Midtown Lunch

You all have embraced the Biryani House Cart’s kati rolls, biryani and chicken tikka as much as I have and for a while now they’ve had a second cart on William St. (btw. John & Maiden Lane) selling the same items as the original on Liberty St. Nothing makes me happier than seeing carts like this branch out, but the other day I realized I’d never tried the meat and potatoes at these two carts: The lamb/chicken over rice. I’ve seen people order it all the time and was curious how they spiced the chicken, or if they did anything different since they sell more than lamb, chicken and falafel.

I think you’ll be happy to see what I discovered.

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Despite having other meatless options in its roll arsenal, the Biryani House cart on Liberty (at Broadway) only sold two kinds of kati rolls – chicken and lamb – repurposed from their plates of street meat. Now you vegetarians have another option since they added an aloo gobi roll. I thought I’d take a break from the meat for once and try one since their chicken and lamb versions were pretty good.  Read more »

For a brief time there were two carts bearing the name Biryani House operating side by side on Liberty St. & Broadway. One specialized strictly in curries while the other focused on biryani, chicken tikka and kati rolls as well as regular street meat. Well, it looks like that second cart has moved over to the little plaza on William St. & Maiden Lane selling biryani and curry to those who aren’t interested in the many chain establishments up the block. Update: This cart is now permanently docked on William btw. Maiden & John outside of Zeytuna.

We have plenty of street meat options downtown but they’re pretty much all one-cart operations. That was why I was at first confused, and then excited when I saw that the Biryani House cart that has brought kati rolls and biryani to the Financial District added a second cart next door with an all-curry menu. A quick chat with the guy working there revealed they’ve been there for a couple of days and serve Kashmiri curries so it’s a completely different menu from the regular cart that sells everything from hot dogs to chicken tikka. As he so eloquently put it “they serve dry curries and ours are wet.” OK then! Read more »

The handful of vendors on Liberty St. at Broadway that were ticketed last week and asked to leave by the management of 140 Broadway are still selling food. About 250 petition letters from concerned lunch’ers were collected in three days last week, according to the Street Vendor Project which has been helping the affected carts that include A-Pou’s Taste, Biryani House and 99% Vegetarian Food. The letters are being sent to building management this week, and the vendors hadn’t been bothered by the police again as of late Monday.

I believe this cart has been in this spot for a while, but I just noticed the Bombay Biryany cart parked on Broadway and Liberty, across from the Biryani House cart. And guess what? They also serve chicken biryani. For some reason, they seem like they’re promoting the $4 hot dog and soda special over the cart’s namesake dish, so I’m a little skeptical. Anyone tried the biryani from this cart?

I haven’t been back to check out the Biryani House cart after eating both their biryani and kati rolls the first week they opened. They were both good, but I also had my eye on the chicken tikka masala and some of the seafood over rice options. I headed over to see if the chicken tikka was any good and if they’d changed their menu at all. Basically, I was just looking for an excuse to eat street meat. Read more »