Musthafa Is MIA, But Does Zak’s Halal Still Serve Killer Street Meat?

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.

The man who took my order seemed confused when I asked where the mustached gentleman who used to work there had gone. He said he was “on vacation,” but I have no idea who he was referring to since he also had no idea who Musthafa was.

I ordered a combo lamb & chicken over rice plate ($5) which came with some peppers and chickpeas. I saw the pile of chicken on the grill and it looked much like what was being cooked there before so things looked promising. The lamb is forgettable cubes of that gyro meat you see everywhere and it could have used a little more time to crisp on the grill.

Meanwhile, that chicken was as good as ever with its distinctive red spices, especially with the hot and white sauce combo. I always appreciate it when a cart doesn’t just sub in mayo for the white sauce and thinks no one will notice.

At $5 this street meat combo is a great deal since you get a lot of meat and the yellow rice is also good. I could have done without the chickpeas and peppers since they weren’t seasoned and added nothing to the meal. Still, you can rest assured that you’re still going to get a good plate of street meat from this cart which now apparently doesn’t have a name.

Zak’s Halal cart, Broadway near Cedar St.

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