If you want to eat some sort of weird ethnic food, you can't find more easily than on the Ave...and it's the CHEAP place to scarf.
Although all the other streets in the University District are Avenues, what should be 14th Avenue is officially called 'University Way.' So of course, everybody calls it 'The Ave.' Below Campus Parkway is 'Lower Ave,' which is of no tourist interest until it hits the water at Boat Street, where Agua Verde and Boat Street Cafe offer very pleasant dining. North of 50th is the 'Upper Ave,' with a solid row of cheap foreign chow. In between is just The Ave, boulevard for students, street people, beatniks, bozos, buskers, and boners. And the length of it is almost solid restaurants—almost all of them in the cheaper price range, and almost all offering lunch specials. Here's a partial guide:
Lets start south and work our way north, like fire ants and killer bees. At 4114 is Shultzy's Sausage, where only a boor would call them hot dogs. Under $5 will get you some incredible wienies on your buns—bratwurst, Kosher, Italian, even Cajun Andouille. They even have an in-house oxymoron—the sausage hamburger. It’s a homey place popular with pre-football crowds, with a big window opening to the passing Ave. traffic. This block is also packed with several very nice coffee houses, by the way—Perkengruven fits into the Euro-ghetto style with its antiseptic Scandic interior.
Now we’ll jump up to 4311, where the Russian Bakery serves Piroshky, Pelmeni, traditional borsch Piroghies, and stuffed cabbage (and you can get something for as low as $2.95). That's pretty much it for Euro-centric cuisine. The rest tends towards Third World Beat eats.
We’ll start out right with Orizuru, a Japanese place set back in a parking lot at 4128. They have good food and a style that tends to please a largely Japanese clientele, as well as normal prices. But the nice thing is that they have tables outside—a rarity on the Ave.
At the corner of 42nd is Shalimar, occupying the spot that was the center of the Ave. for decades: the 24-hour Coffee Corral, owned by handball god Mike Chase. Nowadays, it’s a decent Indian place where you can get an Indian salad for $3.50 or a muligatawny soup and naan for $3.50. Can you pass that up? The name alone...muligatawny. Cool.
Across the street at 4139 is a heavy hitter in the cheap eats sweepstakes—Aladdin Falafel. You can order to-go right out the front window or go in the back, where tapestries and that weird/wired Near East music create a sort of cut-rate seraglio feel, sometimes marred by the presence of doofus frat kids. But the main thing is that they do it CHEAP. Their starting sandwich, with a dozen choices including gyro, chicken, and falafel, is only $2.76. UNDER $3! You can add size, sides, and goodies for more money. Size may not matter, but sides do. There is another Aladdin above 45th at 4541, but it is just a counter and grill. Same low prices, though.
The east side of the block north of 42nd, up to the post office, is almost totally packed with a world-spanning variety of food with alluring odors. All are tasty, and all run about $5.95 to start, also to-go. But one that calls for special notice is The Himalayan Sherpa. When was the last time you ate at a Tibetan restaurant? Especially one that sells Yak meat? Charts show that Yak beats out beef in fat, protein, cholesterol, bardo, karma, and feng shui. They have lunches starting at $3.99 and a buffet for $5.95.
Then the international row starts up: Noble Palace (Chinese), My's Vietnamese, which is unadorned but has a wide selection of some very good stuff, including 'Vietnamese sandwiches', Then Pixxa Brava, and Thanh Vi, another popular Vietnamese joint. The block is topped off by the Thai-Ger Room(sic), the Wok Chinese cuisine, and Ina Ka Japanese cuisine.
Across the street are a few more places of note. Than Brothers Bakery features Chinese/Vietnamese cuisine but also French bakery items and has been, for some reason, a hangout for Ethiopians, Eritreans, and other African students. Up at 4235 is the University Noodle Shop, with a Thai/Nam orientation. You can get vegetarian Pad Thai for $3.95. And at 4237 is a MAJOR player in the cheap lunch scenario, China First. They have a $3.25 lunch special from 11am to 4pm every day of the week. You can choose from a dozen specials: Lemon Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pooch, Kung Pau Rat—the usual. It all comes with rice, soup, a pot of tea, and a fortune cookie. Not bad. And the place actually has some decor. The best bet is sitting in the front window. If you have a crowd, grab the round table with the lazy susan in the middle. Lunch, including drink, can be had for $3.25—not too shabby.
One thing you won't find on the Ave. is sidewalk seating. If that's what you want, duck over to Brooklyn, a block west at 42nd, where you'll find nice umbrella tables outside the Saigon Deli, NOT actually a deli but called so probably due to translation difficulty. They serve good food, especially if it involves noodles, and employ nice people. It’s not extremely cheap, but there's always a special of soup or noodles for around $4.95. And you're sitting out in the sun. Next door, the Korean Kitchen also has tables and shade if you prefer kimchee to pho.
Also a step off the Ave. is Cedar's Restaurant on 43rd, just past Flowers. This was the first of the Lebanese places in the district over 25 years ago, and they're still going strong. They do Near East food perfectly, and you can pig out with huge feasts or just get a sandwich of shish kebob, kibbey, falafel, gyro or shawarmah for $3.50.
Flowers, right on the corner of 43rd, is worth a visit if only for the ceiling. It's completely mirrored, which can impart some odd and disorienting effects as you lean back in your chair or wander around looking up and stumbling into the salad bar. The ceiling is a hangover from back when Flowers was actually a florist shop (they kept the name so they wouldn't have to change the old sign). I had my first psychedelic experience with Hawaiian Wood Rose seeds I bought in this place in 1968. I just wish I could have eaten them on the spot and gooned out on the mirrored ceiling. It’s not a super cheap place, but it’s good, and their specialty, an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet, is only $6.95.
The 4300 block is mostly taken up with bookstores, big shops, and the Varsity theater, but there are also several very narrow Asian places and the Russian bakery. The Tokyo Garden is worth mentioning. You can get teriyaki with rice and salad for under $5, miso soup for a buck, and some pretty cheap sushi. A 12-piece Taka roll goes for $4, for instance, or you can get a plate with salmon, tuna, ebi, hamachi, and taka, with a bowl of miso soup, for $6.45.
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