Midtown Lunch

It’s time for the 3rd Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year I’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

Everybody who reads this site knows I love cheap Chinese food, so this category is near and dear to my heart. It was actually a big year for cheap Chinese food in Midtown… Hing Won (and its practically identical sister restaurants Hop Won and Kar Won) started serving roast pig over rice this year. Will it ensure a three-peat victory in this category? Or will the NYC Cravings Trucks Taiwanese fried chicken topple the giant? Or maybe while these two battle it out at the top, a dark horse will emerge from the shadows! Only time will tell. The nominees are…

• Hing Won/Hop Won/Kar Won (Multiple Locations)
• Lunch Box Buffet/Fay Da Bakery (34th btw. 7+8th)
• NYC Cravings Truck (Multiple Locations)
• Sun Yip (formerly Ho Yip on 45th btw. 5+6th)
• Ying Du (38th btw. 7+8th)
• Yips (52nd btw. 5+6th)

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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Jerk Chicken from the Jerk Pan Cart (on 47th & Park). Photo by Foodinmouth

• After a plate of street meat from the Steak Truck… [Food in Mouth]
• … Danny headed to the Jerk Pan truck for a “double lunch” [Food in Mouth]
• Soul Fixins has one of the best 10 fried chickens in NYC [Fork in the Road]
• Apparently Yagura is great for picking up “Asian chicks” [Me So Hungry]
• The green sauce fixes everything at Sophie’s Cuban [Lunch Studio]
• Pongsri Thai will make your food “Thai Hot & Spicy” [Blondie and Brownie]

It’s time for the 3rd Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year I’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

With a full year of Midtown Happy Hour posts under her belt, we thought it was time to give our correspondent “Mamacita” her own award. Clearly she is all about 9th Ave. (and Rudy’s is like the unofficial ML Happy Hour meetup spot), but still managed to find some other amazing spots in every corner of Midtown. Which one is your fave? Here are the nominees…

• Blue Ruin (9th btw. 39+40th)
• Holland Bar (9th btw. 39+40th)
• Jimmy’s Corner (44th btw. B’way+6th)
• Judge Roy Bean (56th btw. 5+6th)
• Rudy’s (9th btw. 44+45th)
• Subway Inn (60th btw. Lex+3rd)
• Wharf Bar (3rd btw. 38+39th)

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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From our Happy Hour Correspondent ‘Mamacita’: “Midtown lunchers we are sad to report that we have once again been burned by a false and misleading deal! When I first heard of The Palm’s Prime Bites menu at the bar for just $3.50 I was stoked, in fact I called up my friends and planned a happy hour for the next night. Then the day of the happy hour I found out the special didn’t include any midtown locations. Rejected and disappointed (after all we are talking 3.50 calamari and crab cakes!) I gave up all hope and let it rest. Recently we found out that the Prime Bite’s were extended to the Midtown West location (on 50th btw. B’way+8th) and hope sprung anew. Alas, I guess we have bad luck on these things because once I got there in time for happy hour it turned out the midtown branch didn’t offer the deal until after 9pm, as opposed to its other locations which offer it from 5-7pm, and also after 9pm. So this is a sad account of woe, heartbreak, and hunger. A cautionary tale proving that you can never completely trust these PR stunts!”

The newly renovated Chicken House (on 36th btw 7+8th) is certified open! Also confirmed… the presence of banh mi- although be prepared to wait awhile for anything Vietnamese. They haven’t exactly worked out a “system” yet.

Related:
Revamped Chicken House Menu to Include Banh Mi & Pho
Chicken House is the Garment District Version of a Fish & Chip Shop

It’s time for the 3rd Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year I’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

Trying to compare ramen and udon is not exactly fair… but you know what? Life isn’t fair. (And by that I mean, there just aren’t enough of each to warrant their own categories.) Solution? The Best Japanese soup category! Any one of the trinity of delicious old school Midtown ramen shops could take this one (Sapporo, Menchanko Tei, or Men Kui Tei), or will one of the new fat noodle upstarts pull off an upset? Here are the nominees.

• Menchanko Tei (Two Locations)
• Men Kui Tei (56th btw. 5+6th)
• Onya Japanese Noodles (47th btw. Lex+3rd)
• Sapporo (49th btw. 6+7th)
• Udon West (46th btw. Lex+3rd)

Vote for your favorite, after the jump.

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In the mood for Indian food today? Blondie and Brownie are big fans of two of the Friday specials at Minar (on 46th btw. 5+6th)… a cilantro chicken (which was highly recommended on Menupages) and their dum aloo (a potato curry.)