Cheap eats and lunch in Midtown Manhattan: where locals actually go

The best cheap lunch in Midtown Manhattan is rarely in the obvious place. Office workers tend to stay within a block or two of their desks and settle for an expensive salad, but a short walk gets you to a halal cart, a Koreatown soup shop on 32nd Street, the restaurants along Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, a food hall or a good slice. Timing matters as much as place: beat the 12:30 rush and lunch is easy.

What is the classic Midtown street lunch?

Chicken over rice from a halal cart. Halal carts began spreading across New York in the 1980s and 1990s to feed Muslim workers, many of them Egyptian taxi drivers, and one of the best known started as a hot dog cart at 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue in 1990 before switching to halal food. The standard plate is chopped, spiced chicken or gyro meat over yellow rice with shredded lettuce and tomato and a piece of pita, finished with a creamy white sauce and a fiery red hot sauce. Go easy on the red sauce the first time. Carts move a lot of food at lunchtime, so the line usually goes quickly.

The white sauce is a creamy, tangy mix usually made from yogurt, mayonnaise and garlic, and the yellow rice, chopped chicken, shredded lettuce and squeeze bottles of sauce set the template nearly every halal cart in the city follows. By the late 2000s, halal carts had begun to outnumber hot dog carts as the city's most common street food.

Where should you eat lunch in Koreatown?

Manhattan's Koreatown centers on West 32nd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, a block also known as Korea Way, a few minutes from Herald Square and Penn Station. It is packed with Korean restaurants, bakeries and cafes, and many restaurants serve lunch sets: soups and stews, bibimbap, cold noodles and kimbap. A bowl of soup with rice and side dishes is one of the most filling lunches in Midtown for the money, and many places on the block are open very late, some around the clock.

Is Hell's Kitchen good for lunch?

Yes. The restaurants along Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, roughly from the high 30s to the 50s, cover a wide range of cuisines, including Thai, Ethiopian, Greek, Mexican and Italian, and many are better value than the places closer to Times Square. The neighborhood is also a good choice before a Broadway show, though restaurants fill up quickly in the hour before curtain.

What are the quickest lunch options in Midtown?

Option	Good for	Watch out for
Halal cart	Fast, filling, cheap	Long lines at the most famous corners
Slice shop	Two slices in five minutes	Slices that have sat too long
Deli or bodega	Sandwiches made to order	Lines at 12:30
Food hall	Many choices in one place	Packed at peak times
Koreatown lunch set	A hot, full meal	A short walk from the east side
Chain salad shop	Predictable	Price and lines at noon

What should you get at a Midtown slice shop or deli?

At a slice shop, ask for a plain slice, which is the classic New York cheese slice, and let the counter reheat it so the base crisps up. Fold it lengthwise to eat it on the move. At a deli or bodega, the counter makes sandwiches and heroes to order, and the bacon, egg and cheese on a roll works at any hour, not just breakfast. Both are fast, cheap and easy to carry to a park bench.

How do you avoid the Midtown lunch rush?

Lunch in Midtown peaks between about noon and 1 p.m., with food halls and popular counters at their busiest around 12:30. Going at 11:30 a.m. or after 1:30 p.m. cuts the wait dramatically. Ordering ahead through a restaurant's own app or website, where offered, also helps. If you have only half an hour, a cart or a slice shop is the safest bet.

Are Midtown food halls worth it?

Food halls collect a number of vendors under one roof, often near major transit hubs, and they are useful when a group cannot agree. They are rarely the cheapest option, and they get very crowded at peak lunch, but they offer seating, which is scarce in Midtown. Vendors change often, so check what is open before you go.

How much should you tip at lunch?

At a counter, cart or food hall where you order and collect your own food, tipping is optional; many screens suggest a tip, but you can choose not to. At a sit-down restaurant with table service, tip 18 to 20 percent of the check. New York City adds 8.875 percent sales tax to restaurant food, so the final total will be higher than the menu prices. Check the current rate if you are budgeting closely.

Where can you eat your lunch outside?

Midtown has more places to sit than it seems. Bryant Park, behind the main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, has thousands of movable chairs and hundreds of tables, and on a nice day it fills with office workers eating lunch. On a warm day, a cart lunch on a park bench beats most sit-down options.

The best Midtown lunch is the one you can repeat on a busy weekday. On Mosey you can rate the places you eat and the dishes you order, with photos, keep a list of lunch spots near the office, and follow coworkers to see where they go.

More guides to read next:

• Manhattan Chinatown food guide: dim sum, dumplings and bakeries
• New York pizza styles and how to choose a slice shop
• NYC restaurant letter grades: what A, B, C and Grade Pending mean

More in the US food guides and the ranked lists of places.