Midtown Lunch

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

Shortly after Street Meat Palooza and my corresponding post about City Halal, a reader sent an email suggesting a cart in front of the Museum of Sex on Fifth Ave. He said: “The food is consistently awesome. Way better than Rafiqi’s, which is really the only other option around where I work.” Seemed worth a try.

I hope in the many months it took me to try this cart, the reader has discovered the halal truck on Madison and 28th. It is well liked by those in the area and beyond (I have a friend who lives nearby and her father often insists they go there when he comes to visit her from Connecticut.)

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Here’s a bit of Flatiron Lunch news before we lay this week’s review on you…

Say it ain’t so!!! It looks like after bouncing back from a Hummer going through their front window, R.U.B (Righteous Urban Barbecue) has closed. This is a huge loss in the barbecue genre for Flatiron and Manhattan as a whole. It seems like now we have to get our bbq fix at BBQue’s Smoke Shack or go over budget at Hill Country or Blue Smoke. And if you are really desperate, Dallas BBQ, at 23rd and 8th Avenue.

Thanks to Lunch’er Hengde for sending over this quick little report about everybody’s favorite Indian place (formerly in the back of a newsstand.) 

There’s a new, 2nd, Indian food vendor in the back of Bombay Fast Food on 6th btw. 37th and 38th. I tried ordering one veg[etable dish] from each side, that’s when they told me that they were two different vendors. The original vegetarian Gujarati vendor on the left is still there, but I didn’t see chaat ingredients on display anymore – hopefully they’ve just moved them back to the kitchen. The new vendor had meat, chicken and lamb curries on the day I stopped in. Their special is 2 vegetables or vegetable + a meat, rice (only one kind – it’s seasoned but not as much as the original’s yellow rice) daal, and naan.  The first vendor’s special is 2 vegs, white or yellow rice, 3 rotis, daal, onions, spicy pickle, and sweet. The 2 Vegetable deal is about a dollar more than the original vendor, but their daal is much thicker than the first vendor’s, which is always more like soup. So that was a nice change, which worked well over the rice. I also tried their aloo matar (potatoes and peas) and saag paneer (spinach w/ cheese) and both were very good. The sauce with the aloo matar was nice and thick. I think the portions of vegs they gave were bigger than the first vendor’s too, those guys been skimping on me a bit lately. But anyway it’s nice to go in there and have twice the options now. Cheers, Hengde.

Bombay Fast Food, 1013 6th Ave (btw 37+38th). 212-840-3767

I missed out on Mmm… Enfes the last couple of years when it spawned up out of the Bryant Park Holiday Market. When we got word from a loyal Twitter follower of their brick & mortar operation starting up on 39th, Brownie gave it a drop-in to share the good news. Limited in the Turkish pastry offerings from the otherwise wonderful Lezzette next to my office and Troy Turkish Grill a few blocks up 9th, the clinical term for getting a chance to review Mmm… Enfes’ Homer Simpson-named offerings is known commonly as “psyched as hell.” Last week Brownie gave us the details on their dolmas, lentil soup, lentil balls, and a big ol’ spread of gozleme, but I wanted to bulk up on burek. Let’s go see what we can gobble at this new Turkish outpost.
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We’ve already mentioned midtown newcomer Treehaus (3rd Ave. and 51st St.) for its next-level buffet options, but they’ve now stepped up to the plate with an offering for the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge (remember that old thing!?)  The Crispy Buffalo Chicken, which is priced at $8.50 ($9.25 with tax), is actually a wrap- which generally speaking can’t compare with proper sandwiches — after all, flour tortillas are often just soft, one-note, well, wrapping for ingredients that could otherwise benefit from a nice, crusty roll or slices of bread. Treehaus finds, however, finds a way to elevate the humble wrap by toasting a wheat tortilla in a panini press, giving it nice grill marks and a bit of texture.

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Mark your calendars! Now that the Bryant Park holiday shops are gone, something even more interesting is on its way to that space later in February. A Malaysian Winter Market will take over on February 20 and 21, featuring signature Malaysian dishes and traditional food products for under $8 from a variety of restaurants and vendors including Fatty Crab, Laut, New Malaysia Restaurant, Nyonya, Penang, Bentara Restaurant in Connecticut and more. Although the market will be open all day, lunch will be served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (or until they sell sold out), and they’ll have a dinner shift as well.

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. You may have noticed that we have brought a new contributor named Dan into the fold to help shore up our Midtown East coverage. A few weeks ago he told us about the frittate from Pizza Rustica, and if you were excited about the Girl Scout Cookie truck on Friday, that was all him as well. And tomorrow he’s got the scoop on a new entry in the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. (Get excited.) Let’s make him feel welcome…

Name: Dan

Age: 27

Occupation: Communications consultant for a human rights organization

Where in Midtown do you work? Midtown East, a few blocks from the UN.

Favorite Kind of Food: Fried clams, all the way

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything with a lot of olives. A few is OK, but I really don’t like olives.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Previti (on 41st btw. Lex+Park) for the focaccia lasagna slice, chicken thigh with brown rice at Glaze Teriyaki (on Lex btw. 54+55th), and almost everything at Num Pang (on 41st btw. Lex+3rd).

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