Midtown Lunch

We got word that the Route 66 Smokehouse on Pearl St. (btw. Coenties Slip & Hanover Sq.) will be opening Wednesday at 11 a.m. for lunch and dinner service. The chef is an alumni of Blue Smoke, and the owner has other bars and restaurants on the Stone St. strip including Beckett’s Bar and Grill and The Dubliner. While it’s unclear how much of the “American regional” menu will be affordable (as in, $10 or less) because there are no prices listed, there are several items that sound delicious. Read more »

One of the last carts left standing at Liberty and Nassau streets is the Cocina Mexicana cart. The menu has stayed the same since they materialized in the Financial District back in June, except they seemed to have done away with the signs on the front offering daily specials like enchiladas. Maybe there was lack of interest, or lack of customers for those, but it’s a shame because not they offer the same few items as seemingly every other Mexican spot in the neighborhood: burritos, tacos, quesadillas and tortas. I stopped by to try the sandwich, lured in by the picture of one with bistec in it on the front of the cart.   Read more »

• Lunching at the new Barbarini incarnation, Barbalu. [Tribeca Citizen]
• These Chinese bureka might have Jewish roots. [Eating in Translation]
• Will food truck regs change with a new mayor? [FitR]
• That fancy 7-Eleven in the FiDi may not be the wave of the future. [Grub St.]
• You can lunch at the Seaport’s Paris Cafe once again. [DNAinfo]
• ML contributor Clay leads us on a tour of Chinatown. [SENY]

Most of our ramen options downtown fall into two categories: More than $10, or from a deli. It’s a pretty sad situation, really, especially compared with most other parts of Manhattan. Long ago I saw an ad on another site advertising $10 ramen on Mondays at the Japanese spot Zutto on Hudson St. (btw. Jay & Harrison). That’s about the only time I’ve seen restaurant ramen offered at that price within the Downtown Lunch boundaries, so I had to check it out.  Read more »

When you walk into the Imperial Coffee House, you feel like you’re stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting, but then the men behind the counter start their schtick and you’re back in NYC. This is perhaps the least fancy place to eat lunch in Tribeca, and the prices are also some of the cheapest downtown with the menu topping out at $8. This is the place to go for a no-frills meal of greasy food.  Read more »

While walking by the corner of West Broadway & Warren where The Bigger Place is, I noticed a brand new bright yellow awning was up with a new name: Mariachi’s. Never fear if you’re a fan of the place’s food, as a glance at the signboard outside and menu in the window showed no obvious changes, and one dish even still had the name “Bigger Place” in it. Not sure why they changed the name, but it seems cosmetic.

Not all street meat carts serve a seafood option, and even if they do it’s usually an afterthought and not offered every day. One of the best versions in the Financial District can be found at the $5.50 Lunch Truck on Ann St., with a spicy Eritrean spin on white fish. Among the meat-heavy menu at the Halal Gyro Express cart there is the option of “fish over rice” and that is where the description ends. Everything else I’ve had at this cart featuring Afghan food has been good so I had faith in the seafood.  Read more »