Midtown Lunch

Birthday lunch for me is all about reckless abandon. So what better place to go crazy then the By the lb. Buffet. A perfect blend of variety and gluttony, the only downside being the concern that builds as you move your way down the buffet, stacking your tray. What will the outcome be? How much will I owe? Last year, I hit up Cafe Duke (with my favorite fake shrimp), this year it was Sun Yip (formerly Ho Yip) on 45th btw. 5+6th.An all chinese food by the lb. Buffet, Sun Yip is $5.19 per pound, unless you go after 2:15, when the price drops to a special $3.99/lb. But today isn’t about savings, it’s about reckless abandon. So we headed over at a very early 12:45, and I began to load up without any regard to how much it was going to cost.Here’s the damage… Pork fried rice, flat rice noodles, 3 kinds of fried and sticky chicken (the general, sesame, and something else), salt and pepper chicken, roast prok, two kinds dumpling (two steamed, two fried), string beans (gotta do one vegetable) and fried plantans (I don’t know why they’re there, but I had to take them, right?)

Total cost… an embarassingly cheap $7.49! Amazing. I’m pretty sure I was over $13 at Cafe Duke last year. With “reckless abandon” costing a mere $7.50 this may be the greatest midtown lunch of all time.

I remember the first time the “newsstand” that serves Indian food was mentioned here on Midtown Lunch. It was October of last year, and like most great Midtown Lunch discoveries it was mentioned in a comment, posted to the piece I had written about the Latin food being sold inside the Blimpie on 6th Ave btw. 37+38th:

Zach, if you had walked one storefront down from there, you would have found an even odder lunch option—the “newsstand” next door has a sign in the window: “Indian Vegetarian Food.” For $6 you get basmati rice, dal, two scoops of whatever vegetable dishes they have that day, bread (paratha? roti?), some pakoras, and a tin-foil ball filled with onions, lettuce, and tomatoes…though the selection has varied the two times I’ve tried.

Like many who may have seen that comment, I envisioned one of those green square sidewalk newsstands, somehow serving up vegetarian Indian food (behind all the gum and candy bars, I guessed?), although I had no idea how. Alright, I don’t know what the hell I was picturing… but I knew it sounded awesome. When I finally made it down there, I discovered it was actually a convenience store that was mostly a newsstand- and sure enough, in the back left hand corner, there it was… Gujarati Indian food, a vegetarian cuisine from the Gujarat region in Northern India, being served out of a mini steam table.

It’s almost six months later, the magazines are all gone, and the Latin food that used to be sold out of the Blimpie, is now occupying the back, right hand corner of the store. I think it’s finally time for a proper +/- (and some hardcore Gujarati food porn) Read more »

Fresh on the heels of my lunch with Ralph Brennan, I get this news- Bourbon St. New York is tentatively scheduled to open April 15th on Restaurant Row (46th btw. 8+9th). As a fan of New Orleans I can’t decide whether to be excited or horrified. Apparently the chef was born and raised in New Orleans and “ran the kitchens in places such as Commanders Palace and Dickie Brennas”, whatever that means. Plus side, they have a Bourbon St. style balcony with something that appears to be wraught iron. The negative side, that balcony looks out over 46th St. We shall see…

• Jezebel, the shuttered front half of Midtown Lunch out of bounds favorite “Piece of Chicken” will become “Five Napkin Burger” [Eater]
• Patsy’s Midtown is suing Patsy’s Long Island over who was Sinatra’s favorite [NY Post]
• Dr. J had lunch at Hawaiian Tropic Zone the other day! [NY Post]
• Profiled Lunch’er “Rachel” popped up on the Martha Stewart Show talking about Cupcakes [Gakwer]
• Naked Cowboy to Shill for Qdoba & Spotlight Live [NY Mag]

It seems like every day I’m posting one of these.  First it was the buffets, and then Del Frisco’s raised the price of their steak tips deal.  Now, the incredibly popular Burger Joint, “hidden” in the lobby of the Parker Meridien Hotel on 56th btw. 6+7th, has raised their prices.  That’s right- the hamburger that you voted “Best Burger” in the 2008 Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll, now costs $7 (up from $6).  The cheeseburger gets a $1 price hike as well (to $7.50) and the grilled cheese, french fries, brownie, milkshake, bottled water and a beer now cost you 50 cents more.  While soda and lemonade get a token 25 cent increase.  Apparently the whole pickle is the only item immune to the recession.

I’m sure it won’t effect the line of tourists you currently find packing the place everyday, but with Five Guys now open a few blocks away, and Goodburger continuing their expansion, this price hike could have an effect on their lunchtime business.

With the price of food all over the city going up, and a Burger Joint hamburger and fries now going for $10.50, are these places no longer Midtown Lunches, or is it time we adjusted the $10 cap for inflation?

What the good ‘ole days looked like, after the jump… Read more »

Even though I posted about City Burger’s grand opening yesterday morning, I was out of town, so I missed out.  City Burger’s Day 2, on the other hand, rivaled Five Guys on opening week.  Super long wait times, a large crowd of pretty unhappy people, and a staff struggling to learn the ropes, while simutaneously being slammed by huge lunchtime crowds wanting their burger fix. Oh and the seating is limited to about 15 stools, no tables.Some promising signs… the burger are pretty big and thick, as are the rings- which are beer battered. They’ve also got thick steak fries which look excellent (if you’re into that sort of thing). Oh, and they’ve got wings… I’d give ’em a little time to work out the kinks before I rush over to eat.

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’s Lunch’er is pretty special.  He doesn’t work in Midtown, he *lives* in Midtown.  And not in Hell’s Kitchen or Murray Hill, but smack dab in the middle of Midtown Lunch’ing central- on 46th St. btw 5+6th, above Akdeniz (!), the Turkish restaurant on Little Brazil.  Oh, and he’s also a Magician.  Meet Josh, possibly the most amazing Midtown Lunch’er of all time… 

 Name: Josh

Age: 28

Occupation: Entertainer (Magician/Comedian)/Foodie (www.nycfoodie.com/)

Where in Midtown do you Work?:I live on Little Brazil, 46th bet. 6th and 5th (right above Akdeniz).

Favorite Kind of Food: Sushi, Thai, Everything

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Love everything

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Buffet at Sun Yip/Ho Yip (45th btw. 5+6th), Anything from Cafe Zaiya (41st btw. Mad+5th), Beef with Peanut Sauce from Pongsri (48th btw. 7+8th), Duck Panang Curry from Pam Real Thai (49th btw. 9+10th), Sultan’s Delight from Akdeniz, Cheeseburger from Five Guys (55th btw. 5+6th), Sushi Special Entree from Hatsuhana (48th btw. Mad+5th), Lamb from the Kwik Meal Cart (45th & 6th), Chicken dishes from The Jamaican Dutchy Cart (51st & 7th).

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: My goto Lunch spot is Cafe Zaiya. For fast, authentic Japanese delights, this place is the best.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? I’d like to be the Full-Time Momofuku Ssam Magician based at 13th and 2nd in the East Village, but will travel to 1st between 10th and 11th to Noodle Bar and Ko. To be able to entertain at any Momofuku(I have actually been known to whip out card tricks while dining at Ssam and Noodle Bar in the middle of my meals) and be able to eat any Chang and Co. creation, would be ideal.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers?: 1. Who makes the best Italian Hoagie in Midtown? 2. Any single gal interested in dining with a magician/foodie?

Wow.  Two very difficult questions.  I don’t know what’s more ambitious, finding a great Italian sub through Midtown Lunch (I’ve tried many and still haven’t settled on the best), or finding a date (many have tried, has anybody succeeded?).  Commenters, I turn this one over to you…

And as always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, or you’d like to nominate somebody in your office, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com

Spent the weekend in my hometown of Miami, and had two lunches which are now going to be added to the Midtown Lunch wishlist.  First up, Pollo Tropical:

This Florida fast food institution is not as great as it once was, but if given the choice between a whopper combo and a quarter chicken combo with rice, beans, and plantains, I think it’s pretty obvious what I’m going to choose.  It can’t hold a candle to most of the latin food here in Midtown, so we don’t really *need* a Pollo Tropical, but it still holds a special place in my heart… (I’ve seen the sign for one off of the freeway in Jersey when you come out of the Lincoln Tunnel.  Anybody ever been?)

And yesterday, we had the lesser known, sweet bastard son of the Cuban Sandwich.  Check it out after the jump… Read more »

On Friday, I got word from the owners of Abitino’s (a generic take out pizza place with multiple locations in Midtown) that City Burger, their newest venture (on 39th just east of Broadway) will finally open today. As I reported in Feburary, the menu and prices are on par with GoodBurger, with the addition of pizza parlor staples like chicken wings and mozzarella sticks. Their meat will come from Pat LaFrieda, the same place the Shake Shack gets the meat for their burgers- so a comparison may be in order. Best case scenario: we finally get a shake shack burger in Midtown. Worst case scenario: another over-priced burger place crowds the the Midtown market (although they seem to have found a little hole in the Midtown landscape that is not serviced by GoodBurger, Five Guys, or The Burger Joint). Most likely middle ground: Midtown now has a fast food burger place where you can also get chicken wings. Very exciting.

I’m actually in Miami until tomorrow, so I’ll be missing out on the Grand Opening, but if you go tell us what you think in the comments. I’ll probably check it out tomorrow, and decide if the $13.50 Burger, Fries, Soda & 5 Chicken Wings combo will put an end to the $10 Midtown Lunch rule!

Related: New City Burger Will Get Meat From the Same Place As The Shake Shack

**UPDATE** 10:45 am – According to commenter DDR, the new Qdoba on 46th btw. Madison + 5th is opening up today as well.

Fusilli with Fresh Vegetables from Peppe Rosso in the Grand Central Food Court
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by nycblondieandbrownie

• Brownie’s favorite lunch in Midtown is at Peppe Rosso in the Grand Central Food Court [Blondie & Brownie]
• There’s a new chef at Ammos Estiatorio, the greek seafood spot on Vanderbilt near Grand Central [TONY Blog]
• Andre Mika has a great steak at old school Frankie & Johnnie’s [Fork NY]
• Some great food porn of Soba Totto [Food in Mouth]
• The owners of Serafina will open a new Brasserie in two weeks [Eater]
• Joel Robuchon will be hanging out at his Aterlier in the Four Seasons next month [Insatiable Critic]
• Park Avenue Winter Just Re-Opened as Park Avenue Spring [Eater]

and finally, it’s not Midtown and it’s not lunch- but I know there are some pork lover up in this piece, so I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t tell you about the pig butchering demo I went to at the Brooklyn Kitchen on Tuesday night. For $75 I got to watch Butcher Tom Mylan (Diner, Marlow & Sons, and Bonita) take apart 1/2 of a whole berkshire pig (and then divide up the meat among the 12 of us).

A pretty amazing pre-butchering photo (head and all) for everyone but the vegetarians, after the jump… Read more »

With my hosting company in full meltdown mode this week, and Midtown Lunch’s server on the fritz I realize that one cannot underestimate the restorative power of venting.  If only I could have complained to somebody at my hosting company (or punched one of their employees in the face) it would have made me feel so much better.  In that spirit, I’ve decided to post two emails I received this week.  (If the Eater Complaints Dept. would like royalties, I’ll be happy to pay up…)

First up is Yushi, the upscale Japanese healthy bento place on 47th btw. Park+Lex:

Zach- I wanted to give you a rundown of today’s Yushi encounter… I know, it’s super expensive and kinda on the healthy yet measly side. But I met my boyfriend there for lunch… he got a seared salmon salad and I got a seared tuna nicoise salad. The salads were just under $10 each but with drinks I ended up plunking down $25.67 (number burned on my brain and in my credit). Grumbling at the fact that my $9.95 tuna salad only had four TINY slabs of tuna in it, I sat down, prepared to savor every last morsel of that shit.

Anyway, today they had several girls walking around with trays of samples.  Don’t know if this is a regular occurrence, but snaps for freebies. Boo and I finagled two prime beef/shiitake mini meatballs with teriyaki sauce each from one candy striper (delish and more filling than an entire $10 salad), then we were also given shot glasses of their tasty firecracker miso from another girl. All seemed well… until I noticed a third long-haired minx of an employee strolling the aisles with what appeared to be coupons in her hands. She seemed to be silently judging the inhabitants of each table she passed, while tapping the pile of coupons against her fingertips. Iactually WATCHED this girl hand coupons to table after table after table of males, explaining with a smile the complimentary miso they’d receive upon their return, yet she skipped two tables of women in between!! To add insult to injury, the chick glided past our table unfazed, offering little more than a selective sideways glance and a slight sneer. As we put on our jackets to leave, I was determined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it wasn’t blatant discrimination or an aversion to her own gender, but maybe she was planning on gifting us with a coupon at the door, or maybe she was legally blind in her left eye.

Either way, the minx was camped out near the door with her stack of discounts, so I beelined straight toward her with an inviting”where’s the candy” look on my face. Don’t you know it, but this girl smiles cattily (perhaps my over keen female sensory picked up on this?) while continuing to click the pile against her fingertips, taunting us, and said smugly, “buh bye now.” And that was it. No coupon?! No thanks for my $25.67 and ten-block trek? I’m still appalled. I knew Yushi was bourgy and too leather-laden for its own good, but this sheer disregard for me as a return customer worthy of a free cup of soup really just chafes me. Thought it pertinent that you know. And if nothing else, perhaps you find this little rant amusing.  Cheers, Profiled Midtown Lunch’er “Shauna”

I don’t find anything amusing about missing out on free stuff, Shauna.  Hope that the public display of your rant will solace you as much as that free coupon would have. 

A 100% true Treats Truck complaint/public service announcement that everyone needs to read, after the jump… Read more »