Midtown Lunch

We sampled some goods from the Route 66 Smokehouse coming to 79 Pearl St. (btw. Hanover Sq & Coenties Slip), but the closest estimate to an opening date we could get was in late September. That time has come and gone, but  while walking by on Thursday I noticed signage was up, so hopefully they’ll be serving us some barbeque soonish?

I spotted a new-to-me truck on Pearl at Broad yesterday and went to investigate. It was the Moo Shu Grill truck which apparently used to be the Fishing Shrimp truck, and it debuted in Midtown months ago.

The moo shu “tacos” got a good review back in August over on ML. They also have rice bowls and a couple of other items (the handwritten menu was sort of hard to read). You can find the location on Twitter, and I’ll be on the lookout for them to stop downtown again so I can catch them when I didn’t just eat lunch.

Finding Bluestone Lane Coffee‘s new location in the Financial District turned into an adventure involving a surly security guard and being on the wrong side of a wall. Thankfully it ended with me finding my new favorite light lunch option, for those days I can’t eat any more street meat.  Read more »

Although we have a couple of spots serving banh mi and other basic Vietnamese dishes in the Financial District, A La Saigon is the only place down here with a more extensive menu. I had previously tried their bun lunch special, and it was decent, but on a recent day when I wasn’t feeling well I decided a bowl of pho was just what the doctor ordered. If you dig deep into the menu, you’ll see the shop on Liberty Lane (btw. Maiden Lane & Liberty St.) offers a few types of pho, and I headed over to see how theirs compared with the solid version from nearby Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches.

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If you thought the Financial District didn’t have enough options for bread with holes in the middle, you’re in luck: A location of Simit + Smith opened today on William St. at Platt. They specialize in Turkish simit which are the thinner, lighter cousin of the bagel, and they also have at least one solid sandwich. Between this and Blue Spoon Coffee across the street, this block has some solid carb options. Also, according to their Twitter, if you have a government ID you can get a free simit through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Working in Hudson Square can be hard if you don’t want to spend and arm and a leg on lunch. Options are mostly limited to chains like Pret a Manger, Dig Inn and Chipotle and I see too many people carting around bags from the latter.

I think a lot of people aren’t willing to walk a few blocks further down Hudson St. to Tauro Restaurant which seems to have at least prettied up its outside if not inside since I was last there. The best part? They have a steam table with several options and you can be in and out with your lunch in 5 minutes.  Read more »

• A love letter to Zucker’s Bagels. [Tasting Table]
• Tribeca’s getting Baked. [DNAinfo]
• A seafood sandwich + soup combo we can all get behind. [FitR]
• A West Indian cart’s roti hobnobs with NYC’s best meat dishes. [TONY]
• The details of the annual Slice Out Hunger event. [SENY]
• Lunch spots feeling the pain of government furloughs. [NYDN]