Midtown Lunch

The long awaited grand opening of the new Kyochon (on 5th Ave. btw. 32+33rd) was supposed to be today… and yet this was the disappointing scene just a few minutes ago.  We know the place is ready to roll (the paper was down on Monday and they were making chicken for a photo shoot), but according to this morning’s New York Times the grand opening date is now March 5th. (That would be Friday.)  Sorry Korean fried chicken fans…you’ll just have to wait two more days.  Pizzacone anybody?

At the beginning of snowboarding season, Ben & Jerry’s debuted the limited edition Maple Blondie (maple ice cream with blondie brownie chunks and a maple caramel swirl) in honor of boarder Hannah Teter and her charity, Hannah’s Gold. And since Hannah rocked it at the Olympics and won a silver medal, Ben & Jerry’s is celebrating with $1 scoops of her ice cream! Yesterday, the Rock Center location didn’t know anything about it and was out of Maple Blondie anyway; Macy’s didn’t pick up the phone. If for some reason the Midtown Ben & Jerry’s don’t get in on this, there’s always free cone day- which is only 20 days away!

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• Picnic on 57th has a decent cheesesteak but terrible banh mi [Midtown Eating]
• New to the forums? Here’s a guide to the crazy forum lingo [Miscellaneous]

Peter Cherches  hit up Lan Sheng the other day, and was so impressed he has dubbed 39th Street (btw. 5+6th) “Little Chengdu”.  He didn’t think their cumin lamb was as good as Szechuan Gourmet, or their Gui Zhou chicken was as good as Grand Sichuan. And his negative description of their dan dan nodles sounds nothing like the delicious version we wrote about back in January.  But he did think their duck was almost as good as Wu Liang Ye, and had loads of good things to say about their seafood.  Read his full review here>>

Related:
Lan Sheng’s Awesomeness Will Hopefully Force Szechuan Gourmet to Stay Good

According to Grub Street, Buttercup Bake Shop (on 2nd btw. 51+52nd) will be giving away free cupcakes tomorrow morning from 9-10am on Vanderbilt and 42nd St. (in front of Grand Central.) Apparently it’s to promote the launch of their new website, and Channel 11 news will be there. But we can’t help but wonder if the location has anything to do with the brand new Magnolia Bakery that just opened in Grand Central? Owner Jennifer Appel (who according to Grub Street will be handing out the cupcakes tomorrow) co-founded Magnolia before leaving in 2000 to open Buttercup in Midtown East. On the other hand- who cares about the why… freeloaders engage.

Photo courtesy of Bloorozez

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Brett, a govt. employee who loves buybacks, and wishes he worked in Africa!

Name: Brett (aka “klaus ok”)

Age: 27

Occupation: Government drone/Proprietor of www.buybacknyc.com

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 40th and 8th (used to work at 45th and 1st)

Favorite Kind of Food: Asian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Pizza, Sushi, Almost any meat + starch, Anything with maple and/or bacon (as evidenced by the doughnut in the photo)

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything fishy (the truly authentic stuff at Pam Real Thai or anything with a fishcake at Sapporo – gag), mediocre midtown sports bar food, most anything in Times Square (uhh… do you guys like stand-up comedy?).

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pad Khee Mao at Pam Real Thai (49th btw 9th and 10th) , Ma po Tofu or Twice-Cooked Pork Bellies at Szechuan Gourmet (39th btw 5th and 6th), anything at Bali Nusa (9th btw 46+47th), The Bird at Two Boots (9th at 44th), Chorizo tacos at Las Poblanitas (38th btw 8th and 9th) or El Rey del Sabor (43rd and 6th), the Salad Bowl at Maoz (40th and 7th – I say don’t bother with the sandwich – you can’t fit much of the good stuff in it), Chicken and rice with harissa-based sauce at the Little Morocco Cart (39th and 7th), Spinach Burek at Djerdan (38th btw 7th and 8th), the buffets at Spice Fusion (8th btw 47th and 48th), Darbar (46th btw 3rd and Lex), or Indigo (50th btw 1st and 2nd), the #1 chaat, in the summer at the Newstand Indian (6th btw 37th and 38th), the burgers at Five Guys (55th btw 5th and 6th), anything at Oms/b (45th btw 3rd and Lex), AYCE sushi at Ichi Umi (32 btw 5th and Madison), the giant $6.50 hero at Big Apple Meat Market (make sure you specify Boar’s head meat) (9th btw 41st and 42nd), $1 pizza at Two Bros (9th and 40th) or 99 cent fresh pizza (9th and 41st), Falafel and Fries in a Laffa at Baraca (38th btw 5th and 6th, service has slipped since the name change though)

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When I stumbled upon the big Kyochon news yesterday, I was actually on my way to check in on K! Pizzacone (on 5th Ave. btw. 32+33rd) one week after their “eventful” grand opening. Around 1pm, there were only six people in the store and no sense of chaos like last week. A couple of people were inside eating and the rest were waiting on their orders. I would say the fad has died down just a bit one week into the K! Pizzacone craze. As for those who thought Kyochon and K! Pizzacone operating side by side may cause mass chaos, it looks like it just might work out. (Although we’re guessing Kyochon will be insane tomorrow.)

Related:
Your First Look at K! Pizzacone