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With spare, lime-green decor and glass-bowl walls near Grand Central, Crisp could easily be mistaken for the salad-and-sandwich chains that have popped up around Midtown to provide overpriced lunches for time-deprived office workers. Instead, Israeli owners Alon Kruvi and Rakesh Barmecha offer up fresh, painstakingly prepared renditions of Middle Eastern street fare, setting Crisp several notches above your average falafel joint. The menu is as austere as the furniture and that's a good thing, as the kitchen pays an extraordinary amount of attention to "just a sandwich." The hummus bowl—a shallow bowl of creamy hummus sprinkled with coarsely chopped parsley, nutty tahini and roasted pine nuts, comes with a thick and fluffy pita bread baked fresh in the oven. The same bread provides a sturdy container for the falafel sandwiches, including the Europa (with sundried tomato pesto, roasted peppers, and goat cheese) and the Mexican (with chipotle sauce, corn salsa, and nachos). As an added precaution, the sandwiches come in a nifty box that you "unzip" before you eat. — Michael Y. Park

Hummus bowl with pine nuts and tahini, $7.50; crisp Mexican, $7.95