Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. Today it’s Siobhan, but you probably know her as “Blondie,” half of the duo “Blondie and Brownie” from the blog of the same name. An avid Midtown Lunch’er, Blondie loves pizza and has been eating her way through the Treats Truck one treat at a time…

Name: Blondie

Age: Mid 20s

Occupation: Freelancing at an ad agency, but my passion lies in the blogosphere (http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Grand Central Area

Favorite Kind of Food: Dessert, pizza, peanut butter, cheese, BBQ, and lately (and very surprisingly), Indian

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Metro. It smells funny; I won’t even eat it when it’s free.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I’m a big fan of the chicken pita at Kwik Meal (45th & 6th), and the chicken, rice and beans from Sophie’s Cuban (multiple locations.) Also, I wish I was more to the west so that I could enjoy Kati Roll (on 38th btw. 5+6th) more often.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? My coworkers tend to get Metro and Bistro Gourmet, two places I’d rather starve them eat at. Sometimes my body calls out for nutrients, and I’ll give it some Cosi.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? I did first hear about the Treats Truck here. Thank you Zach.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? With all the posts Danny on Food in Mouth has been doing about Portland, Oregon, I’d say there. Of places I’ve actually been to, I’d have to go with the East Village.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? It’s summer. I’m hot. Where can I get some bubble tea? (PS Bossman, I know what you want to ask; no they don’t.)

I have no idea what bossman wants to ask… but I’m guessing we’ll be enlightened in the comments. As for bubble tea, I feel like this has been discussed a bit in the past few weeks, but we can re-visit. Check out the milk tea with tapioca pearls I had last week, after the jump… Read more »

With all the talk over Patsy’s (Patty’s?) Taco Truck making a two day appearance in Midtown, it’s not surprising that the two mainstay Midtown taco trucks have been mentioned a bit in the past week. There is the sombrero topped taco truck on 50th btw. 6+7th, and the previously sombrero-less Tacos/Burritos cart on 54th and Madison. I say “previously” because it appears as if this cart has come down with a case of sombrero envy… Read more »

I did a bad bad thing last week.  After reading about Chop’t in the New York Post, I was compelled to go and check out their Po’boy Salad.  Anybody who reads this blog with any frequency knows I have a special place in my heart for New Orleans- and even a generic salad chain like Chop’t can get me to pay attention to them by making something called a Po’boy Salad.  What does that even mean?  And quite frankly, how could I not? 

Walking into Chop’t was a particularly terrifying experience.  As described in the Post article, the place is packed, and very intimidating (the menu is very long and if you don’t know exactly what you want you’ll hold everything up), and while I find salad places to be scary enough on their own- imagine how much scarier it becomes when you put giant machetes in the hands of the people making these salads.  It’s much harder to look at people with derision in your eyes when they’re holding giant salad cutting knives.

Despite being excited mildly interested, I should have known something was wrong immediately when I spotted the ingredient list of the Po’boy Salad.  Fried chicken (that’s good), lettuce (sure), tomato (makes sense), and cheese (???).  Cheese?  I don’t seem to remember cheese on any Po’boy I’ve ever had.  I do remember pickles.  But there are no pickles on this salad.  I don’t know what I was expecting, and I probably would have just turned and walked out right then, if I hadn’t spotted spotted something that actually stirred a bit of genuine excitement inside me.  Something so grotesque (in a good way) that it could actually have a chance of redeeming this monstrosity of a lunch establishment.   Read more »

 
Photograph by nycblondieandbrownie

• The Grand Central Oyster Bar take out counter is serving a Lobster Gazpacho [Blondie and Brownie]
• Two great breakfast ideas from Cafe Zaiya and Sullivan St. Bakery [NYC Nosh]
• Here’s a text coupon for free fries at Pop Burger [8 Coupons]
• You can meet Top Chef contestant Richard at Garrett Popcorn in July [Eater]
• More calorie posting lameness… two Dunkin Donuts, both in Penn Station, two different calorie counts [Tokyohanna]
• Hey… I know that cart!  (And I think our Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel knows those girls) [Eater]

One of my favorite (in theory) lunch places, that I don’t get to nearly enough, is the Lunch Box Buffet on 34th St. btw. 7+8th.  It’s been mentioned a few times in the comments, and I just never have gotten around to writing about it.  A fairly simple concept, it combines two of my favorite things- value and cheap chinese food.  5 items for $5.  How does it get any better than that?  Well, I’ll tell you how:  they’ve added a Fay Da Bakery to the front of the location.

Lunch Box Buffet isn’t necessarily the best cheap chinese food in the area, but it has got the largest selection, the best pricing concept (especially for variety), and it’s much less intimidating than the far more adventurous Ying Du (on 38th btw. 7+8th.)  All the food is labeled, and the’ve got plenty of non-chinese items, like the very popular fried chicken.  Now with the addition of Fay Da it becomes much easier to ignore the cheapness of the Chinese food… you can always follow it up with a delicious custard bun.   Read more »

Feisty Foodie, an avid ML reader, downtown lunch’er, and our very first Downtown Lunch correspondent, snapped this photo at Rosario’s downtown.  Looks like the Downtown Lunch column Daniel Krieger does for us every Friday has gotten noticed.  The takeover has begun… any other areas you’d like to see Midtown Lunch’ified?  This isn’t the only place in the city (or country for that matter) where crappy salad and fast food places need to be made fun of.  Nominations are currently being accepted in the comments…