Midtown Lunch

Most of my experience with ramen is limited to home-cooked lunch in graduate school and the occasional visit to one of the many delis near my office… sad, I know. But I’ve been meaning to check out a real ramen restaurant for some time now, so when I heard about Ramen Takumi (3rd Ave. btw. 34th & 35th St.), I jumped at the chance to try it out.

Takumi is a cool-looking place, with a tables and bar style seating. It’s menu features not the pork-laden tonkotsu ramen, but shio, a salt-flavored broth. It’s a clean-tasting soup, salty of course, with a bite of seaweed as well. So if you’re looking for rich, fatty broth, this particular ramen spot probably isn’t for you.

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Numbing Hot Chicken from Hunan Manor. Photo courtesy of Food in Mouth

• Hunan Manor has some tasty looking lunch specials [Food in Mouth]
• Nanoosh will turn you into a wrap convert [Lunch Studio]
• Keen’s named one of America’s Classics by the JBF [Eater]
• Totto Ramen named one of the 5 best ramenyas in the U.S. [Grub Street]
• Did you know that Zach hosts a podcast about music and food? [DNAinfo]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Just steps away from the Port Authority is a bar and gastropub aptly named Beer Authority (40th + 8th). Although the Port Authority has a reputation for being a place you should steer clear of generally, and specifically after dark, at least there is a decent bar! Open since April of 2012 and brought to us by the same folks who own Rattle N Hum, it is a relatively new establishment.

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Treehaus (3rd Ave. btw. 50+51st) has been stepping up their Midtown Lunch sandwich challenge game as of late. Each of their offerings has sounded great, including the newest Rutgers Grease Truck sandwich, and the one I tried tasted great. But what really caught my eye on their menu was the porchetta sandwich. I had high hopes for the meat of this sandwich, especially given the porchetta photos Treehaus has posted on Twitter in recent weeks. Specifically, I was looking for thick slices of juicy pork – something I could really sink my teeth into.

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Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

After a very successful outing to Kalustyan’s upstairs cafe, I decided to check out the recently remodeled – and still associated with Kalustyan’s – Curry Leaf.

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Hearing about Treehaus’ new Rutgers grease truck sandwich this week gave us a few hunger pangs for the old Papa Perrone truck, which used to park on 55th btw. Madison and 5th. If you miss them too you’ll be happy to know that Papa Perrone has popped up in brick and mortar form in the St. George area ofn Staten Island at 469 St. Marks Place serving flavored riceballs and a variety of dipping sauce as well as other specialty items. Apparently it’s 10 min from the ferry and down the block from where they are building the new court house. I’m not sure if we miss them that much, but if you live on the island or head out there on the weekends you’ll be excited to know you can some riceball love from an old friend.

Papa Perrone’s Riceball Shoppe, 469 Saint Marks Place. Staten Island

Having zero connection to its similarly-spelled cousin at street level, Soup Stop occupies a corner of that not-quite-as-ugly-as-PABT commuter hell, Penn Station. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t normally give this place the time of day given that it’s co-located with an outpost of the Chipotle/Qdoba/Baja Fresh competitor Moe’s Southwest Grill and a Jamba Juice wannabe, and doubly so when I know Soup SPOT is approximately 30 seconds away. Still, though, good soup is good soup, no matter its kitchen arrangements. Soup Stop is just that – smaller even than Soup Spot. Is it a connection you want to make from Penn or is it best to take the express elsewhere?

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The last time we visited Nino’s 46 (formerly Nino’s Trattoria), it had just reopened and we’ll sheepishly admit that we may have complained a bit about their new, pricier menu. Well they must have been listening, because this week Nino’s 46 began offering a lunch menu that doubles as an all day to-go menu. And we’re pleased to report this new menu has plenty of items under $10. The “Classic Nino’s Heros” include their chicken parm, meatball parm, eggplant parm, shrimp parm, and sausage & peppers, and are all between $7 and $9. Also listed are several salads, sandwiches, and a good selection of breakfast items (that look delicious) for under $10. Thanks Nino’s, we’ll be heading back soon.

Of the various cultural events surrounding Japan Week in March, the most exciting is that ekiben, bento boxes sold at train stations throughout Japan, will be featured as a part of the cultural events held in Grand Central Terminal on March 19-21. A corner of Vanderbilt Hall will be devoted to ekiben, which traditionally contain local specialties from the region they come from. Various NYC restaurants — including a few from Midtown — are providing ekiben that highlight the food from different regions of Japan. Check out a preview of what you can expect on the Japan Week website; no word on pricing, but nonetheless, this should definitely be worth penciling into your calendars.