These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head and where I’d go to eat any day of the week if I were on jury duty or not.
Sau Voi Corp - serves really great Vietnamese sandwiches and are really cheap. It’s a strange shop: along with cigarettes and lottery tickets, it sells Vietnamese music, beauty pageant DVDs, and porn. No matter, the women who serve up sandwiches are legit. Stay away from the crazy sweet desserts, though. The Vietnamese coffee is great, too. I would probably go here every day of jury duty.
101 Lafayette St #3 (it is right on the southeast corner and looks like a tiny convenience store)
Cafe Clementine - a bit of a walk, but really yummy traditional sandwiches and soups, but kind of expensive. Still, it’s worth trying. Check out the menu online.
Takahachi Bakery - super cute Japanese bakery. The warm sandwiches are delicious and the pastries are worth eating on the walk back to the courthouse. This place has been approved by my Japanese girlfriend.
25 Murray (between Broadway and Church)
All Good Things - an umbrella shop that has a bunch of different vendors inside. Get a Blue Bottle drip coffee and a pressed sandwich.
102 Franklin St (between Church & W Broadway)
Taipan Bakery - My favorite bakery in Chinatown. Go to the back of the store opposite the doors and get delicious baked goods out of the plexiglass cases. I recommend the roast pork buns and the sweet buns (which have no filling), but the other things can be really good too.
Ordering here is sort of hectic for a first-timer. Just go to the back, pick up a pair of tongs and a tray, and pile stuff from the cases on the tray. The roast pork buns are in the cases on the top row, second from the right. The plain sweet buns are in the case all the way on the left near the counter. When you’re done selecting, just place your tray in the queue on the counter, ignore the line, and walk all the way to the front. Keep an eye on your tray, and when a Chinese lady picks it up and asks whose it is, just smile and wave. A few dollars later, you will be the proud new owner of some delicious baked goods. The buns are best when warmed a bit in a microwave and can be refrigerated.
Visit Ten Ren around the corner on Mott for bubble tea for your walk back. In the winter, the hot taro with tapioca from Ten Ren is the best. Alternatively, visit the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in summer.
194 Canal Street (between Mott and Mulberry)
Tasty Dumpling - The dumplings are totally awesome and worth going for, especially at 5/$1.25. Ten dumplings makes a decent lunch. The best ones are those that are pretty burned on the bottom. Use the diluted sriracha for spice. The sweet and sour soup was good, but not amazing.