Midtown Lunch

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the new Pranzo Pizza Truck that recently popped up on 55th & Park is a really complementary outfit.  My guess is the Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck doesn’t see it that way.  It’s one thing to build your own truck and serve pizza out of it.  It’s another thing to copy another truck’s entire concept, down to the design of the menu.

On the other hand, you have to admit- it’s pretty ballsy to start a pizza truck 4 blocks away from New York City’s most famous pizza truck.  It must be good, right?  Not entirely trusting their own “Best Grandma Pie” proclamation painted on the front and back of the truck, I decided to try it for myself.  As skeptical as I was, you know I can’t resist food out of a truck!

The pizza pie porn, and +/- after the jump… Read more »

_{One of Yesterday’s Specials @ the Treats Truck
Chocolate filled Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich}

• Naked guy gets locked out of Olive Garden, but infiltrates Tad’s Steakhouse in Midtown [NY Post]
• The Treats Truck has added Butterscotch Bars to their every day menu… and the Chocolate filled Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches are almost there. (They’ll also be at 38th & 5th today from Noon to 3:30pm) [Treats Truck]
• The Harlem Globetrotters will be at the Midtown Sbarro’s on Wednesday! [Zagat]
• Comfort Diner, Bouchon Bakery & ‘wichcraft have the best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in Midtown [Gridskipper]
• Famous chefs will be cooking under $10 lunches at the Hard Rock Cafe, the last week in October?!? [Grub St.]

Ever wonder what an enormously fat nerd will do when posed with the option of a lapdance or food? This amazing video solves the mystery. (Giving up a bag of McDonalds isn’t much of a choice. Pink’s Hot Dogs? That’s another story…)

The 2008 Zagat guide arrived in stores this week, and once again the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien Hotel has received the highest score of any Midtown Lunch that appears in the guide (a 24).  Ess a Bagel, who I wrote about this week, was a close runner up with a 23.  If you expand the Midtown Lunch boundaries a little bit, the Azuri Cafe (on 51st btw. 9+10th), is actually the big winner, receiving a deserving 25 (up from 24 last year) for what I consider to be the best Falafel in the city.  Not much has changed since from what I wrote about the 2007 guide but there are a few things worth mentioning.

Best Korean, whose scores went up and down, and the most ridiculous Midtown Lunch quote in the book- after the jump… Read more »

As if the cruddy weather hasn’t been enough of a reminder, it’s now
official. After a summer-long hiatus, the “Hot Soup” carts are back.
Bring on the cold.

 

I may be too excited to type out this post.  Sushi.  On conveyor belts.  In Midtown.  Oh my lord,  my prayers have been answered.  No, not the one where David Chang starts serving Korean burritos out of a cart on 49th St. & 6th Ave,  or the one where Saigon Banh Mi opens a Midtown branch, but doesn’t change their prices.  It’s the dream, where I’m sitting in a Midtown Japanese restaurant, and all the food is circling around me, there for the taking, around and around, each plate begging “Pick me!”  “Take me!” “Don’t I look good?!?”

That’s a good dream.  And hopefully by the end of the year, I will finally get to visit this place while I’m awake.  Sushi Sakae, a very large and famous Singapore chain of Japanese (go figure) Conveyor Belt Sushi restaurants is opening their first U.S. location here in Midtown.  It’s going up on 43rd btw. Lex. & 3rd Ave. and they are hoping to open it by the end of November.

Conveyor belt porn, and a sneak peak, advance look at the U.S. take out menu- after the jump… Read more »

 

While I was in London a few weeks ago, I got to eat at the Mecca of Offal, Fergus Henderson’s St. John’s Restaurant.  Pork fat, pig’s head, bone marrow, and ox heart were the highlights, and you can read all about my meal, complete with photos at Serious Eats.  With Fergus in NYC this week, promoting his new book “Beyond Nose to Tail“, and that truly decadent meal still fresh in my mind, I thought this might be the perfect opportunity for a list of the Best in Midtown Lunch entrails, organs and animal bits that don’t often get used.

Best Oxtails, tripe, sweetbreads and more- 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 Aaron, an Investment Analyst who loves to double fist soup and is looking for some good Tex-Mex.

Name: Aaron

Age: 33

Occupation: Investment Analyst

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 54th & 6th Ave.

Favorite Kind of Food: Tex-Mex. This is easily the worst part about being a Texan but living outside of Texas. I tried for a while to find great Tex-Mex in Manhattan and finally settled for Cancun (8th Ave just north of 55th), but I ate there only to get my fix.  Last month, though, I discovered something far better: Ah Chihuahua on East 53rd between 1st & 2nd. It’s quite a walk for me at lunchtime, but the food is worth it. Good guacamole, great cheese enchiladas, $6 or $7 lunch combos all served with rice & refried beans, complimentary chips & salsa, $3 margaritas between noon and 3pm (I hear they’re good, but I’ve not had one).

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything bland, primarily Middle Eastern.

Favorite Place to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Empanada Mama (53rd & 9th) – corn empanada with ground beef, dipped in the green hot sauce, with a side of plantain chips & guacamole. Not technically within the confines of “Midtown” but they deliver.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Pax, or other assorted soup-and-sandwich delis. So boring.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Kati Roll (now on 38 btw. 5+6th), the taco cart on 50th (btw. 6+7th), the famous Chicken & Rice Cart at 53rd & 6th (a cart with its own website!), the Hallo Berlin cart, and the Daisy May’s BBQ cart.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why?  Dallas – dozens of Tex-Mex and bbq choices in every direction

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Is there any better Tex-Mex in NYC than Ah Chihuahua (on East 53rd between 1st & 2nd)?

I’ve got to admit that Tex Mex is not really my thing.  I don’t mind it, and I’ll eat it- but to me, saying “I Love Tex-Mex” is like asking “Anybody know where I can get some American tasting Indian food?”  I know there are some Texans who read this blog who are going to disagree, so have at it.  And, after you are done telling me how stupid I am, recommend some good Tex Mex that will change my mind (and make Aaron happy). 

As always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com

Growing up in a Jewish family meant bagels and lox were always served on special occasions.  Break the fast and special Sunday mornings visiting Grandma always made exciting events, if for no other reason than the appearance of bagels and a giant platter of smoked fish.  Even funerals were an event to get a little excited about.  Sure, somebody died- but isn’t this pickled herring delicious?  I don’t really celebrate the holidays that often anymore, but I have not lost my appreciation for a nice bagel with cream cheese, onion, lox and white fish.

Unfortunately, the one drawback to this food (and the thing that makes it difficult in the context of Midtown Lunch’ing) is the price.  Smoked fish is expensive.  It’s tough to get a bagel with lox or whitefish in this city for under $10, which made the “discovery” of Ess a Bagel all the more exciting.  I say “discovery” because Ess a Bagel is not exactly a hidden gem.  When people argue about the best bagels in New York City, it will almost always come up, and while their original location is on 21st & 1st Ave., they have a second location on 3rd Ave. & 50th.  Or as I like to call it Midtown Lunch East.

What they’ve got, bagel porn, the +/- and exactly how they “got me”, after the jump… Read more »

_{“Rice balls” from Oms/b
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by Stu Spivack}

• Nosher discovers the glories of East Side rice balls at a Midtown Lunch favorite [NYC Nosh]
• Purnima on 54th is still empty, despite Gordon Ramsay’s help [Zagat]
• Bistro Desaret & Johnny Rockets will fight it out on 3rd Ave. during lunchtime [NY Sun]
• The Hooters on 56th had a big calendar party the other night! [Gawker]
• New Midtown Japanese Omido gets mentioned by FloFab, NYMag & Metromix [Eater]
• Bouchon Bakery alum will be chef at the Columbus Circle Blue Ribbon [Hote Chatter via Eater]