Banh mi at Ma Peche

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Chambers Hotel

The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park

zzdtravel already told you about the Chambers Hotel bringing SoHo style to Manhattan’s midtown, but now the boutique property has landed a more significant downtown get: Ma Peche, the first non-East Village location of the much-hyped Momofuku restaurant mini-chain. The Manhattan food world basically treated Ma Peche’s soft opening as a live-blog-worthy breaking news event throughout Thursday — here’s a few of the first thoughts:

Midtown Lunch: “The three terrine banh mi…is out of control good.”Eater: “I think it’s safe to say we have a new banh mi king in town”Hotel Chatter: “Even if you’re not into the rest of the food, you could order the cookie and a glass of milk and still have a smidgeon of the Momofuku experience. In fact, that’s what we recommend.”

Since it’s safe to say Ma Peche will be packed to the brim every lunch hour for the next, oh, five years or so, here are a few alternative spots to grab lunch in this just-south-of-Central-Park slice of Midtown:

Beacon: Just a couple doors down, this power lunch spot cooks almost every menu item over a wood fire, from charred shrimp to beefsteak mini-burgers to roquefort mac and cheese. In addition to the $29 prix fixe lunch, they recently added an a la carte menu as well. 25 West 56th St.

Danku: Over on 57th, this year-old spot offers the Dutch take on fast food, which as you might guess, is not quite as fast and a heck of a lot healthier, with items like spinach and artichoke krokets and spicy Indonesian kale soup. 45 W. 57th St.

BLT Market: One block further up, Laurent Tourondel’s spot at the Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park gives the locavore-farmhouse movement a high-end twist, with mushroom-stuffed Amish chicken and Parmesan-crusted local rack of lamb. 1430 Sixth Ave.

–Brendan Spiegel of Endless Simmer.