Midtown Lunch

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.

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Soho is pretty barren in terms of carts or restaurants specializing in falafel, unlike other parts of downtown this site covers (OK, mostly the Financial District). There are a couple of generic street meat carts scattered around, and others like Taim Mobile and Crisp On Wheels make stops once or twice a week but that’s about it. Maybe that’s why everyone got excited when Ba’al Cafe & Falafel opened on Sullivan St. (btw. Spring & Broome). And after eating there twice, I really wish whoever owns this place would expand to the FiDi.

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I kind of love it when new trucks pop up without a hype machine (or even a Twitter account) behind them, so that you have no idea what they’re even serving until you physically go check it out. That was the case with the Marrakech Chefs truck last week, with a lunch’er tipping me off that some new truck was parked way down in the Financial District selling burgers. While this was true, once you see the non-burger items on the menu you’re probably not going to be ordering a burger. Pictures straight ahead! Read more »

In between the spam and invitations to things only loosely-related to food sometimes I do get worthwhile e-mails. I recently got one from a downtown lunch’er that opened my eyes to how much it must suck to keep kosher in the Financial District and try to find a good meal. The person was asking where to go for a kosher lunch in the bottom part of the FiDi. I was stumped because while there’s the Kosher Luncheonette (and Milk St. Cafe coming to Wall St.) there really aren’t many options at all (that I’m aware of), especially if you want to actually sit there and eat. Pita Express on Ann St. (btw. Nassau & Park Row) was one of the places I came across, and the mix of Israeli and Middle Eastern food sounded good. Plus all of their sandwiches are under $10, and so I figured I would find out if this place was any good.

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One of the most hotly anticipated food truck launches in recent memory happened yesterday, with Taim Mobile rolling out its un-shiny new wheels. They parked on Hudson St. on the western edge of Soho, away from the heavy foot traffic a couple of blocks away in either direction (probably on purpose), but still drew a long line despite the rainy conditions. My wait time from ordering to food in hand was about 30 minutes, but I blame that on the sheer number of orders because they actually seemed to have a good system going and plenty of people working in the truck. And man, was the wait worth it. Read more »

Grocery store/lunch favorite for tons of downtown office works Zeytuna has had what they call a Mediterranean snack cart set up outside on John St. (at Nassau) for a little while now, and I have been meaning to try it. I didn’t so much want to eat there because it was new, but because they seemed to have a pretty random assortment of food. We’re talking something called a maffle, some sort of sandwich called a dove, crepes and “corn in the cup.” Oh, and samosas! After asking what corn in the cup was, I was told they don’t have it anymore and will be replacing it with ravioli. Random! Since the cart will probably only be there as long as the weather is nice, and I really wanted to know what the hell a maffle was, this finally became my lunch destination. Read more »

If there’s one thing downtown is lacking in, it is gross (and I mean that in the best possible way) mash ups in sandwich form. The last place I expected to find such a thing was at Baba Ghanouge on Church St. (btw. Chambers & Reade), where their tagline is “Eat Healthy Live Longer.” Even the healthiest people like to put crappy food in their bodies sometimes, and for that purpose there is the chicken beiruti sandwich. It contains a secret ingredient that elevates this sandwich a few notches and almost makes you forget you’re eating in a place that’s trying to make you healthy. Read more »