Midtown Lunch

There are a lot of good cart options for falafel in the Financial District, but there’s always room for one more, right? After noticing a new cart called Don Halal right next to the No. 1 Bahn Mi cart at the corner of Hanover Sq. & Pearl, I chatted with the woman manning the window and after I didn’t order anything, she called me “sweetie” and invited me to come back. There are some interesting things on the menu like a falafel platter with Indian marinated vegetables, and chicken curry so I decided to go see if they could compete with the superb falafel across Water St. at Alan’s Halal.

Read more »

Do you like gamey meat from a cart that does not come from a factory-formed loaf of gyro? If you’re like me, the answer to that question is yes. There are a few places in the Financial District that serve actual chunks of goat or lamb, but Halal Gyro Express is the first cart I’m aware of that sells it in the form of Afghani food. The cart got a face lift a while back after toiling away on William St. (btw. Maiden Lane & John) for many years as an Xpress Power Lunch selling the usual trinity of chicken, lamb gyro and seriously good  falafel. In fact, just after I tried their street meat combo (which they still sell) was when they revamped the cart, put new pictures on the side, and added four new Afghani specialties to the menu including lamb and chicken tikka, lamb chops and chicken kofta. Check out a little lamb tikka over rice action after the jump.

Read more »

Having eaten everything else on the short menu of Taiwanese dumplings and Chinese spaghetti at A-Pou’s Taste cart on Liberty (at Broadway), I decided on a rainy day that it was time to try their soups. There’s hot and sour and corn chowder on offer for the low, low price of $2 for a small and $3 for a large. Even if the soup ended up not being amazing, I figured at least I wouldn’t be spending a lot of money to find that out. Read more »

We now have three carts serving food from the Caribbean in the Financial District and until last week I’d eaten at two of them. The Trinidad & Tobago cart down on Whitehall St. served me a delicious roti and I really liked the food from R. Retha’s cart (aka the Jamaican Dutchy) on S. William. The cart I’d never tried was Veronica’s Kitchen on Front St. (at Pine) and I’m not quite sure why. There’s normally a long, imposing line for what Veronica’s cooking, but because it was a rainy and windy day and the area was deserted prior to Thanksgiving, there was one person in front of me when I stopped by last week. While there was jerk chicken on offer, it’s already been Downtown Lunch approved, so I went with another standby – brown stew chicken.

Read more »

If you frequent the street food carts on Broadway between Liberty and Cedar streets you’re probably familiar with Zak’s Halal cart (later known by the man always working there, who told Daniel his name was Musthafa). A while ago, this affable man disappeared from the cart and I’ve never seen him working there since. There was always a line at this cart, mostly for the awesome chicken over rice plate. Lately I’ve noticed that line has disappeared and I was curious if the food had gone downhill or if everyone else was just suspicious with unknown faces cooking the food. So I did the only reasonable thing and went to eat a plate of street meat. Update: As you can see from the comment below, and confirmed by a couple of lunchers, Mustafa is back! He was just on vacation.

Read more »

There’s an otherwise nondescript street meat cart on Gouverneur Lane (at Water) called Desi Food that has all manner of fish specialties posted on the front. The couple of times I’ve stopped by, they never have these things but what they do have every day is chicken biryani and since it’s been awhile since I’ve eaten a version from a cart I figured it was worth a shot since the $6 price tag wasn’t exactly going to break the bank.

Read more »

Sometimes when I would walk by Sandra’s Food Spot cart on Nassau (btw. Liberty & Cedar) in the morning there would be a neon pink sign affixed to the front announcing a special of tilapia with rice and beans for $7. It wasn’t until a few failed attempts at snagging this special that I realized they only serve it on Wednesdays (much like the Friday pasteles special), and it’s best to go early if you want some. Read more »