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Debunking the Myths of the Most Famous Chicken & Rice Intersection in New York City
53rd St. & 6th Ave is the Chicken & Rice Capital of New York City. There will never be consensus over who makes the best, but there is no question about who is the most popular. If you’ve passed 53rd St. & 6th Ave. after 8pm on any give night, then you’ve seen the line. It forms from the time the cart opens, and doesn’t die down until the cart leaves at 4 in the morning. Late night club goers, bridge and tunnelers, and cab drivers as far as the eye can see- sometimes stretching as far down as 7th Ave.
A lot of people see this line, and wonder “How could this chicken and rice be so good?” Not me. If somebody gets killed just for cutting in line, then I don’t question how good the food is at the front of the line. I just wonder, where can I get Chicken & Rice worth killing for, in Midtown, during lunchtime!?! The answer led me back to 53rd St. & 6th Ave., but not necessarily the corner you may think.
The definitive answers to all your chicken and rice questions, after the jump…
Combo Plate from the Famous Chicken & Rice Cart on the SW Corner of 53rd & 6th.
I got it months ago on a very rainy night, so there were only 5 people in line.
Carts can create a lot of confusion. They appear, disappear, don’t have websites, many look the same, and finally- oftentimes, the people who write about them, just get it wrong. Just this week, an article was printed in the Columbia Spectator saying that the cart on 53rd & 6th was “Sammy’s Halal” the winner of last year’s Vendy Award. Sammy’s Halal is actually in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Last week, I was told by a trustworthy source, that the daytime cart on the SW corner of 53rd & 6th, was owned by the same people who owned the nighttime cart- and you could get the same food there as a Midtown Lunch. Excited, but skeptical, I went right to the source in an attempt to settle this issue once and for all.
MYTH: The Cart on the SW Corner of 53rd & 6th Ave. during the day, is the same food as the cart that gets the super long lines at night.
As I ordered my Chicken & Lamb over Rice combo, I asked the guy at the cart whether or not he was related to the famous cart at night.
Him: “Brothers. Owners are brothers.”
Me: “Same food”
Him: “Same food”
Me: “Same white sauce”
Him: “Same”
It sure looked similar. And it tasted similar too, but it had been months since my dinner at the nighttime cart, so I wasn’t positive. But there were a few obvious things that caught my eye. First, the tin was a rectangle. At the nighttime cart, they use circular tins. They also have little individual servings of white sauce and hot sauce at night. The daytime cart didn’t. And most obvious was the plastic bag. The famous cart used bright yellow bags. The daytime cart had regular old smiley face plastics.
If you and your brother own a business, with the same exact food, why wouldn’t you use the same supplier of tins and plastic bags? Very fishy.
That night, I returned to the SW corner of 53rd & 6th to confirm the daytime guy’s story. The famous cart arrives at 7pm to set up. Amazingly enough, even though it takes them an hour, a few people had already gathered in anticipation. I told them that the guy who parked in their spot during the day had claimed that the owner of his cart was brothers with the owner of their cart.
“Different,” he said.
“Different food?”
“Different food.”
“But he said the owners are brothers.”
“I don’t understand why people lie,” he replied.
I understand why… Well that solves that mystery. But wait. There was more.
“Now that cart over there,” he continued, pointing to the SE corner of 53rd & 6th St. ”That cart has the same owner as this cart. And they are there during the day, starting at Noon.”
“Same food?”
“Same food.”
Now we’re talking! I headed over to the cart on the South East corner, which was still open, for a little bit of dinner. With this order, there was no question. (Notice the yellow bags hanging on the cart above.)
Notice the individual servings of white sauce and hot sauce in the upper right hand corner of the photo. Bright orange rice. A tiny drop of hot sauce blew smoke out of my ears. This was definitely the stuff. And yes, I did eat street meat for lunch and dinner on the same day, and lived to tell about it. See how I sacrifice for you people??? And just so that I can announce that ”Midtown Lunch’ers can eat the the famous 53rd St. & 6th Ave. street meat during the day!”
MYTH: At night, there is another cart across the street from the famous cart with the line, that serves the same food.
This myth turns out to be true! The daytime cart on the SE corner of 53rd St. & 6th Ave. is there until pretty late at night. So if you find yourself in Midtown after a long night of drinking, or clubbing or driving your taxi, don’t wait in that ridiculous line. Head over to the Southeast corner and get the same food, in 1/10 the time.
The REAL Deal Chicken & Rice Cart during the day. On the SE corner of 53rd St. & 6th Ave.
Moral of the story. When a cart tells you something, don’t take their word for it. Just look at the plastic bags.
The Famous Chicken & Rice Cart(s)
- Noon until Late night on the Southeast Corner of 53rd St. & 6th Ave.
- 8pm to 4am on the Southwest Corner of 53rd & 6th Ave.
Posted: November 15th, 2007 under 53rd & 6th, Cart, Middle Eastern, Street Meat.
Comments: 56
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Comments
Comment from Patrick
Time: November 15, 2007, 9:15 am
I’ve started to frequent the daytime 53rd and 6th SW cart and I really love it - I can’t believe I missed out so long. Today, the other corner.
Comment from ForkNewYork.com
Time: November 15, 2007, 9:28 am
For my money, the SHENDY’S cart is by far the best chicken and rice cart before 6pm, in midtown. It’s at 52nd and 6th, in front of Rochester Big and Tall… where you’ll need to start buying your clothes soon. I have a house account there.
Comment from Zach@MidtownLunch
Time: November 15, 2007, 9:41 am
Andre (aka forknewyork) - What’s the best Chicken & Rice cart after 6pm???
Comment from DDR
Time: November 15, 2007, 9:41 am
Zach is a regular Encyclopedia Brown
Comment from Clint
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:13 am
I found myself in the upper 50s one night with a friend and craving the “famous” cart. However, I was unsure of it’s exact location. As we walked north on 6th, I saw a cart and eyed it carefully. There was no line. The vendor saw me and waved me over. “Is this the cart?” I asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. “Yes, yes!”
I had the food, and much like Zach, I noticed all of the slight differences. The big kicker for me was the fact that I received no bread! As it turns out, it was the cart that ForkNewYork mentioned at 52nd, not the famous cart at 53rd. The food was still good, not “famous” good, but markedly above what can be found on random street corners. While I joke about getting scammed at the wrong cart, the truth is, I’d gladly make the mistake again.
Comment from mish
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:16 am
haha- great street meat detective work! now i really wants me some chicken n’ rice. even though it’s 10am. and i just had brekkie an hour ago.
Comment from Moose
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:23 am
Awesome!!!! Thanks for all your hard work. How’s your stomach?
Comment from nate
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:38 am
wow, zach… i hope your putting some of the $$ from your ad revenue into an angiopplasty/coronary bypass fund… street meat twice in a day? you are a freaking warrior.
Comment from Hype
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:53 am
Thank you for sacrificing for the greater good. I haven’t had the opportunity to try the famous cart yet, but I guess that will change now.
BTW, has anyone tried the King Tut cart on the SW corner of 50th and 6th? Atleast among the carts in that corner, they seem to have the most customers…
Comment from ForkNewYork.com
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:54 am
The best after 6pm is the 53rd and 6th…. if you can stand the long line. I need to try the other cart!
Dude. Did you not read the post? :-)
SE Corner of 53rd & 6th During the Day = SW Corner of 53rd & 6th after 8pm.
Therefore, by your own admission (and the transitive property)…
53rd & 6th after 8pm > 52nd & 6th before 6pm :
SE Corner of 53rd & 6th = best chicken and rice before 6pm!!!
-zach
Comment from Mamacita
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:57 am
Good job soldier!
(I’m getting you pepto-bismol for Christmas)
Comment from Nate
Time: November 15, 2007, 10:58 am
I frequently eat at the 53rd and 6th SW cart. Delicious! Nothing like chicken and lamb, rice, “salad”, white sauce, hot sauce, and pita for $5. Strange, but their tomatoes are really great quality. They are actually red through and through and have some flavor unlike so many other tomatoes I have had at generic midtown delis.
Comment from f
Time: November 15, 2007, 11:56 am
love your site. i also went thru this whole process a couple of months ago. yellow plastic bags are of good quality too :)
Comment from ForkNewYork.com
Time: November 15, 2007, 12:04 pm
I stand corrected :)
Comment from fatboy
Time: November 15, 2007, 12:51 pm
The “famous” cart and its SE corner sister have the best chicken, hands down. Tastes like the kind of chicken you’d find in a good Jewish chicken soup.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 15, 2007, 1:08 pm
The cart on the SE corner does not give you white sauce/hot sauce in separate containers. The hot sauce is fiery hot, unlike a lot of the other nearby carts; I stupidly asked for more.
If you ask for it they do. You can see them in the upper right corner of my photo (and the containers match the ones that came with my meal from the nighttime cart.) -zach
Comment from Rudy McBagel
Time: November 15, 2007, 2:13 pm
THe healthy way to soak up the xmas party booze.
Comment from TJ Jackson
Time: November 15, 2007, 2:21 pm
Zach = as I write this, the summary at the end of your article mentions a cart on the **NE** corner, but your article is about the carts at the SE and SW corners. Can you recheck this?
Fixed it. This shit is confusing. :-) -zach
Comment from TJ Jackson
Time: November 15, 2007, 3:01 pm
Cool, because after that long lunchtime walk from downtown Cincinnati to get this lunch special, I’ll want to be sure to be on the correct corner :-)
Comment from nate
Time: November 15, 2007, 3:28 pm
Hype - i frequent the King Tut cart, but only because it’s right downstairs from my office, and the wait is never more than 5 minutes. their street meat is nothing special… the meat itself is ususally pretty decent, but the “salad” is always pretty wilty and lousy. that said, i still go there once a week or so, which says a lot about my personal issues with laziness.
in short, it’s better than the other street meatiers on that corner, but you might as well walk a couple blocks for the good stuff, if you’ve got the time.
Comment from Peggy
Time: November 15, 2007, 3:52 pm
I went to the SE corner cart today. It was very, very good. Anonymous, yes, the sauce is fiery but I smartly asked for more!
Comment from Rudy McBagel
Time: November 15, 2007, 4:09 pm
Ok class, point to Iraq on a map.
Comment from justin
Time: November 15, 2007, 5:53 pm
I finally went to the “famous ” cart waited on line 1/2 hour was a bit dissapointed .I admit it the chicken is fresh tasting and the white sauce tasted like good quality yogurt with mayo also very similiar to ranch dressing .The hot sauce was good .The Lamb was just really chopped up gyro meat and it was tasty until i tasted an msg overload an hour later.I would say it is over-rated in the sense i was not bowled over by the food .I would describe it as good food from a cart.
Comment from Hype
Time: November 16, 2007, 10:05 am
Nate - Thanks for the info!
Comment from Mamacita
Time: November 16, 2007, 10:16 am
Maybe someone can help me out and give me an answer on this important question:
Is there mayo in the white sauce?
I despise mayo. I hate the flavor. I’ve usually avoid the white sauce because I’m not sure what’s in it. I love tzatziki. Can the white sauce be trusted?
Comment from Nate
Time: November 16, 2007, 11:18 am
I’ll be damned if I have the slighted clue as to what is in that crack sauce… white sauce. Mmm. Delicious. I think that it may have yogurt, cucumber, pepper, but other than that I am stumped. I tried searching the net for how to make chicken with white sauce at home, but to no avail.
Comment from republix
Time: November 16, 2007, 11:59 am
I agree with ForkNewYork. Shendy’s cart on 52nd and 6th in my opinion much better. I grew up in the area, so I’ve been eating chicken and rice since the mid 90’s. I think Shendy’s reminds me of a cart that used to be on 55th and 6th around 1994-2002. They were on the NW corner. (There are 2 new carts in it’s place now)
I wonder what happened to them… Cart’s weren’t “branded” back then
Comment from chowsue
Time: November 16, 2007, 12:02 pm
Justin, I agree wholeheartedly. I waited on line one night for a half hour for the famous cart and was very disappointed. The white sauce tasted exactly like Wishbone Ranch Dressing. Exactly. The white sauce I get at all the other carts on 6th are fantastic. The famous cart sauce that everyone raves about- terrible. This is just my humble opinion.
mamacita, none of the carts have white sauce that tastes like mayo…in my opinion that is.
Comment from lild
Time: November 16, 2007, 12:12 pm
That cart is mediocre - starting with the yellow rice that tastes like rice-a-roni.
I like the cart at the SE corner of 6th ave and 43street. Basmati rice, better flavor, better white sauce.
Comment from chowsue
Time: November 16, 2007, 6:23 pm
zach, that is some good reporting!! You should be an investigative reporter. :)
Comment from Michele
Time: November 18, 2007, 2:47 pm
Great reporting. Scary thought for me, a Californian who only sees cart food on TV and at sport events. The whole time I’m reading this and looking at the pictures I’m thinking…”how clean is the prep area? How many people get the bends after eating here….” Why, how, is it a N.Y. thing?
Pingback from meatloafing » Blog Archive » The Week-Old Loaf
Time: November 18, 2007, 10:12 pm
[...] Midtown Lunch scoops out the 53rd & 6th daytime cart and its legitimacy. Is it for real? (Who cares, really? The daytime cart tastes delicious and there’s no way I’m going to wait in (on) line for an hour to get a cart dinner. [...]
Pingback from Midtown Lunch » Wall Street Journal… Welcome to Midtown. Need lunch?
Time: January 30, 2008, 3:18 pm
[...] south to the Kwik Meal Cart on the SE corner of 45th & 6th, or a few blocks north to the famous chicken/lamb and rice cart on the SE corner of 53rd & 6th. Hope they have good bathrooms in the News Corp [...]
Comment from LT
Time: February 29, 2008, 4:35 pm
funny, i was testing the SW 53rd & 6th cart too. Around 6PM, I asked them if they were the ‘night’ ones’… they said ‘yes’. Bag, food, containers weren’t the same, but the food was decent.
Comment from s dot
Time: May 1, 2008, 3:05 pm
The “day time” folks gave me what looked to be a matchbook. Upon further examination, it was a “book” of toothpicks with the classic “53rd and 6th” yellow logo. Anyone else get this, or does this only get distributed to frequents?
Comment from Larry B
Time: May 6, 2008, 1:23 pm
Yep, got me one of those a couple weeks back as well. A subsequent visit did not yield me one, however. I smell a collectors item here.
Comment from micah
Time: May 22, 2008, 12:42 pm
The late-night guys on the SW corner a couple weeks ago put up a big sign on their cart that said something to the effect of “we are not here during the day and are not responsible for your health if you eat from a cart in this spot during the day” (I forget the exact wording, but it definitely implied that the daytime guys might harm your health).
A few days later, that sign was gone and replaced with a slightly more subtle umbrella that said something to the effect of “Halal Guys, only at night, 7pm-5am.” It also advertised their new website, http://www.halalguys.com, although it appears they haven’t actually put up a website there yet. I’m looking forward to seeing what they put on that site.
Pingback from Chicken and Rice at the Halal Gyro Stand at 53rd and 6th in Manhattan NY » The Eaten Path
Time: May 23, 2008, 11:53 pm
[...] begin research. After a few minutes on Chowhound I discover that I’m not the first bystander to gyro identity theft. I had big plans involving fresh mozzarella for dinner, but the city of New York has decided to [...]
Comment from s dot
Time: May 28, 2008, 9:06 am
“Halal guys, only at night 7pm-5am”? What about the daytime sister-cart across the street? Something seems off…I wonder how closely affiliated the daytime cart and the nighttime cart are. Maybe this story requires a follow up?
Comment from platters
Time: June 2, 2008, 12:24 pm
i am a frequent visitor, i have been goin there for about a couple years, the cart on the other side of the street and the same, most people believe that its just another copy cat or whatever, but its the same sauce, meat and chicken.
Comment from s dot
Time: June 4, 2008, 9:29 am
If the two carts are related (aka serve the same food) why would the night-cart not advertise for the day-cart? “Halal guys, only at night 7pm-5am” sounds pretty exclusive, wouldn’t you say?
Comment from brian
Time: July 7, 2008, 4:12 pm
does anybody know the nutritional facts, or a general idea of how bad halal cart food is for u? me and my coworkers have been debating this for weeks.
Comment from dott
Time: July 8, 2008, 5:44 pm
Unfortunately, its pretty terrible.
Here’s why I think so:
- Rice = cooked/boiled in water, but with hefty amounts of oil.
- gyro/lamb meat = giant lamb version of a hotdog. (In other words, all the scraps and inedibles of a lamb ground into a monster hunk of “meat.)
- chicken = dark meat (probably the “healthiest” thing they have.)
- white sauce = yogurt/mayo based. (may as well be called “extremely-high-caloric-cholesterol-sauce”)
overall, this meal is very deceiving, in that…it appears to simply be a dish consisting of carbs and protein. When in fact, its saturated and drowned in fat and cholesterol. This would be a good meal…if you intended on climbing mount everest immediately after.
I love chicken/lamb and rice, so I want nothing more than for somebody to prove me wrong…somebody pleaseeeee prove me wrong… =(
Comment from Sam
Time: July 10, 2008, 2:00 pm
49th and 6th SW corner after 7pm for the win!
alot nicer then the famous 53rd street guys…give you more then 2 measily strips of pita…3 choices of rice (spicy rice is the best..yellow rice is good too)….and are consistently good unlike the 53rd street famous cart where sometimes its good sometimes the lamb/rice is burnt/dry to a tooth shettering crisp.
get it with lamb and chicken and hot sauce and white sauce and hot peppers…and sometimes if you ask nicely they will throw in a few falafal balls…usually 5$…sometimes 6$
(i guess depending on the night) but if you pretend liek you know them they usually fall for it…
53rd is 6$ now…wack!
although im not toally bashing it…i do crave it sometimes…
Comment from Merna/1 of cook’s daughter on 53rd & 6th ave
Time: July 21, 2008, 8:41 pm
The dudes on 53rd street are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They rock!!!Especially my dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So all you other street cart guys don’t be haters because you know their the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment from jamie
Time: July 22, 2008, 1:35 am
not the same: http://www.53rdand6th.com/
Comment from Bossman
Time: July 22, 2008, 8:28 am
A brief grammar/usage reminder:
you’re - a contraction of “you are”, as in “you’re a dipshit”, A FRIGGIN’ APOSTROPHE
your - a possessive, similar to mine, his, her as in “your loose slut of a sister loses her mind every time she gets railroaded by your whole inbred, shitbag excuse of a family”, NO FRIGGIN’ APOSTROPHE
lose - the opposite of win, to misplace something, ONE FRIGGIN’ O
loose - the opposite of tight, your sister, TWO FRIGGIN’ O’s
its - another possessive, similar to your, NO FRIGGIN’ APOSTROPHE
it’s - a contraction of “it is”, as in ‘it’s fucking simple’, A FRIGGIN’ APOSTROPHE
Need a trick? Fine - when using it’s or you’re, expand the contraction. If “you’re head is full of shit” becomes “you are head is full of shit” and doesn’t make any sense (maybe it will to you because you’re a friggin’ idiot), then you are using the wrong word.
to - a preposition, as in “turn to the right” or “it’s time to go back to school”, ONE FRIGGIN’ O
too - an adverb (know what that is?), synonymous with “also”, “as well” as in “Really? I went to college too. I actually read a FUCKING BOOK.” It can also be used to mean “to a regrettable degree” as in “It’s too late for you, moron”, TWO FRIGGIN’ O’s
two - a number, it comes after one
there - an adverb, similar to here as in “your short bus is over there”
their - yet another possessive, similar to your as in “it’s not their fault that you’re a fucking retard. It’s YOUR fault.”
they’re - a contraction of “they are” as in “they’re not responsible for your complete ignorance of the FRIGGIN’ LANGUAGE. READ A BOOK!!”
Comment from Zach@MidtownLunch
Time: July 22, 2008, 9:42 am
@ Jamie - A few things… #1 that website is run by a fan, not the actual cart. #2. The quote on the site “During the daytime it is a different vendor who is totally unaffiliated.” is referring to the cart parked on the same corner during the day… the SW corner. Trust me… the cart on the SE corner during the day, is 100% affiliated with the cart parked on the SW corner at night.
Comment from casadelun
Time: August 20, 2008, 5:20 pm
I just read Bossman’s comment. That is just too funny. I believe he gets top awards for Grammar Nazi.
Comment from Joey
Time: August 28, 2008, 2:04 pm
I actually think the best chicken and rice cart is not even in Manhattan, its a cart in Astoria that makes the best plate of Chicken and Rice in NYC. The Falafel and Shawarma King Cart near Broadway and the N train station in Astoria is amazing. I often get two items whenever I am there. They offer a lot of extras like lamb shawarma, kefta( a Middle Eastern meatball), falafels, and shish kebabs but their main things are the Chicken and Rice plate and their Chicken wrap(which is really on gyro bread). Amazing food.
Comment from steve
Time: September 4, 2008, 12:11 am
gyros 49th and 6th gpm to 6am best in the world
Comment from Bamstutz
Time: September 4, 2008, 1:12 pm
NEWSFLASH - The cart on the SW corner of 53rd Street and Seventh Ave. (currently under scaffolding) is the same yellow-bag, round tin, hot-hot-hot sauce people as the famous 53rd and Sixth franchise.
I am not as big of a street meat expert as some of y’all, but it tastes pretty good as I type this.
1:00pm on a Thursday and there was no line.
Comment from P Suarez
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:05 pm
Stop telling everyone about the right cart. There are no more great secrets in new york. Since it’s out of the bag–one of the few carts that does not serve chicken with pieces of bones and cartilage or whatever the chewy part is. God bless them.
Comment from rob
Time: October 4, 2008, 1:21 am
I’ve heard it called platters, but there was no sign that said it was platters anywhere. What the hell, I am so confused. So the one with halalguys.com is the real one? That means I went to the fake one across the street during the day…
Comment from Plattermaster
Time: November 10, 2008, 1:33 pm
That cart on 53rd and 6th is the Shit.. I go there to get lunch there once a week and it keeps getting better!
Comment from Ben
Time: November 17, 2008, 10:57 pm
I was just going to add the fact about the 7th & 53rd cart too. They carry the same distinctive yellow bags.
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