Midtown Lunch

I knew before heading out to the new Shake Shack on Murray St. (btw. West & N. End Ave.) in Battery Park City that I would be in for a wait. As I walked up I could see the mass of people waiting from a block away and steeled myself. Although I did have to wait in line for 30 minutes, and then wait a bit longer for food, I’d have to say they were ready for the crowds. And I rewarded myself for my wait by ordering one of the downtown-themed concretes. Read more »

I was kind of amazed to discover that the Wall St. Burger Shoppe has never been reviewed on this site. Sure, if you want a full lunch there you’re either going to approach the ML price wall or go over it. I for one would much rather do this than eat a crappy fast food burger (Five Guys excepted from this category, of course), and sometimes you just don’t want to eat in a bar for your burger fix. They also have some crazy burgers for $7 or more on their own. But if you get their “junior deal” or one of their daily specials you can get out of there for $10 or less and not feel ripped off.

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Here’s a confession: I’ve always wanted to eat at the Pearl St. Diner based solely on its sign. You just don’t find places with awesome neon signs like that anymore. Plus, whenever I walk by its location on Pearl (at Fletcher) it always looked packed with a diverse crowd of people and it just seemed like a good place for solo dining. On one of our many recent days of gross weather, I headed over because clearly eating outside was not going to happen and there aren’t a ton of places in the FiDi to have a sit-down lunch within ML price guidelines. Off I went with visions of greasy diner food dancing in my head. Read more »

The Go Burger Truck debuted a while ago and is parked semi-permanently on Front St. at the South Street Seaport, and to be honest I really had a hard time drumming up enthusiasm. You might say that I have reached fancy burger fatigue, and also, I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around a $5 (single, unadorned) hamburger from a truck. It doesn’t help that much like the La Cense Burger Truck (which incidentally, is parked a few blocks away at the end of Wall St.) it’s essentially a billboard for a product, which in this case is the BLT restaurants.  I had an even harder time drumming up excitement after a Five Guys opened just a short walk up Fulton St. Then there was the, shall we say, “scathing” review on Blondie & Brownie in which the food was so bad it ended up in the trash.

On a particularly indecisive day, I figured it was time to eat one of the Go burgers and find out if it was worth the cost and hype. Find out my verdict after the jump. Read more »

The first Five Guys in the Financial District opened last weekend, and I went to check it out on the first day they were inundated with office workers. Also, I must confess that I have never eaten at Five Guys before (I know, I know) so I was really excited to see what all the hype was about. And really, who even needs an excuse to eat a burger and fries for lunch? Read more »

I don’t know if there’s a vent outside my window from McDonald’s or from the generic deli on the ground floor of the office building I work in, but the smell of cooking hamburgers is constantly wafting in to my desk. I guess it’s better than rotting garbage, but it’s annoying getting hungry at about 11 a.m. every day.

Most of the time I can ignore the meaty smell, but one day I just really wanted a greasy burger and fries for lunch. I thought about checking out the newish Go Burger Truck at the South St. Seaport (anybody checked this thing out?) but reviews have not been promising. So instead I went to the forums and saw that lunch’er boomshanka had listed a cheeseburger from the Blarney Stone on Trinity Place (btw. Exchange Pl. & Morris ) as one of his go-to lunches. I was doubly intrigued because while another Blarney Stone on Fulton St. recently closed, this one was featured a couple of months ago as the recipient of a make-over by some new reality show called “Construction Intervention” on the Discovery Channel.

And that was how I ended up at a newly classy bar at noon on a Monday with a burger on my mind. Read more »

South Street Seaport is turning into a food truck food court!  First Wafels and Dinges puts a permanent cart on Fulton and Front.  Then Cupcake Stop announces that they’ve launched a second truck which will be permanently parked on Pier 17. And now this!  Starting tomorrow the Go Burger Truck will also be permanently parked at Pier 17, seven days a week, from 11am to 6pm.  The truck, which launched in April and is owned by the BLT Restaurant Group, had been operating mostly on the weekends.

And as an added bonus, because tomorrow (Friday) is National Burger Day they’ll be christening their new spot with a lunch special. From 12noon – 4pm: a classic burger, fries and milkshake will be $10. And for those Go Burger fans who don’t work Downtown, the truck will travel to other locations 4 times a month… follow them on Twitter to keep track.