Midtown Lunch

Last week I got an e-mail from Ziaul at the Halal Gyro Express cart that’s a fixture of William St. between Maiden Lane and John St., rightly saying that this site has never given them a review even though they’ve been there for seven years. I was kind of confused when he gave the name of the cart, but quickly figured out it it must be the generic-looking Xpress Power Lunch cart that I’ve walked by a million times but never eaten at. Did they have “the best street food downtown” as Ziaul said? That was up to my stomach to find out.

They have a $6 special that includes chicken, lamb and falafel plus a soda. I felt like I had to try all of these elements, so this was what I ordered.

The meat itself was nothing special, although this lunch marks the first time I’d ever seen what the gyro meat looks like before it’s chopped up on the grill. (Basically it’s a giant meat disc, but I’m just going to forget I ever saw that). The lamb and chicken were good, but the balls of falafel were by far the best part of the meal for me. They were pulled straight from the frying basket which I appreciated since there’s nothing worse than falafel that’s been sitting in a steam tray. If I were to go back there, I would definitely order this over the meat options. There’s a lot of stiff competition in the falafel from carts downtown, but I think this stacks up against the best of them.

Halal Gyro Express cart (aka, XPL), William St. btw. Maiden Lane & John