Midtown Lunch

Mapo Tofu from Land of Plenty. Photo courtesy of Robert Sietsema/FitR

• Land of Plenty is the 2nd best Sichuan resto in NYC [Fork in the Road]
• Pete Wells gives China Cafe two stars [NYT]
• Anderson Cooper sends somebody to cut long halal cart lines, and videos the results [Gothamist]
• Famous Times Sq. hot dog vendor dies at 83 [NYT]
• The beef tacos are the best from Korilla [Tasty Eating]
• Hyo Dang Gak still makes a good jjajangmyeon [Feisty Foodie]
• A look at the dessert options at Mad Sq Eats [Dessert Buzz]
• Caffe Bene serves misugaru [Chubby Chinese Girl]
• Anthony Bourdain is a big fan of Yakitori Totto [Immaculate Infat]

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.

Okay, I get it. No one enjoyed last week’s review of Player’s. But as life has it, you win some and then you lose some. This week, hopefully you’ll agree, my visit is a win. Every once in a while, or for most, once in a blue moon, you walk into an unassuming bar for the very first time, and realize instantly that you’ve found “home” (or at least, as home as you can get inside a Midtown bar). Not since my visit to Dublin’s Temple Bar years ago, have I been able to garner such instant camaraderie with a bartender as well as the bar’s patrons…that is, until my friends and I found Nelly Spillane’s.

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Interesting news from Lunch’er Sean, who sent us this tip about a sweet new addition to Ninth Avenue:

The old Piece of Chicken [spot] has been signed by the cookie outfit Schmackary’s, which will be their first storefront. Probably not as affordable as the Treats Truck (we miss you Kim!), but I’m interested in a new sugar fix near my office in Times Square.

In case you don’t remember, Piece of Chicken, was that very affordable but out-of-bounds fried chicken joint at 630 Ninth Avenue that closed in 2010. It’s a bit of a hike to get there, but we are excited to potentially have a new reason to walk all the way to Ninth!

Chris reported a while back that Korea Spoon would be the latest sister restaurant to nearby Korean spots all specializing in different things: Miss Korea (Korean BBQ), Izakaya Moku (Korean bar food), and Food Gallery 32 (Korean mall food?). Well, the new restaurant opened its doors last week on 32nd Street and as the name suggests, the speciality here is “things you eat with a spoon.”

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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.

Midtown Lunch, and especially Flatiron Lunch, has history of sweets for lunch. We don’t always have to worry ourselves with sandwiches, pastas, burgers and fried chicken – I mean, we have Doughnut Plant and we have contributors called Blondie and Brownie. And now we have Baconery! Which just opened this week in the cafe of Books of Wonder, a children’s bookstore. As an added bonus, through today, they have a 2 for 1 offer on all items, so go double your lunch!

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• A fryer fire is what caused Kar Won’s temporary closure. Yikes! [Midtown Eating]
• Pizza by Certe is now has something called a “calzini.” [Midtown Eating]
• Royal Grill is now serving veggie samosas. [Midtown Eating]
• Red Olive is just a dressed up generic deli after all. [Midtown Eating]

Some Shake Shack locations are now featuring the Smoke Shack, a $6.25 bacon cheeseburger with cherry pepper relish, bacon from Niman Ranch, and Shack Sauce. The burger is still living on the “Today’s Special” board, so don’t look for it on the large official menu. GrubStreet and A Hamburger Today posted earlier this week that the Smoke Shack is only available at the Madison Square Park and Upper East Side locations, so I hit up the park, because — of course — I had to get my hands on one asap! And, I can confirm this is one tasty burger.
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I walk by Taksim all the time on my way to and from work, and a recent hankering for Mediterranean finally had me wandering in to check out what they had to offer. The menu mostly consisted of entrees and platters priced out of ML range, but the small sandwich section of the menu definitely had potential.
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A few months ago, there was speculation that Bistro Truck would be opening up a brick and mortar restaurant in the Lower East Side. Well, it’s all true and they’re almost ready, but they just need a little more financial support. So they launched a campaign on the Kickstarter-esque website Smallknot to help put the final touches on Rustic L.E.S. Pretty awesome rewards are promised for certain dollar amounts (like gift certificates to both the truck and the restaurant and private cooking lessons with Chef Yassir Raouli), but if they surpass their goal by 150% everybody who donated is invited to a lamb roast block party. You can watch a video about the campaign and make a donation at the smallknot website. I wonder how much it would cost to bring the truck back to Midtown?