4:00pm chocolate mousse

An unusual departure from the normal post but here are two things of note:

One is that if you place an order at Bread and it's over $50, you get this free and lovely chocolate mousse.

And second Butter Lane offers the following: Anyone who comes into Butter Lane and mentions they saw us on this LUNCH blog gets two-for-one cupcakes Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays through the month of February. (Limit two per day.) At the end of the month, the blogger with the most mentions wins a dozen cupcakes!

Jup She, with Saha

The Koreans aren't really known for their vegetarian dishes, in fact the menus tend to be pretty meat heavy. But Jup She has conveniently marked their menus not with a hot pepper for spicy but green scallions for vegetarian. Even if the jap-chae noodles are described as: vegetarian friendly dish, clear sweet potato noodles stir fried with beef and veggies.
Jup She, 171 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (at Baxter)

4:00pm blondie

More reviews coming in about neighborhood newcomer, the Village Tart, all of which Eater summarizes neatly here. The only negative comments deal with service, which seem hardly fair when you're so newly opened. I trust those kinks get worked out. What is so promising are the many favorable reviews of the desserts themselves. Because hopefully that means when their full savory menu comes in to play we will not only have a new dessert place, but a new lunch place too! On the docket today - blondies. Do you see the dark chocolate hidden in the layers? A sweet and lovely surprise.
Village Tart, 86 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (at Mulberry)

Cafe el Portal, with Kristina

Sometimes it's too comforting to order the old tried and true (huevos con chorizo!), especially at places we've known forever. So it's always good to lunch with a variety of friends since you could never predict someone's tastes. Like how could I have known KO's new favorite dish is the Chile en Nogada at Cafe el Portal? I never knew that walnut sauce went well with pomegranate seeds and jablano chilies.
Cafe el Portal, 174 Elizabeth St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Kenmare & Spring)

4:00pm red velvet cake

3-day old red velvet cake from Sweet Revenge? STILL good. The density of the cake kept it from becoming too dry and the chill on the frosting from the refrigerator was actually a very nice touch.
Sweet Revenge, 62 Carmine St, NY, NY 10014 (btwn Bedford & 7th Ave)

Emporio, with friends

We're accumulating a nice mass of neighborhood lunch mates, among them the great people behind the scenes at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. We walked over in brilliant winter sunshine to Emporio, where the menu was so appealing that none of us could really decide what to eat. In the end there were 3 pastas for the 3 ladies and 2 panini for the 2 gentlemen. All 3 pastas were remarkably fresh and good, I might have to go back and try some more. The panini, as Cesar remarked, was good and clearly made of good ingredients but not necessarily remarkable.
Emporio, 231 Mott St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

4:00pm rugalah

Village Tart, the much anticipated newcomer to the neighborhood has just opened to regular hours. It's already brought in a favorable review from friend and dessert connoisseur, Kathy over at SE so I stopped by to check it out. An enticing display of delicate desserts is lovingly spread over the entire counter. They are still working out the kinks but the cash register is open and the desserts are waiting to be devoured. I couldn't decide which to try so I'm going to start on the left and work right. Today begins with a very promising start in the little bite size rugalah.
Village Tart, 86 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (at Mulberry)

Rye House, with o

Rye House is another addition to the new "new american" roster of restaurants, featuring gastronomically intense reinterpretations of classic dishes. I didn't mind the onion tart but I prefer classic gloppy and sloppy mac n cheese to tidy fried balls. Still Rye House has that nice warm atmosphere and an interesting beer selection, enough reason to spend a long lunch catching up with an old friend. And since we shared several plates, next time I might check in advance that the old friend likes french fries on his sandwiches. Or next time I might just go back for the Pittsburgh alone.
Rye House, 11 West 17th St, NY, NY 10011 (west of Fifth Ave)

4:00pm red velvet cake

If only all birthdays were celebrated by the fine folks at Harvest. They fete you with lunch and cap it off with the dessert of your dreams. In this case community manager Karen favors the red velvet cake from Sweet Revenge and we are not in a position to argue! The cake is super dense and lovingly moist with our kind of heaven, a not too sweet cream cheese frosting.
Sweet Revenge, 62 Carmine St, NY, NY 10014 (btwn Bedford & 7th Ave)

La Esquina Cafe, with friends

I know, I know, it's the fifth lunch in a row of sandwiches, I promise tomorrow will be different. Normally we're huge fans of La Esquina's torta de pollo rostizado (rotisserie chicken sandwich) but there's a difference between having one in the cafe versus ordering one for delivery. The former comes on a pretty porcelain plate, with chips, and is delightful. The later is a little soggy by the time it reaches me and there are no chips. The flavors, fortunately, remain consistent but other than that there is not too much to recommend for the delivery of chicken sandwiches.
La Esquina, 106 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (at Cleveland Place)

Tea & Sympathy

I've never tried the to-go shop portion of the much beloved Tea and Sympathy, much preferring the restaurant for a civilized meal of sandwiches and tea served in dainty china. But you know how time goes, it flies. Those Brits sure know how to make a great tea sandwich. They do have centuries of drinking tea to perfect the art. For me this is the perfect balance of egg salad, slightly bitter watercress and soft squishy white bread.
Tea and Sympathy, 108 Greenwich Ave, NY, NY 10014 (at Jane St)

4:00pm madeleines

For me there is something so essentially classic about a good madeleine. Similar to pound cake, the ingredients are so basic: flour, eggs, butter and sugar. And what a lovely size, neither too big nor too small. All in all, a perfect afternoon snack.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Cafe Select, with Steve

I'm not sure anyone will remember the former Bistrot Margot on Prince Street but they had a delicious roast pork sandwich on baguette for which we have never found an equal. I got all excited to see a pork loin sandwich lunch special at Cafe Select but it wasn't really the same thing. It was good enough though and I would go back. A little messy but nice.
Cafe Select, 212 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 (at Kenmare)

4:00pm muffin

This morning Matt brought in the most delicious muffins from Brooklyn, so fresh they were still warm from the oven. No wonder Blue Sky Bakery has a cult muffin following - they're amazing. I waited until the afternoon to try a piece of the chocolate chip zucchini muffin and even after sitting out all day on a tray, it was STILL good.
Blue Sky Bakery, 53 Fifth Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 (near Bergen)

Miro Cafe

Sometimes I get the oddest craving for the #70 sandwich at Miro's. We rarely go to Miro Cafe, it's your run of the mill salad and sandwich lunch crowd and not particularly interesting. But there is something about red cabbage slaw combined with roast beef that I just cannot resist.
Miro Cafe, 494 Broadway, NY, NY 10012 (below Houston)

4:00pm mini donuts

Of the many things I love about going back to Pittsburgh is discovering new things. Like this morning I was walking along Penn Ave looking for coffee when a sign jumped out in front of me declaring "FRESH DONUTS", arrow pointing to the right. Unable to resist, I followed my nose to a tiny little, just newly opened, donut shop selling fresh mini-donuts made practically to order. Naturally I picked up a dozen to try. Deeelicious! Nothing like fresh mini donuts to perk up any gray day.
Peace, Love and Little Donuts, 2018 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

La Feria, with Art

I'm in Pittsburgh today, having lunch in Shadyside at La Feria, a Peruvian restaurant that I remember fondly from when we used to live here. It still is as charming as ever, and still offering lunch specials consisting of some meat or vegetable entree accompanied by a full plate of rice, salad and two pieces of bread. It's true I've only had the Pio Pio salad and this one but I gotta say those Peruvian salads are just awesome, pretty simple and fresh.
La Feria, 5527 Walnut St, Pittsburgh, PA

4:00pm mini cupcake

I elicited Ray's hand's help with this photo to illustrate scale but still, I'm not sure you can fully appreciate the smallness of this mini cupcake. It seems what Baked by Melissa started in her mini cupcakes is the next trend in cupcakes. As if cupcakes weren't trendy enough to begin with, now Dean & Deluca features a full array of mini cupcakes from all the big makers.
Dean & DeLuca, 560 Broadway, NY, NY 10012 (at Prince)

Halal Cart on Broadway

I was chatting with a friend today about lunch when she mentioned some irresistible words, "quick and dirty". And immediately I could not get the image of messy street food out of my brain. The trick to eating these is to carefully unwrap one end, holding the other end still wrapped in the foil so the sauce doesn't drip everywhere. Then gently tear off the end and about one inch of foil, exposing just enough sandwich to eat. Keep going, one spiral inch at a time, until you reach the end.
Halal Cart on Broadway, below Prince

4:00pm cookies

You know sometimes I wonder if it would not be better to just get 2 of the same cookie instead of 2 different cookies. Because there is always the trouble of trying to decide which to finish on and then it's sometimes not as satisfying to have only 2 bites of a particular taste. Ah you see our conumdrums over here.
Eileen's Special Cheesecake, 17 Cleveland Place, NY, NY 10012 (at Kenmare)

Parigot, with Josh

Parigot is on its way to becoming a reliable neighborhood bistro, although it would be nice if their price point was either below $10 or included a little something extra. $12 for a huge omelet, salad and fries is on the pricey side. But losing the side salad and fries is not the solution we choose as both are substantially tasty accompaniments. Some of other proposals to consider: (1) include a small glass of OJ, (2) serve with a cup of soup, or (3) reduce the size of the servings. I wonder what happened to the $9 lunch special.
Parigot, 155 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (at Lafayette)

4:00pm apricot danish

A virtually perfect danish this afternoon. Flaky, light, moist, slightly sweet, and sweet juicy apricots. Ohhh yeah mmmm. Go get yourself over to Oro Bakery now and look for the orange eyed marmoset.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Oro Bakery

As you can see I got half way through lunch before remembering to take a photo! Oops. Well at least two quarters of a cured sweet sausage and fontina hot pressed sandwich look as nice as a whole one would have. Pressed sandwiches always take longer than I want them to but in the winter hot food is always worth waiting for.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

4:00pm cookie

As with most of the Momofuku desserts we have tried, this cookie is intensely salty and sweet at the same time.
Momofuku Milk Bar, 207 2nd Ave, NY, NY 10001 (at 13th St)

The Breslin, with Liz and Peter

I can't believe it's already time for our bi-annual, luxuriously long lunch with Liz and Peter. They suggested the Breslin, which we were pretty eager to try. Once there we couldn't resist the delectable menu and between the 4 of us we had 4 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 sides and 2 desserts. Ok, so not that bad but we could have left off 2 plates and been pretty well fed. Highly, highly recommended: caesar salad, goat cheese and leek tart and the beef tongue sandwich.
The Breslin, 16 West 29th St, NY, NY 10001 (btwn Broadway & 5th Ave)

4:00pm vanilla cupcake

More snow flurries expected dear friends - seems like this chilly and bitter cold will be a constant companion this winter. On the other hand we're already into the double digit days of January, the days are slowly getting lighter and spring is just around the corner.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Epistrophy, with Matt

Epistrophy is becoming a super solid choice for taking friends out to lunch. Everyone we go there with likes it. The menu is diverse, the food decent, the prices relatively reasonable, the atmosphere great and the location ideal (well for us anyway). Today an unexpected visitor, younger brother Matt of close friend Maggie dropped by for lunch before heading back to school. Love last minute lunching with friends.
Epistrophy Cafe, 100 Mott St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Kenmare & Spring)

4:00pm citrus tart

Waaaah what happened to our new favorite lemon tart? We were all excited to have this citrus tart from Falai again but I knew as soon as the girl behind the counter carelessly picked it up with a pair of tongs that something was different. For one it no longer crumbles and while the flavor is the same, the texture is way more stiff. Hrumph.
Caffe Falai, 265 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

Baluchi's

The great thing about having office mates is they randomly bring in treats like donuts and more donuts. The not so great thing is it makes us a little lazy to leave the office for lunch. On the other hand when we do stay in and order with them, the company and lunch conversation is unbeatable.
Baluchi's, 193 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (near Sullivan St)

4:00pm chocolate chip cookie

The interesting thing about this image is not that it came from Le Pain Quotidien, because actually that's not even very interesting. The interesting thing is that the strangeness of the image comes from just bleaching out the creamy background to white.
Le Pain Quotidien, 100 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mercer & Greene)

Cafe Noir, with Josh

Cafe Noir is more about the atmosphere than the veggie burgers but then again it's always been more about windows thrown wide open on a fading summer evening with cocktail in hand than chilly winter lunches. Nevertheless, an old neighborhood staple worth stopping by every now and then again.
Cafe Noir, 32 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (at Thompson)

4:00pm Doughnuts

Sometimes I marvel at what jewels of office mates we have. Shawn brought these Doughnut Plant doughnuts in for our pure enjoyment. Don't think I need to write much about this one.
Dean & DeLuca, 560 Broadway, NY, NY 10012 (at Prince)

Banh Mi So

I'm not a fan of feeling rushed, but today I'm feeling rushed. So much to do with so little time. In such cases, Banh Mi's are a no-brainer. Cheap, fast and fabulous which are 3 things that do not co-exist in our field; everybody wants it, nobody can attain it. Thank goodness that's not the same with food.
Banh Mi So, 369 Broome St, NY NY 10013 (btwn Mott and Elizabeth)

4:00pm chocolate fondant

While neither of us are huge chocolate aficionados, we both agree that a beautiful fondant au chocolat (aka molten chocolate cake) is a hard dessert to match. On new year's eve, we started to reminisce our fond fondant memories, and then of course we needed to have some ourselves! With left over good quality chocolate from the last year's chocolate event, making it at home sounded like a great idea. Though only if you don't lose track of time, I guess. As you can see there is no molten, in the molten chocolate cake. But thanks to the ingredients, it passes for a decent brownie.

Zaitzeff

We have yet to experience the rave hamburger moment described by Adam in his review of downtown Zaitzeff although certainly we can agree the ingredients are super fresh, the meat nice and juicy and the proportions pretty pleasing. If I worked downtown and needed a burger, I would go to Zaitzeff. But I might find myself sprinkling salt and pepper with abandon, like we did today, in order to combat the blandness of the patty.
Zaitzeff, 72 Nassau St, NY, NY 10038 (at John St)

4:00pm banana coconut bundt cake

Wow, so moist and absolutely delicious! A tad sweet, but wow. Picked this up after a museum visit yesterday and hesitated as there are some here in the office who don't really like coconut (but why would you not???), but so glad I stuck to my instincts. We very much wish Yura were closer to our office. Our last visit there, also on a cold afternoon, as we all remember well from the historical presidential inauguration, was really good too.
Yura on Madison, 1292 Madison Avenue at 92nd St

Lahore Deli

A lunch from Lahore Deli means that it's one of those days that we just don't have enough time to go out for a proper lunch. What a way to start the year. That being said, Happy New Year's dearest readers, and we look forward to many good "aughts" eats for the next year!!!
Lahore Deli, 132 Crosby Street below Houston