Lunch Break: Cheap Japanese Food, Diner Delights

Start Monday off right with cheap Japanese food or great diner goods! By Yvo Sin.

Good Stuff Diner

109 W. 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 929-2555
goodstuffdiner.com

Good Stuff Diner proudly proclaims, "It's what we all like to eat," and you'd be hard-pressed to disagree after just a quick glance at the extensive menu. Like any good diner menu, you'll find the standards of breakfast platters, appetizers, salads, sandwiches and dinner specials... and, of course, burgers. Check out the "Mighty Bites" (pictured), which is described as three 4-ounce burgers, each with a different type of cheese. You might expect smaller burgers, considering the $9.50 price tag, but they really don't seem all that small once they're in front of you; add on a side of fries and you can easily share this with a friend but still be completely stuffed. Yum!

Tomo

89-14 Queens Boulevard
Elmhurst, NY 11373
(718) 803-9799

86-12 37th Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
(718) 205-6222
tomojc.com

It's always good to have a solid, consistent Japanese take out place nearby from which you order whenever the mood strikes. Tomo fills that need for many in both neighborhoods it serves; lunchtime workers from the nearby mall satisfy their cravings with the great lunch menu, boasting standards like chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempura, or pork katsu (fried pork cutlet), ranging in price from $5.95 to 8.95. Don't overlook their 'roll lunch' (pictured), where you can choose two from the list for a mere $7.25. Try the spicy tuna roll with crunch (pictured left); not overwhelmingly spicy, with a nice textural contrast from the crunch. Or stick with standards like the eel avocado roll (pictured right), which is perfectly tasty.

The Food Court At Mitsuwa

595 River Road
Edgewater, NJ 07020
(201) 941-9113
mitsuwa.com/

If you work close enough to Mitsuwa to go for lunch, count yourself immensely blessed (aside from having to work in New Jersey; you get a pass for that one). Mitsuwa contains within it such a wide variety of Japanese food, the best suggestion would be to start at one end and eat there every day, making your way around the food court until you've hit every single stall... then go inside the supermarket itself and eat your way down the left-hand side, where stacks upon stacks of sushi, sashimi, and assorted prepared foods wait for you to purchase and consume them. Forced to narrow down the list, Santouka for excellent ramen and Katsuhama for katsu would be great bets; neither are very expensive as well. If you really needed to pick one, Katsuhama boasts great set lunches, including the Berkshire pork tenderloin katsu special set (pictured), for about $7. Crispy fried pork cutlet served with a huge mound of shredded cabbage (eating that is optional), plenty of rice, a little potato salad, a small block of tofu and some Mandarin orange segments for dessert really hits the spot, and if you're lucky, you'll score a table along the windows in the back of the food court where you can watch the water - or the people trying to park in the narrow lane behind Mitsuwa, mocking them in your head as they repeatedly fail to park properly. Ah... it's the little things.

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Yvo Sin is the founder and head writer of Feisty Foodie.