Midtown Lunch

The other day when I was walking down 46th street I spotted a small sign in what looked to be a generic halal food cart: “Kati Rolls $2.99, 2 for $5.99” and yet another sign on the same cart for biryani. I did a double take. This cart is literally directly across the street from the two time People’s Choice Vendy award winning Biryani Cart. Naturally, I had to check it out.

I confirmed with Meru of the Biryani Cart that the cart across the street isn’t one of his. Unlike the Biryani Cart, this cart is serving up just one basic kind of kati roll with either chicken or lamb.

I got mine with the works which consisted of white sauce, hot green sauce, not hot green sauce, sriracha sauce, and “sweet and sour sauce” that was less sauce like and more like Indian pickles.

The sweet and sour sauce gives it an interesting kick and it’s impressive that all of those sauces work well together. However, I don’t think that the kati roll wrappers are quite as good as across the street–the ones at Biryani Cart seem a little lighter in texture. And there’s a lot less variety–Biryani Cart has 6 kinds of different kati rolls available in chicken and lamb.

The lamb is your standard halal cart fare, so unless you’re a big fan of pressed lamb, I would go for the chicken here.

If you’re into kati rolls and interested in trying a new place it’s worth checking out, but if you are a diehard fan of either Kati Roll Co. or the Biryani Cart, I don’t think that this cart is going to sway your allegiance. This cart will have to up their game if they want to seriously compete with the big boys across the street.

Kati Roll/Biryani Cart, NW corner of 46th and 6th.