Food Cart Review: The Halal Guys

Details: There a number of carts here that are Halal Guys and a number that are imitators. The one cart that is undoubtedly a genuine Halal Guys cart is on the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street, New York, NY. The official site is http://thehalalguys.com/

A number of years ago I came here once under the pretense that this was the best halal cart in New York City. To my recollection, I paid around five dollars for what was arguably the best halal in the city, though not by a wide margin. Fast forward to the present day, and while I can say the food is about the same as it was the last time I had it, the price isn’t.

Food Stall Review: Shikoku Teriyaki Express

Details: Located in the food court of the New World Mall, Flushing, NY 11355. Couldn’t find an official site, so here’s the yelp page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/shikoku-teriyaki-express-flushing

This is your standard chicken teriyaki place you’d expect to see in any reasonably sized American mall. What’s ironic is that this is mostly a Chinese mall with Chinese oriented businesses and the chicken teriyaki here is decidedly an American mall style. It’s about five to six dollars for chicken. Other options like beef or shrimp cost more. You get rice and vegetables and you can replace rice with noodles. It’s classic, American mall food in a Chinese mall. It’s not great, but I sometimes get the urge for it.

Score: 4/10

Restaurant Review: Kaya NYC

Details: I went to the holiday stall on the south side of Bryant Park in New York City. The official site is http://www.kayanyc28.com/

Came here for lunch one day. They serve Taiwanese style bao, which is meat wrapped in a soft, Chinese bun and topped with sauce and some vegetables.

I ordered the combo, which was two baos and Taiwanese popcorn chicken. I ordered the chicken bao and the pork belly bao.

To be perfectly honest, the baos were pretty bad. I’ve been to Baohaus and other places with these kinds of baos and these baos were some of the worst. The popcorn chicken was okay.

Score: 3.5/10 I do not recommend this place.

Restaurant Review: The Kati Roll Company

Details: Located at 49 West 39th St., New York, NY 10018. Official site is https://www.thekatirollcompany.com/

Came here during the lunch rush on a weekday. Like most lunch places around this time, this place was packed.

What they sell here is Indian spiced meats or vegetables, wrapped in Indian flat bread or roti. I ordered the chicken tikka roll and the beef tikka roll. It was okay. Somewhat spicy. If your expecting it to be kind of creamy like chicken tikka marsala, this isn’t that. It’s spiced with a more liquid, spicy green sauce. The roll itself isn’t too large, but I think it’s priced appropriately at around five dollars for a place in midtown.

The interior is actually nicer than I thought so you can sit in the restaurant if you want. It’s kind of small though. No waiters or anything so you have to pick up your food from the counter.

They also sell a couple kinds of lassi that looks like something they packaged themselves.

Score: 5.6/10 Okay, but I’m probably never going to eat here again.