Midtown Lunch

At the top of the year, this post went up about a really great salad from Mexicue, but I have to be honest, that day, I totally went out for a burger. At Steak ‘N Shake. And not for one second did I make any 2013 resolutions, much less ones about food. Also, as an aside, I have been curious, now that Steak ‘N Shake has been open for a year, would they start raising prices? Answer: So far so good … although I totally have my eye on you, so don’t screw it up!
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Photo courtesy of Lunch’er Fred W.

It’s been a tough couple of months for the 41st Street branch of Cafe Zaiya (btw. Mad+5th).  Back in November they were temporarily closed by a fire in their building, and last week we discovered that they’re closed again- this time by the Department of Health.  We got word of the closure late in the day on Friday, and last night Lunch’er Fred W. confirmed that they were still closed. According to the DOH website they received a 78 on Thursday (score translation: not good)  and were shut down, but there is no word on when they will reopen.  Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later…

Tabata’s Kara-age. Photo courtesy of SENY

• Tabata Noodle makes a good kara-age [SENY]
• Blondie & Brownie’s street food book is one of Eater’s 2013 picks [Eater]
• The Lunch Studio girls have moved to the Flatiron [Lunch Studio]
• The WSJ is a fan of Salvation Taco [NY Lunchbox]
• BICE on 54th has a $2000 pasta dish [NYP via Eater]
• Prime Grill is moving from 49th Street to the old Beacon space [Grub Street]

Last week, we received a tweet from Phoenix_3_Tears with the question:

“Do you guys know of a place where they sell Bourbon Chicken? Like the ones back in Manhattan Mall?”

That sent us on a search. We hadn’t heard anything about the confusingly named dish since DC Fusion Cafe closed, but we found out that Hop Won Express, Hing Won’s twin sister, has a Bourbon Chicken daily special on their menu for $6.47.

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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.

Remember the Banh Mi Craze of the late ’00s? Everyone went nuts dissecting if the baguette had the right balance of crunch and softness, if the meats were authentic, and if the pickled and cilantro toppings were appropriately portioned. Lunch’ers even organized their own Banh Mi Palooza in 2010. While a few years late to the game (they seemed to have opened around 2011), Luu’s Baguette could have thrown its hat into the ring.

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Got this report from Lunch’er Joel the other day about a new banh mi place that just opened up in Midtown West…

I stumbled into this place, seeing “Bahn mi” written on a whiteboard, out of the corner of my eye this morning. It’s on 47th street, close to 9th Ave, just off the corner – it’s called something like “Saigon Cafe 9 West”.  Had a small but authentic seeming menu. I opted for the traditional Bahn mi, which at $6 was closer to downtown prices than the more expensive (and only recently available, with Boi Noodles and Cha Pas arrival) Bahn Mi offerings.

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We all know that feeling. One Oreo truffle here, a slice of ham there, and next thing you know, you look and feel like this guy. Yes, we’ve all had some point over the holidays – if not these, then surely in the past – when we’ve eaten too damn much. If you’re like me and one of the poor schlubs who wasn’t allowed to burn off vacation at the end of the year, you came back into the office between Christmas and New Year’s full of bloaty self-loathing. Fortunately, the miracle of soup is there for us. It’s cold out, and we feel like crap. Sometimes the thought of too much food is just a sandwich too far. When it’s too cold to walk a few blocks and you just don’t care the local generic deli will suffice, so long as you leave a small part of your soul at the door. Leave we did indeed: it’s time that we take a look at the soup offerings from Bistro Marketplace, one of those generic delis. Food-halls the like of which Heorot was to mead, they have a little bit of everything including soups. Let’s take a look, shall we?

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While we still await the launch of Carl’s Steak’s food truck, another company quietly hit the streets of Midtown this week. Steaks & Crepes spent the last two months donating food to areas hit hard by Sandy (like many of our other favorite trucks), but now they’re officially open to the public and serving steaks and, uh, crepes. You can view their menu here, but as you’ll see they are going both traditional (using Philly’s famous Amoroso bread) and non-traditional (pizza steak? falafel hoagie??). The crepes, with ingredients like Nutella and S’mores are for dessert. According to their Twitter feed, they were set up on on 52nd and 6th Avenue yesterday. Anybody get to try them out? Put your thoughts in the comments.