Midtown Lunch

A few weeks ago, the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st and 7th) started posting videos to a new You Tube account.  As of now there are 10, and most of them are pretty huge time wasters (even more so than most of the stuff on You Tube).  For example a few are less than 15 seconds long, and just have random customers ordering stuff. There are also a few longer ones that are meant to be advertisements (I’m guessing?) But, my favorite by far is the one where O’Neill, the owner of the Dutchy, stands in front of the cart pretending to be a customer stuffing his face.  You can understand about 6 words total of what he says, a) because he’s laying on his Jamaican accent a little thicker than normal, and b) half the time his mouth is filled with rice and peas. 

Check out the hilarity after the jump…

Read more »

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 Andy the blogger behind Wined and Dined, and the first person to show me up by eating the Walgreens Sandwich. Judging by his comments below, I feel like I made the right decision. I figured you’d want to know more about this ML hero (or suicidal maniac, depending on how you look at it I suppose…)

Name: Andy

Age: 33

Occupation: Attorney/Food Blogger/Food Daredevil

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 55th between Park & Mad (home of the 100% Halal & Healthy Food, aka Cart with the Greek Salad, Papa Perrone’s Pizza Truck and the best hot dog stand in Midtown)

Favorite Kind of Food: Steak, shaved truffles (could have used some to mask the taste of that freakish bulkie burger), burgers, bbq, french fries of all varieties, spicy thai, smoked salmon, bacon and corned beef, fried zucchini sticks, plus I’ve been eating these low-fat donuts lately called ‘holey donuts.’

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Olives, tofu, anything at overpriced diners like Burger Heaven, pre-packaged sandwiches, anything bland, sardines, anchovies, anything with the name Beantown on it.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pasta bar at Fresco on the Go (on 52nd btw. Mad+Park), greek salad with spicy grilled chicken from my man at the cart on 55th and Park, the $8.50 sesame chicken lunch special at Fusia (56th and Lex… not to be confused with Fusha or the other Fusia on 2nd Ave), mexican falafel from Crisp (on 3rd Ave. & 43rd), grilled chicken salad at Houston’s (or is it Hillstone?) and the off-the-menu chicken fingers there- which are insanely good, a Carnegie Deli corned beef sandwich split 3 ways with co-workers (like Serious Eats: New York did with the Carnegie pastrami), alambre and carne asada tacos from Pampano Taqueria (3rd Ave. btw. 49+50th), and the southwestern chicken wrap at Pig n’ Whistle on 3rd (btw. 55+56th).

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Chop’t which I’m thoroughly sick of, City Market Cafe on 55th, Pret, Stale and Farty Soups, Pig n’ Whistle on 3rd, Europa Cafe and my co-workers continue to eat at the Cosi on 56th despite the fruit flies and the horrendous service (I haven’t been since ’06.)

Read more »

Last week we passed along Peter Cherches’ recommendation of the brisket sandwich at the Blarney Stone (on 3rd Ave. btw. 44+45th) and commenter Larry informed us of this news: “What’s the deal with their new fries, if we can even call them fries? They’ve recently moved onto these huge wedges, which are like 1/4 potato each and in my opinion, a real step down from their previous thick cut fries.”  Larry was kind enough to send along this photo, and remarked that according to the guy who takes the orders, the customers have spoken and “love them.”  Larry’s not convinced. 

The photo may make it hard to put things in perspective, but if you know how huge the burger is at the Blarney Stone you can see these new fries are enormous.  And, to be honest- while I don’t normally like thick cut fries (I’m a shoestring man myself; Five Guys fries are about as thick as I like ’em) these actually look kind of good. Has anybody else tried the new fries?

Related:
The Blarney Stone Burger
Revisiting My Favorite St. Patty’s Day Lunch (and the best Onion Rings in Midtown)

Love cupcakes or hate them, it’s hard not to wonder if Midtown can take *another* cupcake place. Seriously. “Hey not sure if you’ve seen/heard – but ANOTHER Crumbs is opening over here on the East side (on 3rd Ave. btw. 53+54th)”. This location, which has been planned for awhile, is set to open sometime in Feburary. This will be in addition to their orginal 42nd street location, their newer location on Madison and 52nd, plus a new location planned for Broadway btw. 52+53rd. Oh yeah, plus the Magnolia Bakery in Rock Center (which surprisingly has not fully entered the tourist radar yet.) I’m sure Crumbs’ giant expansion was planned long before the economic collapse, but you can’t help but wonder if they’re making a mistake by not scaling back. Or perhaps cupcakes are recession proof?

This is probably as good a day as any to go to the readers’ choice for “Best Fast Food Chinese” two years running. How could I not, right?  According to commenter Yvo, you’re supposed to eat vegetarian on Chinese New Years Day as some sort of cleanse (???), but I didn’t get the memo before leaving for lunch.  I almost always order the same thing at Hing Won (sauteed udon with pork) but today I mixed it up!  House Special Lo Mein, with shrimp, chicken, and ground pork (substitute in roast pork, please.)  Uh… yeah.  Pretty much the exact same dish as the sauteed udon, just with a different kind of noodle.  Oh well.  I couldn’t help it! (As it was, it took a lot of will power not to do their newish by the lb. buffet… which always looks good, but then kills me when I weigh my lunch.)

Lucky for me, I had my wife along with me- who is always much better at mixing it up.  Her lunch (which I ate a third of) is after the jump…

Read more »

Clearly I wasn’t going to win the free lunch for a month from FreeFoods contest with the essay I wrote (although surpringly they included one of my quotes in a list of their “submissions,” even though I never technically entered it), so I probably won’t be eating at the super expensive upscale organic deli owned by Matthew Kenney anytime soon. (Many have commented that it tastes good, but I just can’t bring myself to spend the money.) But I know there are a lot of vegetarians, and organic food enthusiasts (it’s not all vegetarian stuff) who can afford it, and lucky for those people Kathy YL Chan (from A Passion For Food) was willing to take a hit for the team, and eat her way through the FFNYC menu. Here is her report… (those who get offended by overpriced healthy food, avert your eyes now.)

Full disclaimer: I am a pork lover, I am a foie gras lover, and prefer my bread toasted with melted lard smothered over the top. I eat dessert till no end, and then chase it with a beer or two. But every now and then, it’s rather interesting and fun to delve into the vegan world. Hence, my report on FreeFoodsNYC (which is not entirely vegan, or vegetarian for that matter.)

The new FreeFoods NYC is exactly what we don’t need in this economy: very fancy-smanshy, very-expensive organic, vegan, and raw food version of a standard Midtown deli. Regardless, it’s pretty tasty and I’ll confess to a growing addiction.

Read more »

Since today is Chinese New Year, and many (myself included) will be seeking out some Chinese food today to celebrate, I figured it would be a good day to post this interesting email I got the other day:

“So there are some new designers (women) for a new line that we are launching that are not afraid to eat good food (yesterday they had Lazzarra’s here delivering pizza). The other day they were eating delivery Chinese and it smelled great. So I asked the “from where” and they replied Dong Hai Grill. I then said I have a great place for you, and one said “what Szechuan Gourmet?” I sad “yes” and before I could even finish saying yes, she retorted “we like Dong Hai much better”. Now I often walk by Dong Hai (on 39th btw. 6th+B’way) but have always ignored it. I have never eaten there. Now my curiosity was peaked.”

More on the menu and food, is after the jump…

Read more »

Lunch’er Larry sends along this photo and report: “I just noticed on the NE corner of 45th & Lex, which used to be a Vitamin Shoppe, there’s a sign in the window for a ‘Green Room Cafe on Lex’.” Just another generic Midtown deli? Or perhaps it’s a U.S. outpost of the healthy cafes run by Aramsa Spa in Singapore. Either way it’s pretty meh news, but I’m betting on generic deli… besides, the last Singapore company to open a chain in Midtown didn’t fare so well.