Midtown Lunch

If you’ve ever shopped at the Whole Foods in Tribeca you may have noticed the street cart parked out in front serving everything that the grocery store does not. That is: Meat and non-organic vegetables from questionable sources packaged in styrofoam and plastic bags. The Tribeca Halal cart, parked on the corner of Greenwich & Warren, serves the trinity of falafel, lamb and chicken but also some oddities like a fried chicken cutlet hero, Philly cheese steak, french fries and chicken teriyaki. When I spotted that last item on one of the bright yellow circles dotting the front of the cart I knew I must try it. Plus, at the low, low price of $6, if it was too terrible I could just head into Whole Foods.

The cart in itself is somewhat hilarious with dance music blaring from the inside, and the two guys making the food seem to be characters. Anyway, I asked for chicken teriyaki, thinking they wouldn’t actually have this item, but of course they did. While I waited I inspected the rest of the menu and found that they also serve things like kofta and fried fish.

They give you the choice of yellow or basmati rice and I went with the latter. When I opened the container I was surprised to see large strips of what appeared to be chicken breast laying over the rice along with some green pepper and onion.

This street cart interpretation of teriyaki was pretty good, actually. The chicken wasn’t dry at all and the teriyaki sauce was applied sparingly. The best part of the meal may have been the rice which for me can sometimes make or break a good street meat lunch.

There are about three other halal carts within a block radius and a couple of them had long lines. Clearly I have not been doing enough investigating of the street meat options in southern Tribeca.

Tribeca Halal Cart, corner of Greenwich & Warren streets