Midtown Lunch

It’s a sad day for fans of the food court, as Midtown loses it’s only true collection of fast food kiosks under one roof.  (How do you know you’re in a real food court?  At least two places handing out pieces of chicken on toothpics.)  The Manhattan Mall on 34th St. & 7th Ave. has sold the food court space in their basement to J.C. Penny, and most of the places have already closed.  The biggest casualty, Manhattan’s only Arby’s , the undisputed favorite for fans of fast food roast beef flavored bologna.  It will be missed.

Also closed, Wok & Roll, Chicken Bar/Ranch 1, Sbarro’s & Cajun Cafe (home to the world famous “bourbon chicken”).  Still open, the Japanese stir fry place, the Nathan’s/Arthur Treacher’s Combo, Subway, Charlies and the Desert Moon Mexican place… but I wouldn’t count on them being opened for much longer.

My sad, final lunch at the Manhattan Mall Food Court after the jump… Read more »

******************THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED***********************

What kind of price do you put on having a fun meal?  It’s not a new question.  For example, are you willing to pay $50 to eat mediocre roast chicken with your hands?  That doesn’t sound like a good deal.  What if there are grown men jousting in the middle of the restaurant?  Hello!  Or perhaps you’d like some chicken and steak stir fry for $30?  I can get that for $7 at any food court.  What if a “Japanese” guy named “Jimmy” prepares and cooks the food right in front of you, throwing the shrimp tails into his giant chef’s hat?  Now that sound likes fun!

In the end Sakae Sushi is no different then Medieval Times or Benihana.  They’re asking how much extra are you willing to pay for sushi when it moves around the restaurant on little colored plates.  Not enough fun?  Let’s throw in computerized ordering!  This sounds awesome.  I love conveyor belt sushi!  And, I also love weird rolls.  And mayo.  And I don’t have to know what I’m eating to eat it.  And that’s what Sakae is all about.  If you like crazy rolls that pair fried stuff with cooked stuff, topped with raw stuff and smothered in some mayo based sauce, then you’re golden.

Loves conveyor belt.  Check.  Loves weird rolls.  Check.  Loves fun.  Check.  I should have loved Sakae Sushi.  Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.  All the reasons why, after the jump… Read more »

Early word on Indus Express (48th btw. 5+6th) is mostly good.  Full +/- coming soon.  Photo posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by The Flooz.

• Two Starbucks Workers Tortured in Midtown [NY Post]
• A Midtown Burger slideshow!!! [Zagat]
• Does Bouchon Bakery have the best chocolate chip cookie in Midtown? [Food in Mouth]
• CEO Wants Sakae to be the Starbucks of Sushi [Forbes]
• Rene Pujol, Tsushima & the 43rd St. Burritoville on the East side have closed [Zagat]

It’s always nice to learn that you’ve inspired others to harm their body with food.  Apparently my piece on Serious Eats about DJ Grocery’s General Tso’s Philly Cheesesteak, inspired the DJ to set up his own food blog.  And while I can’t take credit for his eating (he clearly was doing this long before I wrote about him), I’m glad I inspired him to share his ridiculous creations with the world.

The site already boasts a plethora of amazing creations, like the kool aid pickle (“these bitches sat in the modified brine for over 4 weeks”), bacon ice cream, jalapeno/bacon infused vodka, pulled pork pancakes, a “meat house”, and beer battered deep fried white castle burgers. 

His latest post could be a Midtown Lunch, involving 1 big mac, and 3 chicken sandwiches.  DJ Grocery’s Big MacChicken, after the jump… Read more »

If you haven’t done so yet, tomorrow (Friday) is the last day you can register to win Jennifer Lee’s new book “Fortune Cookie Chronicles”.  To enter, just post your favorite chinese food dish in Midtown as a comment on Jenny’s profile page.  I’ll contact the winners this weekend.  In the meantime, I’ve assembled some Chinese food porn based on some of the answers already submitted…  enjoy! 

Chong Qing Dry & Spicy Chicken from Grand Sichuan (2nd Ave. & 56th St.) Photo by Roboppy

Mapo Tofu from Grand Sichuan.  Photo by Food in Mouth.

Sliced beef with black mushrooms & bamboo shoots from Joe’s Shanghai (56th St. btw. 5+6th). Photo by Yehwan.

The almighty Szechuan Gourmet, plus assorted meats over rice, after the jump… Read more »

Midtown is too much ground for one man to cover, so comments, suggestions and emails are always welcome.  Most “discoveries” I make come from suggestions, and the comments are always a great place to see where other people are eating.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  When I was having chest pains last week, I attributed it to my “work” here on Midtown Lunch and decided to take a salad suggestion from a commenter, only to find another lame, generic deli, not worth the walk out of my way.  The next day the doctor told me there was nothing wrong with my heart, and that I probably only had the death plague that’s been circulating around New York City (she didn’t use those words exactly…)  Thankfully, I didn’t have to try out any more salad suggestions.

Yesterday it worked out a little better when I checked out the Homefront Deli on 41st btw. Park+Madison, which was mentioned awhile back as a good place for a hot pastrami sandwich.  Expecting a soup, sandwich and salad bar deli, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a hole in the wall sandwich place, with more similarities to Milant then Metro Cafe.

My recommended pastrami and swiss, after the jump… Read more »

Al Baraka, Midtown’s best only Turkish buffet, is now Kanaat Turkish Restaurant.  The chef, food and lunch buffet are exactly the same, but it is now $10.95 (up from $9.95 before).  The lamb shanks are still on the buffet, so it’s worth the extra buck, but the current trend of lunchtime price increases worries me that soon all buffets will need special exemptions to be included in the Midtown Lunch’ing price range.

Another popular buffet that has broken the $10 threshold, after the jump… Read more »

For those people who feel like cutting your generic lunchtime salad up into little pieces somehow makes it taste better, a new Chop’t has opened on 51st btw. 6+7th

• Sakae Sushi gets caught shilling [Eater]
• First it dumps Chipotle, now McDonald’s is divesting its 33% of Pret a Manger in the U.S. [NRN] 
• A guy was stabbed on 45th St. btw. 5+6th at lunchtime on Monday [Gothamist]
• Inside the $18 all you can eat Norweigan Seamen’s Church Buffet [EIT]
• Kathy orders in from Mangia, PJ Clarke’s & Mama Mexico [Passion for Food]
• Is the missing egg at the Chapati Roll Cart sign of a recession? [Lunchboxr]

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 I’m excited to have Jennifer 8. Lee, journalist and author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles”,  my new favorite book for anybody who loves Chinese food (Americanized and/or “authentic”).  It answers every question I’ve ever had about my favorite kind of food, like… What the hell is Chow Mein?  Where did fortune cookies come from? (Spoiler: They’re actually Japanese)  Who is General Tso? What is the best Chinese food restaurant in the World?  And of course… Why do Jews love Chinese food so much???  It’s an amazingly interesting book about how food from China has evolved over the years, most specifically into what people consider “Chinese” food here in the United States.  The book comes out in a week, but we have a few copies to give away today, after Jenny gives her Midtown Lunch’ing recommendations…

 Name: Jenny

Age: 31

Occupation: Journalist, blogger, and Author of the new book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles“)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: The New York Times

Favorite Kind of Food:Anything ethnic, more specifically Asian ethnic. So Vietnamese pho and banh mi sandwiches, dumplings with thick skin (no gyoza please), creative sushi rolls (the bigger the better), Korean cold noodles(spicy and non), Malaysian roti canai, anything the Indians do with cauliflower.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything French and creamy. Blah.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I love Koreatown, so Woorijip (32nd btw. B’way+5th) which is a late night Korean deli that has a buffet and take away meal packages. I love their bulgolgi, their kim bop (beef and tuna good, but I still find the American cheese ones a bit weird), their pajun pancakes, the japchae noodles, and their little pickled vegetables of all sorts: eggplant, radish, and mountain root vegetable (whatever that is). I will grab $50 worth of boxed lunches as a time and bring them home to consume. Also Todai on 32nd btw. Mad+5th. I like their extensive super buffet because they have a good selection of vegetable-based dishes, so very vegetarian and low carb friendly even if you are not into their sushi.  Cafe Zaiya on 41st between Madison and 5th for its Japanese fast food for Japanese expats. I love their rice/nori triangles. And interesting interpretation of “mini pizzas.” They have curry rices and odd sandwiches and pastries. Thank god, there is also an in-store Beard Papa for cream puffs (love green tea ones!) I love the fact you can buy sweet Japanese milk tea in bottles there. During summers you can get a great cool noodle dish whose name now escapes me.  And I like Ustav(46th/47th btw. 6+7th) for nice Indian food. It’s a bit pricier for their lunch buffet compared to the standard $9.99 fare, but it has a beautiful upscale environment to go with it. So it’s nicer for those times when you want a slower paced meal. Of course, I also like grabbing any one of those lamb/chicken meals from the Halal carts that are scattered around Midtown and going back to my desk.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: I like Havana Central on 46th between 6th and 7th, for good, quick, reasonably priced Cuban in a colorful spacious bright restaurant. Turkey cuban sandwich (are there Turkeys in Cuba?), and ropa vieja. I would love to like their chocolate empanadas, but the crust was too hard. Avoid nights if you like conversation. They like to play their music LOUD.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Dubai… Dubai is a city of 85 expats, so there is no native palate to cater to. The ethnic restaurants therefore are generally for the immigrants/temp workers/expats from that region. So you can see the difference between Syrian, Kuwaiti and Iraqi cuisines instead of the”Middle Eastern” we see here. And you can get not just Indian cuisine,but Goan Indian cuisine! It has great street food in many respects but also glistening five star restaurants. One of the top Chinese restaurants in the world, Zheng He, a contemporary take on traditional Chinese cuisine is there. It is a dynamic food culture.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? What’s your favorite Chinese food dish in Midtown?  (Americanized Chinese or Chinese Chinese)

To enter to win the book, just post your favorite Chinese food dish (and Midtown location) in the comments… and don’t be afraid to go with orange chicken!  One of the themes of the book I found so interesting is how it tackles the idea of “authenticity”.  All cuisine has been affected by outside influences, even things that we may consider “authentic” by today’s standards.  So hundreds of years from now, Americanized Chinese food may be looked upon with the same reverence that we look at Dim Sum.

My favorite, after the jump… Read more »

Last February I wrote about Pro Hot Bagel, a hole in the wall bagel and cold cuts deli on 56th St. btw. 5+6th, which had sprouted a small Korean food station, and a sushi bar.  The reaction to the food was mixed, but it appeared to be an ok option for people who wanted some cheap fast food Korean, without traveling all the way down to Koreatown.  Well, in the past six months, the deli has dropped the “Bagel” and is now serving a menu made up almost entirely of fast food Korean.

There is a long line of pre-made bentos along the right wall, or you can go up to the front and order your food fresh off a menu, that includes an assortment of Korean meat dishes, a few stews, and Korean style ramen soups.   The new-found popularity has created turnover that insures a much fresher bento then a year ago, and the selection is great.

But the real stand-out of the menu is the $9.50 Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap (Korean rice dish, served in a hot stone bowl).  Confused as to how a fast food, take out style Korean place could do Bi Bim Bap served in a hot stone pot for under $10, I had to check it out.  Hot stone Korean rice porn, after the jump… Read more »