Midtown Lunch

It’s a new year, it’s freezing outside and you may have made a resolution to eat healthier lunches. Taim has your back with its daily soup, which you can find at the shop in Nolita on Spring St. (at Mulberry). The truck sometimes offers soup as well, although they don’t park downtown a lot these days.

The good news is that this lunch is so much more than the usual cup of soup with a stale roll or piece of bread alongside.  Read more »

When looking at the menu of Lovely Day on Elizabeth St. (btw. Spring & Prince), you may wonder if you’re seeing things. A full Irish breakfast is listed, along with Thai noodle dishes and Japanese ginger fried chicken. Oh, and there’s also a burger. When you combine that with the old-timey interior that reminded me of a French cafe, it’s doubly confusing. What is this place?  Read more »

There are a lot of people waiting patiently for the second brick and mortar location of Taim to open in Nolita at Mulberry & Spring. The opening was planned for early summer, but it’s now late September and that’s a lot of time to wait for some of the best falafel, hummus, and sabish sandwiches in the city. Word came on Taim Mobile‘s Twitter feed yesterday that the shop is opening sometime in the second week of October so fingers crossed that it actually happens. Luckily the Taim Mobile truck has been parking downtown a couple of times a week to tide us over. We’ll let you know when more specifics are announced!

It’s a good thing I don’t live or work near the Taim brick and mortar location in the West Village or I may develop an addiction. However, when news came out that they’re opening a new flagship shop on Mulberry St. (at Spring) in Nolita, I did a little happy dance inside because their delicious falafel would be available after only a short ride on the subway. But that opening was announced what seems like ages ago, and the Taim Web site still carries a message that the shop is opening “soon.” Reports at the beginning of July said the location would open in two weeks, but that came and went. Rather than wait for the Taim Mobile truck to come close to my office (the WFC lot is as close as it gets, and that’s still far), I took matters into my own hands to try their harissa falafel at last weekend’s food truck rally in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. And after tasting this flavor of their falafel, I want that new shop to open even more.

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The moment I stepped into Parisi Bakery on Mott St. (btw. Kenmare & Spring), I knew whatever sandwich I decided to get, it was going to be good. The line was out the door when I got there, reminding me of equally tiny and popular Italian sandwich shop Alidoro. Also refreshing in this neighborhood of trendy cafes: The guys making sandwiches were middle-aged and definitely not wearing skinny jeans. Based on the sandwich I ordered, I can say the wait in the lunch-rush line is worth it.

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There are so many small cafes in Soho that it’s hard to distinguish which of them could possibly have food that’s not expensive without scouring their menus. I recently saw a couple of reviews of sandwiches at Fiat Cafe on Mott St. (nr. Spring) on Serious Eats and while the visuals didn’t blow my mind, the prices were pretty unbelievable for the neighborhood. It’s pretty rare to find a great, filling sandwich here for less than a 10 spot, but Fiat Cafe’s top out at $7.50 – even the ones with meat on them! I could definitely get behind this place.

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Most people know about the dirt-cheap cabbie favorite Lahore Deli located in a closet-size space on Crosby St. in SoHo, but were you aware they have a competitor a short walk away? Right next door to a Vietnamese restaurant is Curry & Tandoor Corner (listed online as Welcome To India). It’s the place that looks like a bodega but isn’t. When I went in for lunch there was no one eating there – only the proprietor waiting for customers and a bored looking man reading the paper. This is sort of sad because based on the lunch I had here the food is great, cheap, and sometimes you’re just in the mood for a kati roll.

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