Beware The Spice In Desi Truck’s Combo Lunch Special

It’s not often that you come across a lunch that’s spicy across the board, but that’s what I found the other day when I finally had a chance to stop by the Desi Food Truck, aka the latest truck to decamp to the Financial District after being kicked out of midtown. They have a vegetarian and meat version of a “Desi lunch special” and since the combination of a kati roll and dal sounded delicious, that’s what I ordered.

The vegetarian combo ($8) includes a kati roll stuffed with aloo masala, and yellow dal over basmati rice with some salad in a separate container along with a water or soda. The meat version ($9) is a chicken kati roll and chicken tikka over rice  I was supposed to get pickle and other condiments, but they were sadly forgotten from my bag.

The main themes of this lunch were yellow and spicy. The first bite of the kati roll lit my mouth on fire and never let up thanks to all of the fresh chiles in the mashed potato filling. Still, this was one delicious kati roll and the paratha was a lot less greasy than others I’ve had from the carts on Liberty St. & Broadway. After downing this thing in no time flat I turned to the dal to cool my mouth off a little.

A taste of the dal offered no relief because this too was super spicy, especially when a whole red chili made its way into my mouth. I turned to the rice and even the lettuce and tomato slice to cool my mouth down but it took a while. I was thankful for the bottle of water that came with my meal.

If you’re spice averse, I would not recommend getting this vegetarian combo and although I would be willing to bet the meat version of the Desi lunch is just as hot.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • The food is a lot better than the brick and mortar Indian places in the FiDi.
  • The lunch combo is cheap, and a good way to try more than one thing.
  • Wrap anything in paratha and I’ll eat it.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • Why is the food so spicy?
  • I’d rather go somewhere with more variety.

Desi Food Truck, usually at Hanover Sq. & Water, but check Twitter before heading out

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1 Comment

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I really wanted to like my lunch here more than I did, but I wasn’t totally impressed. The rice and dal were good. The kati roll, however, had less flavor than I was hoping for. They also didn’t give me any pickles or condiments, which probably would’ve helped the roll. It was also not nearly as spicy as described above. Perhaps they read the post and made changes?

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