There is often a line at the King Tut cart on the SW corner of 50th St & 6th Ave, although it was not so nice out today, and there was no line. According to the vendor, they have been there since 1995 (15 years) and have 2 carts downtown, too. The King Tut Halal Food cart has a fairly standard street vendor menu, and I was not in the mood for street meat, so Today’s Lunch was a falafel sandwich.
They put 2 large ovals of falafel on the grill, cut them in half so it was like 4 normal-sized pieces of falafel, and squirted some liquid on the falafel while it heated up. The falafel was then put on a pita and I chose lettuce, tahini, white sauce and hot sauce. I could have added tomato, green pepper or raw onion, too.
Heading back to my office, I was worried about sauce overkill, as yesterday’s chicken on pita was a little too liquidy – but this was much neater as I unwrapped it. The first bite had some falafel, lettuce and some heat, and the falafel had an undercurrent of lemon. The sauce squirted on the falafel while it heated up obviously had lemon juice in it along with other seasonings. A pleasant addition.
The falafel was fairly well seasoned, and had some cornmeal in it as well as chickpeas. What can I say about this falafel? It was good, but it was not particularly memorable.
Today’s Lunch gets a 7.5 out of 10. The falafel was decent but not exceptional in any way. I liked the slight lemon flavoring, but the hot sauce was only hot on the first bite, and it needed all 3 sauces to keep from being dry. Nevertheless, for $4, it was a filling, economical lunch.
I haven’t tried their meat yet, but it looked like the standard chopped chicken and gyro meat on the grill that is served at most of the halal carts. Unless someone tells me their meats are amazing, I don’t plan on trying them in the near future.
