Midtown Lunch

Got this note from Lunch’er Eric last week, and thought it was worth posting:

As an avid midtown lunch reader, I wanted to give you guys a heads up to one of the best dishes in this city that falls right in your wheelhouse.  The Cafe Today ramen soup!  Cafe Today is on 52 btw 3rd and Lex.  In the back right corner, they make this ramen soup.  Multiple choices of veggies, I go with onions, scallions, sprouts, and carrots (peppers, mushrooms, etc avail).  They crack an egg in there as well that cooks in the broth and tastes amazing.  Lastly, the key secret is a saracha broth!  It is VERY spicy and just so damn good.  I am in no way affiliated with cafe today and have no other reason to promote this soup besides t being spot on awesome.  Also runs you $7 and change.  Picture included — go have it for yourself!!  Enjoy!

So… anybody else tried the ramen at Cafe Today?  Let us know what you think in the comments…

For the past 3 years, the Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair seems to top itself, both in scale and in quality. This was the 3rd annual fest, and it was even more delicious than last year’s Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair. With so many vendors, there was no way for one person to try everything, but I made an impressive go at it. Foregoing Midtown favorites Korilla, Chinese Mirch and Kelvin Slush, which were parked just outside the entrance, I ate everything from okonomiyaki to lentils, and as it turned out, my 3 favorite meals had one thing in common: all hailed from Brooklyn. I’m hoping these guys make the journey to Midtown soon so the rest of you get to enjoy them as much as I did.
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Ever since Food Gallery 32 opened in K-town almost 2 years ago, I’ve been a regular haunt whenever I’m in the area. Even if I’m not eating there, I’ll make a point to peruse the grounds, for the dynamics of the space are always in flux. To be cliché, it seems that the only constant at Food Gallery 32 is change – we’ve seen the unfortunate closure of Bian Dang and Crepe Monster, only to find that new food concepts spring eternal . The newest openings at Food Gallery include Bunch, a stall specializing in jjin (steamed) mandoo, located immediately at the front entrance. Open now is also Spot Dessert Bar on the 3rd floor, which carries most of line-up of its East Village location – pastries, bubble teas, coffees, and the like.

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Even though we weren’t completely sold on the sandwiches vended out of Beacon’s Side Door, we were sad to read Flo Fab’s report that Beacon would be closing at the end of the year. The longtime midtown staple, best known for their wood fired steaks and pizzas, will be closing on Dec 29th after failing to reach an agreement with their landlord. We wish Chef Waldy Malouf, his business partners, and his staff the best of luck with their future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Ramen & Friends

• Who could say no to a $9 lunch special at Uncle Vanya’s [Ramen & Friends]
• Luke Lobster and No 7 Sub are great additions to Todd English’s Food Hall [RG]
• Midtown Lunch’er Crazy Legs Conti reviews Guy’s American Kitchen [Grub St.]
• A look at wichcraft’s new fall sandwiches [SENY]
• Are people clamoring to make Virgil’s wings at home? [Fork in the Road]
• Biryani Cart makes one of the 30 best vegetarian sandos in NYC [SENY]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

I was meeting some colleagues for drinks last week, and the only criterion I had regarding locale was that it needed to be in or around Koreatown. I threw out a few options, including Kirakuya (32nd btw. Broadway and 5th), a Japanese sake bar also serving lunch, that Clay spotted in 2010. (He did a great write up on lunch there shortly thereafter, might I add.) One of my buddies mentioned she hadn’t been to a sake bar in a while, so Kirakuya seemed to be the obvious choice.

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Rio & You, a Japanese spot just out of bounds on west 45th street that has been in the neighborhood for a number of years, was mentioned in the comments of the Mark Bittman post a few weeks ago. I’d never eaten there, because the lunch specials are expensive, but the other day on my way to Schmackary’s I stopped to look at the menu outside and saw a number of regular dishes seemingly in budget. Ramen (or, “Larmen,” as it is written on the menu)? Udon? Donburi? Well, if you insist!

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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.

Not being able to attend the Yom Kippur break the fast I was invited to this year left me craving whitefish salad on bagel. It’s a combo I love, but don’t think to get unless it is placed in front of me. I remembered previously walking by a Kosher bagel cafe in the Flatiron, so I decided to take care of the craving. (Hey! You, reader, about to type, “Whitefish salad??? Are you kidding me?” in the comments section, don’t bother. We can agree to disagree on whitefish salad.)

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Do you have time during your lunch break for a six course meal?? Well, Chinese Mirch has challenged you to try with a new dine-in lunch menu. At $9.99 for vegetarian and chicken dishes (a total of 15 options, including Clay and Jason’s chicken hot garlic and chili cheese gravy from 2010), and $10.99 for seafood and lamb options. It might be worth taking an extended lunch. Don’t ignore the $10.99 options yet either. Chinese Mirch is offering a free meal after you eat seven…amortized over all your meals, all choices are now in budget! What does the six courses consist of? The special includes the soup of the day, appetizer of the day (vegetarian or non-vegetarian), choice of salad or bhel, two hand-rolled steamed or fried momos, choice of entrée, choice of steamed rice and dessert of the day. (I count seven courses if you include the rice. Am I right?) Considering Clay’s meal cost only $5.95 but only included entrée and rice, the new special seems more than generous to me.

If you can’t manage a leisurely six course lunch, don’t despair. Chinese Mirch also has a modified take out lunch box without the salad/bhel and dessert courses for $8.99 for vegetable or chicken, and $9.99 for lamb or seafood. Still very reasonable.

Chinese Mirch, 120 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street, (212) 532-3663

Out there in the Midtown Lunch readership, we hope that there are some of you who are involved in the restaurant industry (and if there are, can someone drop at least one food truck on 34th and 9th? Thanks in advance) and in this turbulent industry where something like 4 out of 5 new restaurants fail each year, there’s always room for improvement. Food Network is running an open casting call for restaurant owners and general managers to appear on a new TV show. Are you lamenting your fate and reading Midtown Lunch simultaneously? Reach out to Jessica Wendelborn (jwendelborn@magilla.tv) with your name, contact details, business name and location. They want to “help” with the assistance of a “well known celebrity restaurateur,” so you could end up with a famous British shouter as easily as Daniel Bouloud.

My unsolicited advice for your failing restaurant would be to retool it into a ramen shop or izakaya and Skycrane yourself over to 35th, but I’m sure that the Food Network viewership would love to see your suffering get turned around in a TV-friendly manner. Anyone gonna take them up on this? Feel free to spread the word!