Review: Friedman’s Lunch, Chelsea Market, NYC

The meal of “brunch” is a New York institution. Hovering between breakfast and lunch,  you can actually go for brunch up until about 3pm, but the rule of brunch is that only breakfast or lunch foods are allowed. Eggs are always welcome at brunch.

For some reason, many places in New York have a “no reservations” policy, meaning that queueing is necessary during the rush of brunch. New Yorkers seems to find it pleasurable and necessary to queue, and so I found myself at 1pm on a Sunday, queueing outside Friedman’s lunch in Chelsea Market. There were five of us in the group, and we weren’t seated before 2:30pm.

Such is the way of brunch.

Luckily, their gluten-free offering was excellent, otherwise I would have stuck two fingers up at New York and shouted in my best cockney accent “Bloody Yanks! I ain’t bloody queueing for this pony and trap!”

Such is the wrath of the happy hungry coeliac. Dodgy accents invariably come out of my mouth.

However, their menu appeased me with its promise of safe gluten-free food and I couldn’t resist going for the Friedman’s burger with herbed fries. In hindsight, I wish I’d gone back and had the fried chicken and cheddar waffle, but now I have an excuse to return to NYC 🙂

It always pleases me when they ask me how I would like my burger cooked, as it implies that they know that not everyone likes a scary grey mush between bread. I asked for it medium-rare and they delivered.

It may have been because I was ravenously hungry but the food was excellent – on a par, if not better than Honest Burgers in London. My only requirement of a gluten-free burger bun is that it doesn’t fall apart and this one didn’t disappoint. It let the meat and cheese do the talking, and sat there patiently keeping my hands clean of grease. The chips were spectacular – I always appreciate a good herbed chip. This may be because real fried chips are a bit of a luxury as they are so often cooked in the same oil as wheaty products.

Overall, once we were seated, Friedman’s lunch put a BIG smile on my face. Check it out:

The service wasn’t fantastic, but I think they were fed up with our group asking them so often whether it was our turn yet! However, if we’d gone at any other time than the Sunday brunch rish, I’d like to think we would have been seated sooner!

Friedman’s Lunch is a really great destination for coeliacs (and for their friends to accompany them!) and I would recommend it highly to anyone visiting New York.