Lunch Break: Pizza Deals & Meat Steals
A great deal on great pizza; grilled cheese sandwiches with a twist; or all you can eat meat for a price so cheap, it's really a steal: satisfy your hunger with today's Lunch Break! By Yvo Sin.
Motorino
349 E 12th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-2644
motorinopizza.com
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Also See: NYC's Best Slices Of Pizza
Though there are indeed two locations of Motorino - one in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan - the focus today is on the East Village location. The cozy space produces some of the best examples of Neapolitan-style pizza in the area; a super hot wood-burning oven that only takes minutes to char the bottom of a pie and cook the top of it. This leaves the crust tasting something like Italy meets India: pizza top, naan bottom - pillowy, fluffy, airy. Even better than that, however, is the lunch special: $12 gets you a mixed green salad and your choice from a list of four pizzas, two of which cost $16 alone on the dinner menu, and one of which is simply amazing. Brussels sprouts and pancetta may not sound like something you'd like, but give it a try; the Brussels sprouts add a nice touch of bitterness to counter the sweetness of the cheese, the smokiness from the oven and the saltiness of the pancetta. If you can't get behind vegetation on your pizza, there's always the margherita pie as well.
Melt Shop
601 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 759-MELT
meltshopnyc.com
Tucked away in a corner of the open-air atrium at the Citigroup Center at 53rd and Lex, the Melt Shop opened just yesterday, but has managed to attract quite a fair number of fans already. Its location offers many benefits; close to many offices, but sitting at one of the small plaza's many tables affords one a bit of peace and quiet while still in Midtown. You can order a standard grilled cheese for just $4.99, or upgrade for a few dollars more, or get a little crazy with the buttermilk fried chicken with jalapeno jack cheese, red cabbage slaw and melt sauce (secret recipe) served on country white bread. End with something sweet: a homemade ice cream sandwich for $4.25.
Picnic Garden
147-42 Northern Boulevard
Flushing, NY 11354
(718) 358-5959
Picture it: a quiet, nearly empty restaurant, open for lunch as a courtesy, but really reliant on dinner for its customers. Tray after tray of raw marinated meats; kalbi, bulgogi, and every kind in between; banchans piled high in trays nearby, yours for the taking. Load a plate with kalbi (marinated beef short ribs), bring it back to your table where the grill that is sunken in the center has been heating while you chose your wares, and enjoy the sizzle as the meat hits the hot grill. Inhale the amazing aroma of grilling meat; you live in NYC and you probably don't have your own grill or your own backyard to do these things. At Picnic Garden, not only can you do those things, someone else will clean up after you! Sounds too good to be true? The price will put you over the edge: less than $20 after tax and tip gets you access to all that. Feast, friend.
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Yvo Sin is the founder and head writer of Feisty Foodie.
