New York Street Food

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Bistro Truck, one of my favorite food trucks and a 2010 Vendy Award Finalist.

What sent me down to ‘Da Nest (as Yassir calls his spot on 5th ave & 16th St) was the tweet yesterday with the Daily Specials.  In this case it said “grilled steak with creamy mushroom sauce”.

That sounded like a good choice for lunch ($10).

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Carnegie John at work

I was very busy today, so I stayed close to my office for lunch.

You hear a lot about all the gourmet food trucks around town, but one of my favorite “old school” street vendors is Carnegie John.  He has been serving delicious New York street food for the past 10 years right behind Carnegie Hall, on 56th St just east of 7th Ave.  If you stop by around lunchtime, there are usually a dozen or so people getting lunch, and John always keeps everyone’s order straight.

IMHO, Carnegie John serves the best chicken over rice around, and it’s only $6, but I’ve never had his steak over rice platter.  Today’s Lunch is the steak platter ($7) from Carnegie John.

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I recently found out that Tony Dragonas’ brother has a cart on 64th & Madison, 2 blocks north of Tony’s cart.  I wanted to try it out, but they were filming an episode of White Collar on that block and the cart didn’t seem to be around.  (This was yesterday.)

So I ended up back at Tony’s cart on the SW corner of 62nd & Madison Ave, but wanted to try something new.  Today’s Lunch is Tony’s Special ribeye steak and portobello mushroom hero, which I’ve never had before.

There aren’t a lot of options in that area apart from $25 lunches at fancy restaurants, which is one reason there is always a long line at Tony’s cart.  The other reason is his food.  Tony was a finalist for the very first Vendy Award back in 2005.  Was his food still Vendy-level quality 5 years later?  Find out after the jump.

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When I’ve had lunch from Carnegie John’s cart in the past, I saw other people ordering steak platters or sandwiches and they looked pretty good.  You would think that steak from a street cart would be tough or fatty, but the thing that makes Carnegie John’s cart stand out from the pack is the quality of the meat, whether it’s whole chicken breast or rib-eye steak, both put on the grill right in front of your eyes, then sliced up for the sandwich or platter.

I ordered the rib-eye steak sandwich with everything except tomato, plus white sauce and hot sauce.  As long as you don’t’ expect steakhouse quality steaks, you should enjoy this sandwich.

As I said, he puts it on the grill and slices it right there.  No shredded steak here, although it did come with shredded lettuce, grilled onions and peppers, and the sauces.  Not one bite was tough or fatty.  The only disappointment was the hot sauce, which was not hot at all.  If Carnegie John could kick up his hot sauce a bit, this would be the perfect street steak sandwich, and at $5.50, it’s a good deal as well.  For the newbies, Carnegie John’s cart is right behind Carnegie Hall, on West 56th St, just east of 7th Ave.