Healthy Vegetarian Cart Now 99% Vegetarian

99% Vegetarian Food Cart

Yesterday, as promised, I hit up the Famous Halal Guys and the Healthy Vegetarian Cart (both on 52nd btw. 6+7th) for a mashup platter and I discovered that the Vegetarian Cart is now sporting a 99% vegetarian food sign in recognition of their brand new grilled chicken lunch special. Yes, the vegetarians are now serving chicken…real chicken.

But before we get distracted by what to call a “vegetarian” cart that serves meat, let’s talk chili/street meat mashup…

Apparently great minds lunch alike, because I went for a very similar combo as Luncher “Wellerfan” choosing chicken and lamb over rice with white sauce and hot sauce from the Famous Halal guys ($5) paired with a side of vegetarian chili and grilled veggies from the Vegetarian Cart ($3).

Healthy Vegetarian and Famous Halal Cart Mashup

The combo of lamb, chicken, rice, salad, pita points, chili, veggies and white sauce/hot sauce made for one freaking delicious and satisfying lunch. Meaty bites plus black bean/soy protein chili over rice are a winning combo and worthy repeat meal. The lamb and black bean bites were especially tasty. Next time I would ask for extra white sauce and hot sauce on the side so I can distribute more evenly. As wellerfan notes, if you’re into hot and spicy, you’re going to want to go for the tongue burning Famous Halal Guys sauce rather than just relying on the hot sauce from the Vegetarian Cart.

While the Vegetarian Cart has a rotating “bean of the day” they only serve the chili on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. With the weather expected to be a snowy mess this morning and into the afternoon there’s a good chance that the Vegetarian Cart might not be out at all today anyway (anybody see them setting up this morning?) If not, hopefully they’ll be back in commission on Friday with plenty of chili on hand.

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While I was ordering up my vegetarian chili and veggies the vegetarian guys were offering samples of their chicken. After I confirmed that “regular chicken” was in fact legit poultry, I gave it a try. Their grilled chicken was flavorful–they cook it with onions and other mixed grilled veggies. Texture-wise was more like little strip/chunks of chicken than the choppy grilled bits from over at Famous Halal Guys. Starting this week you can have chicken as one of your “choose any four dishes” combo for $6. Not a bad deal. This probably isn’t the ideal lunch for someone looking for a traditional street meat fix, especially since they didn’t seem to have any white sauce available, but if you’re looking for a healthy-ish cart lunch and you’d previously shied away from trying the vegetarian cart because of the lack of meat, you might consider giving them a second look.

99% Vegetarian Food Cart, 52nd St. btw. 6+7th

17 Comments

  • Um, wouldn’t it 99% Veg if they had 99 other veg dishes and only 1 chicken dish. lol.

  • Yeah, that does look really amazing

  • I’m still bummed I didnt put hot sauce on mine.

  • 99% veg? Well then, I’ll take the spam, sausage, spam, spam, bacon, tempeh and spam

    IT’S NOT GOT MUCH SPAM IN IT

  • that is a MASSIVE amount of food for such little money. my little sandwich from home is looking so limp & impotent in comparison.

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      agreed, that would last me like a week to finish!

    • I’m about to convert a pound of ground beef into burgers and fire them up–either 2 massive burgers or 2 double burgers. With bread and cheese added, total cost is around $3. And I will only be eating half of this feast. Then again, I’m not slave to the midtown lunch scene. But if you’re making food at home, it’s easy to make large meals cheap. (Cook up a ton of rice or pasta with your favorite extras and store it in single-serve takeout containers. No need for lame sandwiches!)

      • my sandwich tasted fabulous, it was just so small! I’m trying to avoid becoming one of the anonymous fat people they tape in stock videos for news reports on obesity, thus my avoidance of food larger than my 2 fists.

        but I totally agree with you – being mindful of how cheap food is (when you buy & cook it yourself) really ruins eating out for lunch.

  • That looks awesome. Nothing like good veggies to keep you regular when eating your street meat.

    @Wayne: I share your sentiments on spam. When the Good Lord gave us eggs and the idea for the cast iron skillet, He also blessed us with Spam. I am pretty sure it’s the reason how I got my first chest hair.

  • Geez, that really does look good, and I’m a vegetarian.

  • that plate is a like a dream!

  • Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the famous halal guys food isn’t all that? I last ate there about 3 weeks ago, a standard combo platter over rice. Yeah, their hot sauce is very good, and I’m down with the white. But the chicken tasted kind of bland and more like boiled chicken. The lamb had little flavor of it’s own. And both meats were chopped up into tiny bits, and were piled up in big precooked piles under foil. Seriously, the meats themselves did not really taste good, and were overly chopped. Based on taste alone (and not reputation or trendiness), I’ll take the Morrocco cart or even Rafiqi’s over the famous guys any day.

    • I agree, I don’t like the precooked chopped up meats.

    • That’s actually why I like it so much. I think it’s street meat in its purest form. No extra seasonings or whatever. Just plain chicken, plain gyro, good rice + white sauce and hot sauce. heaven on a plate.

      I agree that flavorwise, XPL and Little Morocco might be better… but sometimes I just want the basic platter. You know what I mean?

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    I never had vegetarian chili no less tofu before I tried the Veggie Cart. What a find. In a city where there is chicken over rice at every corner…this is a welcome change. I highly suggest the grilled veggies and the scrambled tofu, both with a heathly covering of hotsauce. As for constituant 3 and 4, I would suggest the chili and veggie burger. Now if they would just add falafel……..

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