Archive for February 2012

WFC Food Truck Lot Adds Fifth Truck!: It looks like you'll now have five trucks to choose from at the WFC lot and today there's Mike N Willie's, Mexico Blvd., Coolhaus, Gorilla Cheese and Valducci's. Elsewhere, the ML Downtown Twitter Tracker shows Korilla BBQ's at Front & Gouverneur, Frites N Meats is at Hudson & King along with Big D's Grub, Calexico's out at Broome & Crosby, Our Heros has chicken parm at Wall & Water, Wafels & Dinges is at 60 Wall, Milk Truck's at Church & Lispenard and Rickshaw's on Wall.

Banh Mi Saigon Gives Fast Food A Good Name

The stars aligned one day when I had to head up to Little Italy/Chinatown, and just so happened to be right across the street from Banh Mi Saigon Bakery on Grand St. (btw. Mott & Mulberry). It turns out this site has never done a proper review of the place, although it did fare well in a Banh Mi Battle Royale that Daniel conducted. I am never one to turn down a cheap sandwich, especially if it’s from a combination jewelry store/banh mi seller. This works way better than combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell. Read more »

Two Gutbomb Sandwich Options At Wall St.: Don't worry, the ML Downtown Twitter Tracker  is still alive! Today it's telling us that Taim's at Varick & King, Mike N Willie's is at Front & Wall, Gorilla Cheese has a chicken caesar melt at Hudson & King, Big D's is at Old Slip & Front, Phil's Steaks and Our Heros are at Wall & Water, Korilla's at Varick & Vandam, Bongo Brothers is at Water & John and Milk Truck's at Wall & William. If you're near the WFC food truck lot, Frites N Meats, Rickshaw Dumplings, Eddie's Pizza and Cupcake Crew are there.

PROFILE: Downtown Lunch’er “Roman”

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Roman who works in the World Financial Center and is rightfully excited about the recent food truck love over that way.

Name:  Roman Urbanowicz

Occupation: IT project manager

Where you work: 1 World Financial Center (West & Liberty streets)

Age: 39

Favorite kinds of food: BBQ, fleur de sel caramels, sugary kid’s cereals.

Least favorite foods: Brussels sprouts, tripe, head cheese.

Favorite lunches downtown: Tajin on Greenwich (at Rector) for enchiladas mole; Taim Mobile for a falafel sandwich (loaded) & ginger mint lemonade; Fatty Snack kiosk outside the WFC for heritage pork ribs, black eye pea salad & lemongrass ginger iced tea.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Shake Shack  on Murray St. (btw. West & N. End Ave.). Damn you double Shack burger & black and white shake.

Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Downtown: The beloved arrival of the World Financial Center food truck court!

Read more »

Alfanoose’s Kafta Sandwich: Worth The Nearly $10 Price Tag?

If you’ve worked in the Financial District, chances are you’ve heard of Alfanoose on Maiden Lane (btw. Broadway & Nassau). It’s something of an institution in that it’s been there since 1999 and at some point earned recognition for having some of the best falafel in the city. I am not really into their falafel which is in a long cylinder rather than the usual orb, offing the ratio of fluffy inside to crust, and is a couple of dollars more than you’re going to pay at any street cart.

That was the only sandwich I’d eaten there, but then a couple of weeks ago Lunch’er Deep once again recommended the kafta kebab sandwich tweaked to include fried onions. Ground lamb and beef cooked over charcoal sounded pretty great, but would it redeem Alfanoose?

Read more »

Downtown Links (The “Lowbrow Chicken, Highbrow Burgers” Edition)

Prosciutto and cheese in a handy fried ball, courtesy of Eating in Translation.

Last Downtown Golden Krust Location Shutters

Sad news on the Caribbean chain restaurant front: The last location of Golden Krust below 14th St. has closed. When I walked past the former purveyor of meat patties and cheap lunches on Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton), the sign above was hanging in the window informing us that the nearest remaining locations are either in midtown or near Union Square. You may remember the Tribeca location on Church St. quietly closed a year ago. Thankfully we still have non-chain sources of Caribbean food at Veronica’s Kitchen, R. Retha’s and the Trinidad & Tobago carts.