been meaning to get down to Zigolini’s on Pearl (at Coenties Slip) for a while now, but mostly the heat has prevented me from wanting a hot, carb-filled lunch. Then one day a lunchtime craving for pasta hit, and after dismissing the Ravioli Fair cart and a couple of other nearby options, I decided to hoof it down there to see theirs was any good. Lunch’er boomshanka had long ago suggested the eggplant parm from there as a go-to lunch, but once I saw the line for sandwiches, I was even more dead set on getting pasta from the much shorter line next door. The to-go portion of the restaurant in split into two separate rooms, so make sure you’re in the correct line so you don’t wait forever and then realize you’re about to get a sandwich instead of a burger or pasta. What pasta creation did I end up with? Find out after the jump.

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