Midtown Lunch

Cafe Sage had the shutter partially down on Friday afternoon, and apparently I wasn’t the only who noticed that the Thai restaurant on John St. was closed. A tweet from a downtown lunch’er alerted me that there was a yellow Department of Health sticker affixed to the restaurant. Sure enough, according to the DOH Web site they were shuttered with 40 violations included presence of mice and roaches. Suddenly, eating from that quick and cheap lunch steam table they were popular for isn’t sounding so great.

I’m not sure what happened between May and now but that empty jewelry shop on the corner of Water & Coenties Slip that was reportedly going to be a third location of Rhong Tiam now has a different restaurant opening in it. A walk by on Friday revealed signs saying that OBAO noodles and BBQ was “coming soon.” But wait, that’s not Rhong Tiam! Anyway…there’s a location of OBAO in midtown and they serve a mix of noodles, Vietnamese and Thai food so it’s not all bad news. Zach seemed a little confused by a certain soup they were serving back in 2009 but he did concede that it was good.

This sandwich inspires hoarding. Courtesy of A Passion For Food.

• The meatballs at La Nueva Conquista look naked. [Lunch Studio]
• Chipotle is coming to the non-fancy part of Tribeca. [Tribeca Citizen]
• Apparently Cafe Habana is a go-to spot for elote. [Fork in the Road]
• A veg sandwich at Soho’s Olive’s is good enough to buy three at a time. [Passion For Food]
• Potbelly‘s sandwiches don’t fare too well in a taste test. [Grub St.]

My first experience with the Chinese food at Goodies on Fulton St. (at Gold) was a great one so when the craving for noodle soup hit the other day I knew exactly where I was going. The hard part once I got there was deciding which kind to get, and then whether to get noodles or rice cakes in it. Thankfully the woman who’s always manning the tiny dining room had some time on her hands as the place was empty due to the torrential rain outside. When asked, she confirmed that this is indeed the same Goodies that used to be in Chinatown and based upon my second go-round with their food it’s definitely our gain.

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