Midtown Lunch

Have you ever been devouring a plate of lamb or chicken over rice from your favorite street meat cart and thought to yourself, “Wow, this food is really bad for me?” If the answer is yes, then I’m going to point you in the direction of Mimi’s Cafe on Church St. (at Reade) in Tribeca. It’s eye-catching with a wall of photos of the sandwiches and other vaguely healthy things found inside plastered all over the outside. It’s just a few doors down from another place also serving slightly healthier versions of street meat – Baba Ghanouge, aka, the place that stuffs french fries in its sandwiches. What drew me into this den of healthy food was the promise of an alternative form of gyro.

Mimi’s has an interesting menu of sandwiches and wraps that includes a few versions of banh mi both porky and vegetarian, a couple of items like Turkish durum and turkey kofta, a turkey meatball parm and panini. I would have gone with the Turkish durum, but I refuse to eat wraps.

Instead I ordered the turkey gyro sandwich ($6.95) that comes with either roasted potatoes or salad. The woman (Mimi?) working the counter is super nice and will ask you in hopeful voice if you like your food spicy. One man said no and she seemed disappointed.

I couldn’t fully appreciate the value of this lunch until I got to a bench and was able to look at what was in the bag. What I found: A humongous sandwich, a dill pickle spear, a small takeout carton full of roasted potatoes, and a banana. If you’re into sharing this would totally be enough food for two semi-light eaters.

The sandwich was like they stuffed everything from a street meat container into a baguette. Inside there was a healthy amount of shaved turkey gyro, tomato, red onion, iceberg lettuce, yogurt sauce, hot sauce and a couple of pieces of cucumber. The baguette itself was good and reminiscent of what you get in a banh mi shop. The turkey gyro is a bit different in that it’s not crispy like what you’d get hot off the grill of a street meat cart.

The potatoes were also really good. They were roasted with rosemary and some sort of orange-colored seasoning and weren’t dry at all. After eating these and about three-quarters of the sandwich I was stuffed.

At the risk of losing my street meat street-cred, I really liked this “lighter” version of lamb gyro and this was a seriously good lunch deal.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• I don’t feel all gross after lunch like when I eat real street meat.
• They have healthified all of my favorite foods!
• You get so much food for not so much money.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• It’s not air conditioned and I don’t like sweating.
• There are too many wraps, salads and juices on the menu for me to go inside.

Mimi’s Cafe, 165 Church St. (at Reade), (212) 964-0304