Tabasco Chicken At Water St. Deli Is A Steam Table Mystery

I am always looking for a reason to travel to the farthest reaches of downtown, so on the recommendation of Lunch’er Katie, I headed down to the Water St. Gourmet Deli on Water (btw. Broad & Moore) for some Tabasco chicken. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into but figured since I liked all things spicy this wouldn’t be too much of a gamble. Find out what this lunch blind date looked like after the jump.

I don’t think I’ve stepped foot into one of these generic delis in ages, except to maybe buy a crappy bagel. This one is tiny and chaotic at lunch time, so I was glad I knew what I wanted. I saw the Tabasco chicken sitting in the steam table, and it was basically chunks of chicken in an orange-colored sauce. Katie had also recommended getting baked ziti as a side, so that’s what I did. The guy dishing up the food gave me a pretty weird look when I asked for that and then proceeded to put the ziti on the bottom and dump the chicken over the top. If I had known that was the procedure I would have gotten rice or potatoes on the bottom. My lunch came to $7 for what was a pretty substantial amount of food.

As a result, the food inside the container wasn’t the prettiest, but it got the job done. The chicken was surprisingly tasty although I have no idea what was in that sauce except it was slightly creamy and oily. It resembled vodka sauce and had a little hot sauce kick to it but nothing too major. It reminded me of bastardized Indian food, so if you’re into that then you might like this.

It was hard to get a handle on the baked ziti since most of it was covered in the Tabasco chicken sauce, but it was decent. Again, I wished I would have gotten rice instead but the pasta did a good job of sopping up the sauce, and the crusty pieces with cheese were tasty.

If you work in the barren zone down by Bowling Green, this would make a good quick lunch. Otherwise, Idon’t know if I’d walk too far to get it.

Water St. Gourmet Deli, 12 Water St. (btw. Broad & Moore), (212) 785-5220 or 785-5221

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2 Comments

  • Interesting. Reminds me of a buffalo chicken dip my mom makes from time to time.

  • Yea this is across the street from me–I usually get breakfast sammiches here.

    Sounds like perfect food when you have a cold and can’t taste anything. Will def try it, thanks!

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