Shredded Chicken Is A Sleeper Hit At Ambizza Cafe Truck

One of the constants in the food truck scene of the Financial District during the past year or two has been the Ambizza Cafe Truck which came blazing in with claims of the city’s best kofta kebabs. That wasn’t necessarily true, but as that was the only dish I’d tried it was time for a return visit.

The truck has been parking at Old Slip & Water every day, even after hurricane Sandy left all of you Lunch’ers down by Bowling Green with few dining options and many trucks abandoned us termporarily due to a lack of parking spots.

Anyway, the short story is I finally did a repeat visit to Ambizza and am happy to report they do a nice plate of chicken over rice for only a couple of dollars more than the street meat carts. 

Don’t be too intimidated if there’s a crowd waiting in front of Ambizza when you walk up. I probably had 10 people ahead of me and got my food within 10 or 15 minutes at the most.

I ordered the shredded chicken (yes, listed as “chredded chicken” on the menu. Just ask for a No. 5) platter which comes with a hodgepodge of yellow rice, chopped lettuce and tomato salad, french fries and a falafel ball. The chunks of yellow-tinged chicken were strewn with grilled onions and pepper.

While the chicken was a tad dry, there was a lot of flavor from whatever it was marinated in, and you can also perk it up with the hot and white sauces you get on the side. I also really liked the charred peppers and onions. The falafel ball was not my favorite – also a tad on the dry side – but they also give you french fries! I will never turn down crinkle fries.

I enjoyed this plate a lot more than I did the kofta I had on my first visit. It could be they’ve improved since first launching downtown, or perhaps the chicken is a better bet than the red meat options. Regardless, this was a great version of chicken over rice, with fries and flatbread to boot.

Ambizza Cafe Truck, corner of Water St. & Old Slip

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