Lunch service is often treated like ugly step sister of dinner, but it shouldn't be. Lunch is the perfect time to try out a hot new place: It's usually easier to get a table and prices are often lower than at dinnertime. Here are 17 hot restaurants that recently started offering lunch. Some are perfect for lunchtime meetings or simply a solo meal away from your desk, while others may require an afternoon off, since you'll want to have a glass of wine or two.
Read MoreThe Fall Lunch Heatmap: Where to Eat a Midday Meal in New York City Right Now
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Danny Meyer’s insanely popular pizzeria in the Martha Washington Hotel is perhaps best enjoyed during lunch, when the lines are shorter and diners can enjoy the nice light that floods the spacious dining room. Order the much discussed funghi pie, says Ryan Sutton in his two star review: “What makes this pie brilliant is how it balances the earthiness of the mushrooms with a bit of sweet onion and bitter thyme.” [Daniel Krieger]
Claudette
West Village charmer Claudette offers a chance to escape to Provence for lunch. There’s homemade pasta with saffron butter, preserved lemon, basil seeds, and the excellent ratatouille tart. Rounding out the menu are the restaurant’s selection of vegetable plates like the snap peas with radishes in a cumin vinaigrette. [Daniel Krieger]
Dimes
Don’t let the tiny trendy space or the healthy leanings at Dimes fool you, this restaurant cares about more than looks. Robert Sietsema doled out four stars to the newcomer earlier this year. While the restaurant offers a lunch menu, breakfast is also available until 4 p.m. and includes the “spectacular breakfast sandwich made with fluffy scrambled eggs piled high on a roll with cheddar, sliced avocado, and sweet-pickled jalapenos,” which clocks in at only $6.50. There are also several salad and grain concoctions to choose from. [Paul Crispin Quitoriano]
Cherche Midi
Lunch is often the best time to visit Keith McNally’s restaurants, when they are a bit quieter. At Cherche Midi, the lunch menu works a few sandwiches into the mix including a classic croque monsieur and a steak sandwich prepared with prime rib (presumably the same kind served whole at dinner), dijonnaise, gruyere, grilled onions, and pommes frites. A number of the dinner options like the salad Nicoise and the bone-in skate wing meuniere are also available. [Nick Solares]
Corkbuzz Wine Studio - Chelsea Market
Nestled into the side of Chelsea Market, Corkbuzz offers its full menu of small plates starting at lunchtime. Former A Voce chef Missy Robbins is moonlighting here in between projects, and turning out dishes like whipped egg toast with bottarga, and marinated white anchovies with pink peppercorns, and citrus. There are also a few sandwich options, including cotechino sausage in a baguette that’s been brushed with aioli and salsa verde. [Daniel Krieger]
Bar Primi
Italians take pride in their lunches, and so does the team at Andrew Carmellini's casual pasta restaurant. Besides pasta, the stellar seafood antipasto is on offer, and so is the generally adored roast beef sandwich, topped with Italian peppers, provolone, and arugula. [Daniel Krieger]
Ivan Ramen
Ramen master Ivan Orkin offers a couple of special ramens at lunch, including a BLT mazeman and a "red-hot cold" mazeman with rye noodles, prawns, and spicy sesame. As winter approaches, any one of those soups makes for a good choice on a bone chilling day. [Nick Solares]
French Louie
Lunch at French Louie, the French bistro owned by the Buttermilk Channel team, offers some classics like steak tartare and salad Nicoise, plus what owner Doug Crowell calls “Ottolenghi era vegetarian fare” like chickpea flatbread with roasted carrots and beets, mixed grains, and harissa yogurt. [Daniel Krieger]
Russ & Daughters Café
It took 100 years, but there’s finally a place to sit down and eat a bagel with lox that bares the beloved Russ & Daughters name. Appetizing expert and food writer Calvin Trillin recommends the herring platter and Robert Sietsema says the pastrami-cured salmon on a pretzel roll with muenster and sauerkraut is not to be missed. [Robert Sietsema]
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Narcissa
The dining room at Narcissa offers a nice lunchtime reprieve from the din of the Bowery. John Fraser’s vegetable-focused lunch menu is lighter and more gently priced than dinner. The much buzzed about carrot fries and crispy beets are still available, and so are a bunch of vegetarian options like gnocchi with butternut squash, swiss chard, and chestnut confit. For the carnivores, there’s a burger topped with guacamole, manchego cheese, and watercress. [Daniel Krieger]
Wilma Jean
The casual vibe at Wilma Jean fits perfectly with a mid-afternoon meal. Fried chicken and Southern-inspired sides like fried pickles, and piemento cheese with tortilla chips for dunking, are served in baskets. Try the standout fried chicken sandwich on a day when a nap can follow lunch. [Photo]
The Gander
Jesse Schenker’s newest restaurant The Gander is more formal and expensive than Recette, but at lunch the prices come down. Robert Sietsema calls the brisket tots delectable. They remind him a bit of school lunch, but in a grown up kind of way. Pastas can be ordered by the half portion, but the strong buy is to take advantage of the $25 two course prix fixe. [Daniel Krieger]
Aldo Sohm Wine Bar
For those fortunate few who can down a couple of glasses of wine during lunch, the Le Bernardin offshoot, Aldo Sohm Wine Bar offers a small lunch menu of paninis, salads and soups, none of which cross the $15 mark. Use the saved funds towards the bar’s extensive wine selection and play hooky for the afternoon. [Daniel Krieger]
Blenheim
Dining at Blenheim in the evening, especially on its tasting menu, is an investment. Lunch still offers a taste of chef Ryan Tate’s food and produce from the restaurant’s upstate farm at a much gentler price. The menu changes daily but plan on eating your eating your veggies. [Kat Odell]
élan
Elan, David Waltuck’s return to the restaurant scene, is serving a lunch menu that’s American with some French accents. There’s a pate melt (sic) with cornichons and mustard, an omelet of the day, and his General Tso's sweetbreads with leeks, orange, and chilies. [Daniel Krieger]
Root & Bone
The hottest fried chicken restaurant of the fall just launched weekday brunch (which counts as lunch in this book) on Wednesdays through Fridays. The menu is the same as weekend brunch, so expect a fried chicken and waffle sandwich, shrimp and grits, and braised short rib meatloaf with eggs. Or just go straight for that killer fried chicken. [Daniel Krieger]
Kappo Masa
The dinner menu at Kappo Masa isn’t quite as reasonable as many hoped it would be, but thankfully lunch offers bento boxes from sushi master Masa Takayama that are somewhat more gently priced. Box options include toro uni chirashi, shrimp pasta with chili cilantro tomato puree, and mushroom udon, which range from $42 at the high end, to a reasonable $24 for the mushroom udon. Don't forget to stop and check out the art at the Gagosian gallery upstairs. [Daniel Krieger]