Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Best Lunch Deal in the City

So, as all of you know I'm a food junkie and based on prior posts on this blog I'm extremely opinionated when it comes to my food. That being said, I tend to frequent places, often by myself, to get a little down time from the office. Bars are among my favorite lunch spots since they are typically not crowded during lunch (except during march madness) and they tend to have surprisingly good food during the day (when people aren't drunk enough to know the difference).

That being said some of my favorite places have lunch specials, which will either be the meal alone or both a drink and the meal. Remedy Bar on 52nd and 3rd had a good lunch special...it was $9.99 for most of the menu items and that came with a beer or soda (it's since gone up to $12.99 for a limited number of items). But deals like that are what I'm after.

So one day I happened to drop into the popular happy hour spot Mercury Bar on 33rd and 3rd. They advertise a $5.95 lunch special. Being that an average sandwich in NYC is $6 and an average salad as soon as you add anything other than lettuce is $7+ I figured what the hell. A few weeks ago I had the vegetable lasagna and it was fantastic. Just like the bartender John recommended. So yesterday I figured I'd drop back in to have a quick bite. The female bartender Crystal recommended the Rigatoni with Roasted Chicken. That was fantastic as well. I'm sure I could've said anything on the menu and she would have said it was fantastic...but i'm glad her words didn't disappoint. It was a nice sized portion, with roasted zucchini and 2 pieces of garlic bread. All for just $5.95. That would be like $14+ at a place like Olive Garden or like $19+ at most fancy Italian restaurants and I'm telling you, no joke, this was at least as good if not better than what you get at places like that. Really good...and not just because it was cheap, that's just an added bonus. They have about 12 different items on the $5.95 lunch menu and so far both haven't disappointed. Here's the link to view their menu: http://www.mercurybarnyc.com/eastside/media/mercurybar.html


The delicious Rigatoni and Roasted Chicken at Mercury Bar

I added a Blue Moon and the bill was $12.45 w/ tax. I left $16 on the counter since I happen to be a generous tipper (if Rachel Ray was around she'd have a heart attack). Actually let me vent on her a bit. She's a cheap ass S.O.B. She probably would've tipped 10 cents. I could hear her whiny, nasely voice - "you guys, I only spent $6.50 on lunch including tip. The meal was $5.95 plus 40 cents tax. Isn't that a great deal or what. YUM-O". I would argue she's done more harm than good to Americans with her cheap tipping habits and her awful talk show.


Pictures like this prove why Rachel Ray is doing more harm than good to Americans

Don't believe me? Just google Rachel Ray and Cheap sometime and see how many links there are. You'll find people trying to defend her and say she's overly generous. If that's the case why go on a show that millions of viewers watch and tip 10% and below. If people are going to emulate you don't set a bad example by tipping $1 on a $15 bill. So Rachel, do us all a favor and go back to your 30 minute meals and teach us something useful. No one needs to see your stupid magazine or your stupid talk show. Only the brainless people of the world follow her word like it's the gospel. Yes, she'll pull the occassional good tip or time saving thing out once in a while. But don't sit there and tell me she's not annoying. And a cheap ass. Cause she is. And her damn voice...it's stuck in my head...get it out!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's Rachel Ray?? You sure? They did a great Photoshop job on her!

Anonymous said...

yes, Americans and Rachel Ray...don't quite get the connection. I'm more of a Giada De Laurentis or however you spell her name fan.

Anonymous said...

It's more like Rachael "Gay"

Anonymous said...

WoW!! Rachel can suck my strawberry! Yowzers

Anonymous said...

don't live in the states, but that looks like a good meal mate! keep up the good work.