{"id":3365,"date":"2018-06-14T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/?p=3365"},"modified":"2019-02-13T18:24:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T18:24:22","slug":"10-best-fast-casual-restaurants-in-midtown-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/10-best-fast-casual-restaurants-in-midtown-manhattan\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Best Fast Casual Restaurants in Midtown Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s No Place to Eat in Midtown! Part One: The 10 Best Fast Casual Restaurants.<\/h2>\n

I hear it all the time, \u201cthere\u2019s no place to eat in Midtown.\u201d That is technically not true at all. There are hundreds of restaurants in Midtown Manhattan, an area that stretches from 14th Street all the way to 59th Street, and from the Hudson River to the East River–at least according to Google Maps. Other sources will tell you that Midtown starts at 34th or 23rd Street and stretches from 3rd to 8th Avenue. In any case, it\u2019s a sizable area, full of food. But is it the kind of food you want to eat? That depends.<\/b><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re happy with the sort of chain restaurants found nationwide, they are a-plenty in Midtown. Applebee\u2019s, Subway, Olive Garden, TGI Friday\u2019s, McDonald\u2019s, Chipotle, and Au Bon Pain are all well-represented. Other eateries, like Le Pain Quotidien, and Maison Kayser dot the landscape along with Pret a Manger, Cosi, and Five Guys. If you\u2019re like me, however, traveling is an excuse to eat in restaurants<\/a> that I can\u2019t find back home. So here\u2019s a list of my favorite fast casual, multi-location, eateries that can be found in Midtown Manhattan<\/a>, but probably not in my own back yard.<\/b><\/p>\n

Shake Shack<\/h3>\n

Yes, there is a Shake Shack in Baltimore right now, and in a lot of other US cities, too, but if you\u2019re from one of the 27 states that still doesn\u2019t have one of Danny Meyer\u2019s ridiculously popular hamburger restaurants, there are about 17 locations in New York City, six of which are in Midtown. Their hamburgers have become classics, but they also have hot dogs and a crispy chicken sandwich that is my personal fave. The Madison Square Park, Grand Central, and Penn Station locations offer breakfast sandwiches, and they all have frozen custard, which can be had as-is, or blended into a shake, float, or concrete.<\/p>\n

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Num Pang Kitchen<\/a><\/h3>\n

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There are three Num Pang Kitchens in Midtown, each offering hearty Cambodian-style sandwiches served on fresh and crunchy NY-baked baguettes. Served with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro, and a chili mayo, these sandwiches have a lot in common with Vietnamese banh mi. Eschewing bread? Num Pang also has salads and rice or grain bowls with tantalizing toppings like coconut tiger shrimp or peppercorn catfish. My go-to is the five-spice glazed pork belly on semolina, with a side of charred broccoli with spicy goddess dressing, but I would devour pretty much anything on the menu.<\/p>\n

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Xi\u2019an Famous Foods<\/a><\/h3>\n

This spot famous for hand-pulled noodles started out in a 200-square-foot basement stall in the Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing. Rave reviews from major publications and bloggers alike allowed Xi\u2019an to rapidly expand to 11 locations in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, four of which are in Midtown. The food of Xi\u2019an (pronounced shee-ahn), a city in northwest China, combines both Chinese and Middle Eastern flavors, so don\u2019t be surprised to find cumin and other spices intermingled with the more familiar m\u00e1 l\u00e0, or \u201cnumbing and spicy\u201d qualities shared by Sichuan cuisine. The restaurant\u2019s now famous noodles come with lamb, beef, pork, or chicken, served with sauce or in a soup. There are veggie versions too, so everyone can experience their lovely, slightly chewy texture.<\/p>\n

Tacombi<\/a><\/h3>\n

With two Midtown locations, every day can be Taco Tuesday at Tacombi. The menu is short but sweet (tacos, quesadillas, and a handful of other items) but has everything I need to satisfy my taco jones. Sometimes I crave a crispy beer-battered fish taco and at other times the Mexico City classic pineapple and pork al pastor. I can have them both simultaneously at Tacombi because their tacos are sold per each, and not in pairs or trios of one kind (so annoying). I can even go wild and do a black bean and sweet potato vegetarian taco and have a porky carnitas (literally, \u201clittle meats\u201d) taco alongside. I am probably going to stuff my face with their esquites and guacamole, too.<\/p>\n