Midtown Lunch

One of the constants in the food truck scene of the Financial District during the past year or two has been the Ambizza Cafe Truck which came blazing in with claims of the city’s best kofta kebabs. That wasn’t necessarily true, but as that was the only dish I’d tried it was time for a return visit.

The truck has been parking at Old Slip & Water every day, even after hurricane Sandy left all of you Lunch’ers down by Bowling Green with few dining options and many trucks abandoned us termporarily due to a lack of parking spots.

Anyway, the short story is I finally did a repeat visit to Ambizza and am happy to report they do a nice plate of chicken over rice for only a couple of dollars more than the street meat carts.  Read more »

That’s a $6 pile of Vietnamese pork chop. Via SENY.

• A firefighter-themed sandwich chain could come to the WFC. [Real Deal]
• Does the FiDi really need another creperie? [Tribeca Citizen]
• Here’s a think piece on Shake Shack taking over the universe. [Grub St.]
• NYC Food Truck Association’s up for an award, and you can help them win. [SENY]
• And BPC’s going to get some BBQ that’s good + affordable. [Eater NY]

If you work in Battery Park City (or the far edge of Tribeca) you may have gotten lunch at some point from Battery Place Market which has two locations in that neighborhood. I decided to visit the larger of those locations at Battery Place and 3rd Pl. after an online perusal of their sandwich selection showed some promising options.

It turned out many of the more interesting sandwiches are more than $10, and that’s all you get. I wanted to eat you, Singapore roast beef sandwich, but I would not pay $11.95 for you.

That was how I ended up order the half rotisserie chicken and two sides. While this was a lunch made from better-quality ingredients than you’re going to find at the generic deli down the street , be prepared for a little sticker shock when you hit the cash register.  Read more »

The faded red awning of China Red Gourmet is still intact on Chambers St. (btw. Church & W. Broadway), and the inside of the place is exactly the same as it was about three years ago when I checked out their awesome by-the-pound buffet.

You can still look at yourself eating in mirrors that line the wall, and you’re still not allowed to bring in outside food. What has changed are the prices which are a bit higher than when I was last here, with the buffet now $4.75 per pound. This time I ignored that buffet in favor of one of their lunch specials, and I think the former is the way to go here.

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In case you missed this bit of news last week, and happen to work in Soho, there’s a Delta pop up called T4X on W. Broadway (btw. Broome & Spring) and you can score a free burger from Shake Shack by stopping by. The burger purveyor is opening a shop at Terminal 4 of JFK, but the certificates you can get from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. are good at any of the Shack’s locations. The freebies are available through Wednesday, or while supplies last.

There are times where online delivery sites like Seamless come in handy…mostly when I am looking for a new place to try and see somewhere I never knew existed. This happened last week when I spotted something called Wrap Star that had the same address as Texas Rotisserie & Grill on Fulton St. (btw. William & Gold).

A look at the menu showed more than 50 wrap options including vegetarian varieties, one with crab cakes and a few featuring barbequed meats. I had my eye on a wrap featuring all of the ingredients of a fried chicken dinner. See how this turned out, straight ahead!

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Behold the mighty cronut. Via FitR.

• A vendor has disappeared from All Good Things. [Tribeca Citizen]
• A look at the state of Sandy-hit Seaport restaurants. [SENY]
• In case you haven’t heard, a thing called a cronut exists. [Grub St.]