Midtown Lunch

When lofty claims such as “the best kofta kabab in NYC” emblazon the side of a food truck, I feel they must be investigated through eating. After asking you all if Ambizza Cafe truck was worthy of a review, a few of you said it was so I headed over for a kabab platter ($8), although there’s a wide variety of meats cooked on sticks available as well as a couple of burgers and some vegetarian options such as falafel and a vegetable sandwich. Really, though, this trucks seems to cater to the carnivore.

You can get a fair amount of meat, or the granddaddy of them all in a $10 combo. In retrospect, I probably should have ordered that to try out more than one of their meats, but I was only in the mood for kofta which comes with a couple of falafel, salad, rice, hummus and a flatbread along with little tubs of hot and yogurt sauce.

The 10-year-old in me snickered when I opened the container because, well, it’s not the prettiest plate of food. But we’re judging things on taste here on ML Downtown, so I digress. The falafel was good and freshly fried with a herby interior, so if you’re a vegetarian I can fully endorse this truck if you want to try something new. The beef/lamb kofta was good, but I found it kind of dry on its own. I think this would be a better option for a sandwich, or you’re just going to have to drown it in the sauces that come with or make your own sandwich with the flatbread.

Let’s talk about the rice for a minute, though. It wasn’t bad, but the carrots and peas thrown in, and the fact that it was yellow rice which I would expect to find at a Cuban/Latin place, was weird. It was also pretty greasy and I opted to skip it in favor of the bread.

If you’re really hungry, go for the platter, but otherwise I’d say save a couple of bucks and get a sandwich. I might have to come back for one of the chicken options or the lamb burger, though.

Ambizza Cafe Truck, parked daily at Old Slip & Water