My friend Martin and I just headed over to check out The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English that opened to the public today in the lower level of The Plaza Hotel (corner of 5th Ave. and 59th St.). The place has a terrific layout with 8 open-kitchen style stations surrounded by bar seats, which include The Grill, The Pizza Bar, The Sushi Bar, The Noodles & Dumplings Bar, The Bakery, The Cheese & Charcuterie Counter, The Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar and The Wine Bar.  While it’s clearly more suited to fat wallet bankers and wealthy European tourists, they do have some salads and sandwiches for the $10 and under MidtownLunch’er.  The spread of fish and shellfish at the Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar station is as impressive as I’ve seen in the city.  The burgers and prime rib sliders coming out at The Grill looked pretty darn good, too.  It’s clear that the idea is for you to pick your station of choice and then order and eat at the bar.  Every bar seat is set up with a wine glass adding some not-so-subtle “please drink some vino with your lunch” subliminal messaging. 

The Food Hall is almost as much a Dean & Deluca-esque market as it is a place to dine.  You can take home fresh fish filets and seafood, cheese sourced from Murray’s Cheese Shop, a variety of freshly baked breads, artisanal chocolates, specialty foods such as olives and olive oils, vinegars, spices, gourmet coffee, tea and cocoa, housewares and more.  Martin and I both needed to have a relatively quick lunch and were excited to see an offering of $7 specialty sandwiches and paninis on display at the Cheese & Charcuterie Counter. There was a delicious-looking pastrami and swiss on pumpernickel, a mortadella sandwich on french baguette, and a specialty BLT.  But neither of us could resist the house-smoked pork with raclette cheddar cheese on sweet brioche roll.

This sandwich sounded pretty damn good on paper, and it looked pretty good as well.  But neither of us thought it was going to be as good as it was.  In fact, I’m still tasting smoked pork goodness as we speak.  I asked the lady behind the counter if it came with any sort of sauce.  I flinched when she said it didn’t, but in retrospect it doesn’t need anything else at all.  The combination of the house-smoked pork slices with the raclette cheddar cheese and the sweet brioche made every bite enjoyable.  I had mine grilled and Martin had his plain.  We both remarked that they definitely don’t cut any corners on the quality of the ingredients and how we’d be pretty surprised if these sandwiches stay at their current $7 price.  Martin even said that “New York Magazine came out with its list of the city’s best sandwiches one week too soon.” 

Here’s a cross-section shot.  While it doesn’t look big, I promise you it’s a pretty substantial sandwich.  We both have hearty appetites and were plenty full afterwards. 

Here’s a look at the very impressive array of fish on display at the Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar.

And shellfish, too.

Here’s a look at the assortment of $7 sandwiches we stumbled upon at The Cheese & Charcuterie Bar.

Chef English was there himself for some photo opps behind The Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar.  I look forward to going back to The Plaza Food Hall and trying each of the 8 stations one-by-one.

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