Midtown Lunch

Another pizza truck has popped up just north of where Jiannetto’s has
set up their mini-pizza empire. It’s parked on 55th btw. Madison+Park
and the truck is called Papa Perrone’s. Not connected to the mediocre
Pranzo truck that used to be parked one ave. away, the owner does claim
a connection to the famous grandma style pizza trucks just south, but he
makes his own sauce, so I’m not exactly sure where the connection is.

I didn’t actually try the pizza today… I’m going to wait until Monday
when he’ll be serving his artichoke pie (a special only available on
certain days.) I did however taste the arancini, which were smaller
than Jiannetto’s but pretty tasty. He said they were his grandmother’s
recipe. Matzoh ball soup is fine, but I think I may have preferred this
guy’s grandma. (Just kidding Grandma, I love you.)

Finally some big time, super duper exciting news for Midtown Lunch’ers on the East side (yes, I just typed the words super duper.)  Cafe Zaiya (41st btw. Mad+5th), winner of Best Japanese Take Out in the Midtown Lunch Readers Poll, has opened “Cafe Zest by Zaiya” in the space formerly occupied by the 47th St. Japanese Convenience Store (on 47th St. btw.  Lex+3rd.)  A slightly upscale version of Cafe Zaiya, Cafe Zest sports an almost identical line up of goods, with a nicer (albeit much smaller) dining area in the back.  Sandwiches, bento boxes, rice balls, and a full dessert bar towards the back- plus they’re selling pre-packaged goods from Nonoca, a new restaurant concept opening in August (but more on that in a bit.)

Since the convenience store closed in January, I’ve been closely monitoring the progress, wondering what would end up in the space (and worrying it would suck.)  Now that Cafe Zest has opened, I can pretty much say that we couldn’t have done any better than this.  And I have even told you the best news.  That, plus your first look inside the new Cafe Zest, after the jump…   Read more »

Seeing as I am addicted to all Asian food, I was pretty excited a year ago when Yushi Bento Bar opened up on 47th St. btw. Park and Lex. Maybe that explains why I was so disappointed to find pretty bland, overpriced bentos, in a setting where salad and low calories seemed more important than taste. I called it “style over substance”, meaning that clearly they were more concerned with making beautiful food than filling you up. There is no question the bentos are made with quality ingredients, and they have a wide array of sauces to spruce up whatever you order- but with so many other great Japanese bento places in Midtown, this expensive bento bar just didn’t seem to make the Midtown Lunch cut.

That is until last week. It’s been a year since I’ve been inside Yushi, and I decided to just pop in and see what was going on. And that’s when I noticed this: “Peking Duck Roll.” Oh yeah? Delicious roasted duck, in sushi form? Expensive or not, how could I not try it? Read more »

Two of the better Indian lunches in Midtown have undergone some changes…  Indus Express (on 48th btw. 5+6th) known for their giant version of the Kati Roll, has gotten rid of their salad bar- the lone holdover from City Market Cafe, the generic deli that originally occupied the space.  They’ve added more seating in that space, plus a small table filled with Indian snacks that are now for sale.

But the real big changes have been happening at Khodiar Express, the vegetarian food inside the former Newsstand on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th.  See if you can follow this… the Gujarati Indian food, which used to be in the back left hand corner, has moved to the front, right next to Taj Delhi Chat  which opened along the right hand wall two months ago.  The latin food, which moved from the now closed Blimpie next door, to the back right hand corner of the “newsstand”, has also moved to the right hand wall.  And finally, between the two, a Middle Eastern steam table has opened up, serving Israeli style falafel.

Got that all?  If not, there are semi-helpful photos after the jump…  Read more »

From this mornings NY Post: “A Queens man is suing [Subway] for $1 million after finding a large serrated knife he says was baked into the bread of his 12-inch cold-cut sub.  [He] bought the sub from a shop on West 35th Street, where he often went for lunch.” The article goes on to mention that although the man wasn’t harmed by the knife, he did become “violently ill with ‘severe stomach issues’ for three hours.”  There are only 3 letters for this one.  OMG.  Where to begin…  let’s see… uh… don’t eat at Subway?  That seems like a good start.  And then, if you do decide to eat at Subway, and you pick up your sub and feel something hard and knife-like inside the bread, you may not want to eat it.  Seems curious that part of his complaint was that the sub made him violently ill.  Isn’t a knife in a sandwich grounds enough for anger.  Do you really have to “prove” that you are owed restitution by admitting you still ate enough of the knife-filled sandwich to make you violently ill for 3 hours?  Awesome.

NY Times reports today on how the Unlimited Metrocard has changed the way office workers approach lunch.  “Today, many downtown office workers think nothing of hopping on the subway at Wall Street and zipping up to Union Square for lunch. Workers in Midtown might ride a couple of stops to Macy’s to get some shopping done during a break.”  It’s true, while my goto Subway Lunch is now gone, I have considered seeing how long it would take to lunch in other parts of the city via the subway.  Shake Shack?  Chinatown? Some have even suggested Jackson Heights could be done in under an hour if you hit the trains right.  That would be amazing.  And this idea is clearly spreading… some of my former co-workers have made it a habit to hop on the Rock Center subway to Nolita for lunch on Fridays.

Anybody have any intel on this topic?  Back when it was still open, the Manhattan Mall food court was easy in under an hour.  Have you gone farther?  How long did it take?  And where did you eat?  Comments please…