I didn’t realize it had been over a year since I visited Kabab Express, just inside the SE corner of 6th Ave & 55th St. Their kababs take a few minutes to cook, but they are grilled fresh in front of your eyes.
I wanted to try something new, like a lamb or beef kabab, but they don’t have lamb anymore, and they didn’t have beef today because it was their first day in a brand new cart, and things were a little disorganized. The new cart was much nicer than the old cart, and it even has a refrigerator section. Guess I’ll have to try a beef kabab another time.
I also saw a sign for spicy chicken wings over rice and asked about that. He said they should have it next week, but I’ve heard that before.
Today’s Lunch is a chicken kabab over rice ($7) from Kabab Express.
I happened to be near Kabab Express on 55th St just east of 6th Ave around lunchtime today. I haven’t tried their lamb or beef kababs yet, but their chicken kabab was pretty good, as was their koobideh kabab. Unfortunately, it takes around 15 minutes to grill the kababs from scratch, and I didn’t have a lot of time, so I went for the street food gold standard instead. Today’s Lunch is chicken over rice with white sauce and hot sauce ($5). Would the chicken over rice from Kabab Express be as good as their kababs? Find out after the jump.
Today just felt like a fish & chips day. No reason in particular – it just felt that way. Today’s Lunch is fish & chips from Kabab Express just inside the SE corner of 55th St and 6th Ave.
After I ordered the fish, there was about a 5 minute wait since he had to deep fry the fish. No problem, but next time I should call ahead to 347-666-0554 and pick it up without waiting. They took a couple of orders over the phone while I was waiting, and I did this in the past for the kababs, which also take about 5 minutes to cook.
I’ve been wanting to get back to Kebab Express, on the southeast corner of 55th St and 6th Ave, since enjoying their grilled chicken kebab over rice in January, right after they opened. They are a relative newcomer to the New York Street Food scene, but appear to have gained a following in the past 6 weeks. I can see why.
Today’s Lunch was the koobideh kebab platter ($7), which is a Persian minced meat dish with onion and spices. It’s similar to keema in Indian cuisine, but spiced a bit differently. I didn’t want the flavor of the meat to get buried, so I only ordered it with hot sauce, and only got white sauce on the salad.
They grill the kebabs right there, so everything is cooked fresh, and with 3 kebabs in the platter, there was plenty of meat. The koobideh was nicely grilled and was very good with the hot sauce, but next time I’ll get the white sauce too. I dipped the koobideh in the white sauce that was on the salad, and it was better with the white sauce. I will say, their hot sauce was hot, not the wimpy hot sauce some places have.
There was a choice of brown or yellow rice, and I chose the brown rice, which was excellent. For some reason, I really enjoyed the rice today. Perhaps it had something to do with going out drinking last night.
The salad was pretty basic with lettuce, a little red cabage and cucumber. I declined the grilled half tomato, but if you like tomatoes, it looked very good. I like salad at the end of a meal, and this was a refreshing finish for the meal.
It takes a little while to grill the kebabs, so I would suggest calling 10-15 minutes ahead to place your order. Otherwise, you’ll just be waiting at the cart for them to grill the kebabs to order, which takes a little while. It’s well worth calling ahead to 347-666-0554.
Today’s Lunch was a solid 9 out of 10. I’ll be back!
Today’s Lunch is the chicken kebab with rice and salad from Kebab Express, just in from the southeast corner of 55th St and 6th Ave. They are a relative newcomer to the New York Street Food scene who recently received some buzz on Midtown Lunch. Judging from Today’s Lunch, they are going to be around for a while.
They grill the chicken right on the spot, and there were 9 large, perfectly grilled marinated white meat chicken pieces. They had that nice grilled flavor and some slight charring, which is how grilled chicken should be. The chicken would have been a little dry without the white and hot sauces, but was excellent with them. I’m not big on the shredded chicken at most halal stands, and prefer the white meat chicken like you get at Carnegie John’s food cart.
There was a choice of brown or yellow rice, and I chose the brown rice, which was very good. It was not overcooked, which can be a problem with some street food vendors.
The salad was pretty basic with lettuce and one piece of cucumber, but they also included a grilled half tomato. That’s the round, black item in the middle of the picture. I don’t really like tomato, but if you do, it was nicely grilled on one side. The standard white sauce served as the salad dressing.
I’m not sure of the price because the Kebab Express video showed the price as $6.50, the cart menu today said $7.50, but then they only charged me $6.50. I guess they’re still working out the kinks on pricing, but certainly have the food part down. Either way it was an excellent value, with plenty of meat and rice in the platter. My wife and her friend could probably share it and be just fine until dinner.
It takes a little while to grill the kebabs, so I would suggest calling ahead to place your order and just pick it up. It’s too cold right now to wait outside for 15 minutes. They told me 10 minutes when I called, and it was more like 15, so it was well worth calling ahead to 347-666-0554.
They have around a dozen dishes, and I’m going to try some others in the future, especially the lamb kebab platter, the kobideh, which is a Persian minced meat dish with onion and spices, and the fish and chips, which as we recently found out, turns 150 this year.
