Midtown Lunch

If you saw the Korilla BBQ crew accept their rookie prize at the Vendy Awards this year, you know these guys are young and know how to party… so it’s only natural that to celebrate their 1 year Anniversary, they’re throwing some crazy Friday night at a club blow out party tomorrow night.  The bash is at the Hiro Ballroom, and comes complete with typical Friday night nonsense meant to insure it’s not a sausage fest (women in get in for free until 11pm, and get free vodka until 11:30pm), but for men and those who want to show up fashionably late the cover is $20.  Thankfully, Korilla has graciously offered to throw 10 Midtown Lunch’ers on the guest list (plus 1) to show how much they appreciate our patronage over the past year.  The party is tomorrow night, so we’ve got to do this one quick… want to be on the guest list for the party?  First 10 people who comment below, score the passes.  Good luck… and congrats to Korilla on an eventful (and delicious) first year!

Even if you don’t win, you can still go.  Check out the full party flier, after the jump…

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Few weeks ago, we brought you news that Desi Shack, an Indian restaurant, was set to open at the corner of 39th and Lexington Ave. Just by looking at the menu, it looked promising. $8.25 for chicken tikka with basmati rice plus some veggie sides. Also I was happy to see that they’re offering the equal number of meat options and veggie options (so veggie people aren’t stuck with just one option which is usually the case). So with an empty stomach I decided to try it out.

When you first walk in, you’re welcomed with a very clean, bright and minimalistic space. You start at the right side of the restaurant and tell the person behind the counter what option you want (chicken tikka, lamb kebab, aloo which is potato, or paneer which is cheese) then from there you can customize your meal however you want (hello, Indian Chipotle!)  I went with chicken tikka with basmati rice, corn salad and sauteed peppers and onions with the cucumber yogurt chutney ($8.25), samosa with cilantro mint chutney ($1.50) and a mango lassi ($3.50). So how was it?

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A recent trip to Food Gallery 32, brought some sad news. Crêpe Monster, the Tokyo-style crêpe off shoot of Bian Dang has closed. (It’s apparently been closed since 8/16, clearly I don’t get to FG32 enough). I will miss their cinnamon roll-like “Milk Toaster” crêpe. Ah, Crêpe Monster, we hardly knew ye.

Photo courtesy of @discskyer

We’ve gotten a few tips about the newly opened IGK (International Gourmet Kitchen) on 8th Ave. btw. 35+36th, including this one from Lunch’er Mark:

It’s kind of like a Guy & Gallard, only with better/more varied options and more reasonably priced. They’ve got the standard salad station and burger grill, but there’s also pasta options, stir fry/rice bowls, burritos, sandwiches, and more. The space is clean and airy with seating upstairs, and I was very surprised by how reasonable the prices were. Yesterday I got myself a cheeseburger, fries and a can of soda for $8.

And we hear there are asian noodles and rice bowls in the back. Has anybody been yet? Early adopters, let us know what you think in the comments.

Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (They’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Newcomer Rachel made her own Korean tacos at home with advice from Korilla BBQ and Kimchi Taco, Brian appeared in Time Out New York’s 100 Best issue, Donny had the spicy pork over rice at JJ Noodle House in LA, Blondie is enjoying the last few weeks of outdoor eating at Smorgasburg, Brownie’s participating in CakeSpy’s Tour de Sweets book tour and I wrote about my visit to a taping of the new daytime food show, The Chew, on Mouth of the Border.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Andrea didn’t have any luck ordering from the underground menu at Potbelly downtown, Jamie discovered tasty fish tacos at a dive called Jose’s in Philly and Zach had the delicious sounding Ramen fried rice at Yamadaya in LA.

Although Lunch’er Jon was kind enough to do an Ocha vs. Aoki sushi analysis for us, we’ve never actually taken a serious look at Ocha’s lunchtime menu. Turns out, there is fantastic value found in Ocha’s lunch specials, although sushi will most likely push you over $10.

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Please welcome our newest ML contributor the fold… Anna L.  She was profiled a few weeks ago, and we liked her so much we offered her a gig! Today, she lets us know about the new Mexican “inspired” sandwiches from Gourmet 53.

The coconut shrimp at Gourmet 53 is the stuff that Midtown Lunch dreams are made of, but did you know that they also have Mexican inspired sandwiches on the menu as well? They’ve actually had them for awhile but for some reason I haven’t bothered to try one until now. Carefully constructed with top-quality ingredients these are not, but they will certainly satisfy anybody looking for a cheap, delicious, and different sandwich (plus extras, but more on that later).

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