Why Is This New York’s Most POPULAR Street Food?

New York's most popular street food is the halal cart, and today we're going to be visiting the city's best-reviewed halal trucks all in Midtown Manhattan to see if they're worth it. Now you might be wondering, What is halal? It's an Arabic word meaning permissible, and it means it's meat prepared by Islamic law. Typically, New York halal consists of some combination of rice, greens, and halal meat, either in a foil dish or in a sandwich.

First stop: Royal Grill Halal Food, with four and a half stars on Yelp. "If I could fly this man to California to live with me and cook me food for the rest of my life, I would. I was in New York for about a week and came here twice—once in the pouring rain and once in the freezing cold. Great food, nice people, underrated, huge portions. Chicken tikka is my go-to. I'll come here whenever I'm in New York. Way better than the overpriced Halal Guys chain food truck that charges $14 for a dry gyro." Wow, we've got some shots fired already on this video! I didn't say it; he said it. Let's check this out.

I brought my food expert, Greg, with me. And one of the amazing things about the New York halal scene is that it's not all the same; they all have their own personalities, right? Absolutely. Royal Grill's pretty famous; they won a Vendy Award, which nominates the best street food vendors in the city, and they're known for their chicken tikka. This is a really interesting and delicious dish. Yeah, one chicken tikka... I don't want to eat this; this looks too pretty to eat; this is like a work of art, all those colors.

So, what do we have? Break this down for us. Pretty much everything but the kitchen sink is here. We have the chicken, which is a very deep red color. You have the white sauce, which is like the yogurt mayo sauce, and a little bit of the hot sauce. The green sauce is like a mint chutney, and there is also this mango pickle, which is a really kind of secret thing; you have to ask him for it. Here now, the owner is from Bangladesh; it has that kind of Bangladeshi flavor on this plate. All right, let's try it.

"This tastes like something I would order at a nice Bengali restaurant, not on the side of the street here in New York City." Wow, that first bite—that's a lot of flavor; that's a lot of spices—yeah, very punchy spice. And we haven't gotten to the rice yet. The rice here is also very special; it's spicy and creamy; you get that mango pickle; that minty flavor; the biryani flavor; it's got it all over this place. Dude, I have to say it; this might be the best rice I've ever had at a halal truck before. It's up there for me, for sure.

Would you say the halal cart in New York is like the taco stand in LA? I would say yes. I mean, halal carts have really taken over New York; I'd say in the last 20 to 30 years, it's overtaken the hot dog cart. I would even say it's overtaking pizza as the number one street food. You know, we want to say pizza is a street food, but I'd say it's definitely by far the number one street food in New York City. I just have one problem with this; this is our first stop, and I want to finish it right now. That's the only problem I have with this. This is unreal; it's absolutely tremendous. I'm shocked there wasn't a longer line for this quick meal.

Quick Meal NYC, 4.5 on Google reviews. New York's exquisite street car experience was created by Bengali chef Mohammad Rahman, a former Russian tea house chef. The spices are delicate, and the food is the best. Take your tasty meal for a sunny afternoon at Bryant Park—a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As a native New Yorker, halal carts have become a staple of my diet. I've visited halal carts that are terrible, meh, okay, and unforgettable. Quick meal, unforgettable, best halal food I've ever had in a while. Whenever I'm in the city, I always come for Quick Meal, which is perfect for vegetarians too and has plenty of fish options to choose from.

My vegetarian viewers, I'm looking out for you guys too. So, Quick Meal is a little bit more of a higher-end halal cart; the price may be a dollar or two more, but it's for a good reason: the quality of the ingredients here. So, we're going to order the lamb over rice here; they actually use marinated pieces of lamb, not the minced mystery meat stuff. Hello, how are you?

Compared to Royal, Quick Meal is a lot simpler, and look, most of the sauce is actually on the side. So if you're someone who doesn't like a ton of sauce, I think this could appeal to you. All right, let's do it.

This is high-quality lamb, I can tell, absolutely. It doesn't have really bold, punchy flavors; no, I don't think it's meant to. This one's meant to showcase the quality of the ingredients. You know, I would also... I would love this like a gyro or a sandwich too. Yeah, the white sauce, it's not even your classic white sauce; this is definitely more yogurt; it's more like a tzatziki, like a Greek yogurt, thicker, has more of a yogurt. I don't taste any mayonnaise; yeah, it's not like a really strong flavor. It's very different than your typical halal cart; this is for the true meat eater, someone who just wants that lamb. You're going to get your money's worth with this.

I'll tell you what; they actually have salmon here, and it's shockingly, very, very good. It's probably not something you would normally think of ordering in New York City, as I typically know, especially from a cart, but it's very good; the quality here is next level. What's amazing about today's video is that everything here is right on Avenue of the Americas, right dab in Midtown. So if you're a tourist watching this, it's so easy to complete by yourself. But if you want to go more off the beaten path, this guy offers New York's best food tour, which we do in the most delicious neighborhoods in New York City. Queens, of course, and my favorite halal cart in all of New York City is on that tour. So if you want to taste my favorite overall halal cart, and I've been to a lot of them, you come and take my tour; I'll put the link in the description.

We're about to go try the famous Halal Guys, and when a cart is as famous as Halal Guys, you have a lot of imitators, like this one. The original guys don't go here. If you want to try the Halal Guys, don't go here. It's very confusing.

I hope you like my work. If you do, then please like, share, and comment on my work. And support me by using the below link to get you more good content like this.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Ark09