Weekday Lunch: Toasties

I always like a good sandwich, and sometimes a good wrap would do the trick also. It's hard to find a place that isn't skimpy on the ingredients when it comes to lunch meals. The price is usually jacked up and they barely give you enough greens and meat. I'm always hesitant when going to a cafe and ordering a sandwich or wrap but I sure did give Toasties a chance.

I like taking lunch after 1pm just because there's definitely less people. I hate lines and sometimes it causes confusion and we don't want that when it comes to food. I was in and out of the place in less than 15 minutes. They also have an interesting method of ordering and paying. They have different stations, sandwiches, pasta, salad, etc. - you would order your food, by then the person would give you a receipt and you would take that receipt to the cashier and pay for it all the while waiting for your food to be prepared. Once it's ready, they call a number (which is on the receipt) and bam you're done.

I got myself a Classic Grilled Chicken Wrap. It was delicious. Packed with meat and vegetables and the juices just ooze out of the wrap. There was grilled chicken breast with melted fresh mozzarella cheese, grilled onions, romaine lettuce and roasted red peppers. No sauce needed because everything tasted like it was sauteed so the flavor came directly from the ingredients itself.

Toasties makes the wraps really well. The price was reasonable for places located around midtown.

Toasties
599 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10022
(212) 644-8780

Matsukado (Closed)

Sadly to say that Matsukado is no longer open, it actually closed down some time during 2010. J and I only had the opportunity to go their once out of a spontaneous last minute decision.

It was definitely memorable, there was something about eating there that I didn't forget -- hence the writing of it now.

Matsukado was different. The atmosphere and the interior design was very intriguing. But it was empty when we arrived. It was about 7pm, dinnertime and the only people in the restaurant were us and the staffs. We still stayed and order because the waitress was just so friendly and well-mannered. Now I know why this place was memorable, the waitress kept apologizing every time she came over to our table. It was funny, not annoying.

Kurobuta Sausage

Lightly pan-seared sausages. Extremely flavorful and also oily.

From what I remember, deep-fried sushi? J and I will eat anything deep-fried so we gave it a shot. With sushi being deep-fried, you have to eat it right away because the longer you wait the less crunchy it'll be.

If only I have the memory of a genius, but I don't. A rice dish that accompanied the ramen that we ordered. Fried egg with meat over rice and a dash of soy sauce, that was enough to satisfy me.

The ramen isn't the best looking but it was different. It had bean sprouts that not a lot of ramen shop give and also the egg when cut into half has ridges on it. Little details like these really matters.

It's such a shame that Matsukado has been closed for 2 years, and they were only open for 4 months. But I'm glad I was able to experience it before it actually closed down... forever.