Midtown Lunch

When the downtown portion of Midtown Lunch began, it consisted of a once-a-week post on Fridays. The posts were written by a photographer, so the pictures were a focal point. Then the site was spun off into Downtown Lunch, along with outposts in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and there was new content every day. When I took over in May of 2010, the Financial District, where I worked, was a sort of dead zone for lunch options, consisting mostly of generic delis and straight-laced halal carts that didn’t stray from the lamb/chicken/falafel trinity. There were some notable diversions from that formula, including the Banh Mi Cart, Alfanoose, Zaitzeff and Veronica’s Kitchen cart. However, the lunch tide has turned in the past five years.

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We got a tip recently that Wogies Bar & Grill had opened a second outpost in the city on Trinity Pl. (nr. Rector St.), adding to their original West Village location. They are known for cheese steaks, but also have wings and some twists on the beef/cheese/bread formula (there’s a sandwich involving chopped steak, fried mozzarella balls and pepperoni). No word yet on how the actual food is, so if you’ve stopped in, leave your thoughts in the comments.

Many of you are excited about Tres Carnes coming to Maiden Lane (nr. Pearl St.), and I’m happy to report there is a solid opening date on tap. They open Thursday for your lunching needs, only a week or so behind schedule. You can check out some of their offerings from the review of the Flatiron shop, and get excited about not having to stand in that heinous Chipotle line anymore.

First things first: Pakistan Tea House is up to a B rating from the Department of Health! The Pakistani standby on Church St. (at Reade) was saddled with the dreaded C the last time I ate there, not that I care about such things when there is a cheap, quality steam table lunch at hand.

I was here to try their three-item vegetarian combo, which we’ve somehow not reviewed on this site, instead focusing on the chicken dishes. They have several vegetarian items on offer every day and while none of them were labeled, I found that pointing and asking “What’s that?” worked just fine. I ended up with two hits and a miss using this system.

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• Musings on eating a slice of pizza. [Gothamist]
• Veg-centric Sun In Bloom gets opening date. [TC]
• Mooncake Foods gets a healthy shout-out. [FitR]
• Kam Hing diversifies its sponge cake. [SENY]

Winter weather doesn’t exactly lend itself to standing outside near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge ordering Mexican food. That being said, Nixtamalito on the south side of 1 Centre St. is still going strong in this winter weather (and you can order online if you don’t want to venture out) and I had the craving for something meaty and saucy. While the mole was just fine, the enchiladas verdes surprised me with how delicious and spicy they were. This is just the dish to warm you up in single-digit temperatures.  Read more »