Rafiqi’s

I’m a fan of Rafiqi’s.
The location of this cart first attracted me. Its about a block away from Penn station.
The price is great at $ 5 for a chicken and rice platter.
The food is pretty good as well, and the portion that they serve you is pretty sizeable.
One thing that seems to differentiate this cart from the others is that they give you a choice of different veggies, for no additional charge. I usually get the corn and tomatoes.
Sometimes, they have green sauce available here too. Its quite good. I flavor my chicken platter with hot sauce, white sauce, and green sauce. The mix of the three sauces go well together and make for a good tasting chicken platter.
There is seating off to the right of the cart. Although during busy times, its a bit hard to find.

What can I say? There is just some greasy cart food that hits the spot.
In my brief time working around here, this has become a guilty favorite of mine, and one of the best value meal just outside of Koreatown. Unfortunately, this area isn’t exactly a prime place for good, quick eating. Worse, you’re getting fleeced from establishments that are no better than the many fast food locations that surround them.
Many must share the same opinion as the lines really extend around lunch time. That is no problem though as the guys who work the cart are faaast.
$ 5 and you’ll get everything you want: combo platter with chicken, bound lamb meat from the spit, runny olive juice, oily yellow rice and white sauce which is really just mayo and vinegar in place of tahini. But it is still good. No really, it is good.
You want extras? Just ask. Still $ 5.

Just take a look at the line this place gets during the lunch rush. It’s worth the wait. Plus, they’re only $ 5 for the usual $ 6 chicken/​lamb over rice platter. The guys working there always seem to be in a decent mood and they’re clean. Well as clean as you can possibly be from working outside all day.

I know some people would get rafiq’d out if they got sick from a cart, but for me it comes and goes, it passes and then it’s over. I can’t be sure it was this that did it, and it happens every now and again because I try so much food, so I’m not going to act like it’s some Halloween Rafiq Show and tell horror stories about it. You could probably get sick from any place, and the other Rafiq’s haven’t had that effect on me, so I’m assuming it was just a one-​off. Hopefully. Sometimes this greasy sort of food can go right through you, and… I’m not really selling the place very well am I? Damn.
What to get: Combo with all the sauces — no salad
What else: This food made me sick (I think), but cart food often has that effect so I’ll let it slide.
I have tried four or five different Rafiqi’s locations and I’ve had similar experiences at all of them, with a couple of notable exceptions.
(a) One time this particular cart in Koreatown made me really sick, but the food still tasted great and Cart food tends to go right through me anyway, so I’m not going to downgrade their star level for this. I know other people would.
(b) One time the cart at Union Square tasted absolutely awful.
Despite that, the Union Square location is my fave. But this review is about the one in Koreatown, which was — I think — the third one I visited overall, so let’s focus on that.
This particular Rafiqi’s is pretty standard. Service is fast and not particularly friendly, nor is it unfriendly. The guy that served me was just quiet. It seems like an average Rafiqi’s Cart. It’s not as popular as the Midtown one I reviewed. Halal Guys and Biryani Cart get more business (and rightly so, in the case of Biryani), but if you want to sample all the best of NYC street meat, you have to give one of the Rafiqi’s a try. Perhaps skip this one based on me getting sick, but I’m fairly confident that won’t happen to you.
From this particular location I ordered the combo (which is gyro meat and chicken, with rice, covered in sauces). I had yet to learn my lesson, and I got it just the way it comes, which is with Salad. If you get it, I recommend skipping the Salad, which is often a little old and nondescript anyway. The salad tends to go bad if you save some of the food for later, and besides, it’s next to all the piping hot stuff so it kind of gets weird quickly, and doesn’t microwave well at all. Not that I like to microwave stuff, but how else are you going to re-​heat a combo?
I think it’s pretty awesome that the guy has a huge Rafiqi’s empire and so many trucks all over Manhattan. I wonder when (if?) he’s going to expand into the other boroughs. According to my notes I have tried 5 Rafiqi’s total, but there are about 15 of them… it really is an empire. I like to try different locations so that I can decide which ones are better, if any. So you can look forward to reviews of the others at some point.
By the way if you’re willing to venture out of Manhattan, then you must go to Sammy’s Halal in Queens. But if not, then try Halal Guys (the famous one), Chicken Tikka at Biryani Cart (my fave by far in Womanhattan), and any of the Rafiqi’s too.
And if the only people that ate here were nerdy types, then it’d be Rafiqi’s & Geeks.

This is my go to halal cart. It’s right next to my work and the guys who operate it always seem to be smiling, even during the busiest part of lunch rush on the hottest days of summer.
I wish that they would include more than the tiny scoop of each fixing (I think last time I got one piece of diced tomato), but the food is always tasty.
And it’s $ 5.
$ 5 for a good amount of flavorful food prepared by friendly guys.
I have nothing to complain about.

There are Rafiqi’s carts all over the place and this is my favorite. I get falafel over brown rice about once a week — it can be addictive and I sometimes find myself craving it. The falafel is always crispy and fresh. I personally enjoy the variety of toppings they offer. I always get «everything.» «Everything» doesn’t include fried onions but you can ask for those by name. For $ 4 this is a fantastic lunch.

Let me qualify this rating by saying that for $ 2 I’m not really expecting that much.
Bought the falafel sandwich.
Falafel was crispy and delicious.
Lettuce was mildly yellow and kinda gross.
Tomatoes were fine, green peppers were fine.
Asked for a little bit of sauce, got a lot. I’ll survive.
Again, $ 2 for a sandwich. All I’m asking for is tastiness and some quality. On that note it delivered. This place is not going to be featured on the «best thing I ever ate» food network show, but it does the trick.

pretty standard cart food… there whole ploy is that they will put tomatoes. peppers. onions. black olives and corn into any of there dishes for no additional cost… but who really wants corn and black olives in chicken and rice…
Hot sauce is pretty good. pasty.
They have falaffle sandwiches for 3 dollars.
cheap… quick.

I don’t know what’s with those other guys. Bar none, the BEST lamb gyros in Manhattan. I can’t find a better way to spend $ 4.25 on a deliciously drippy lunch. (Of course, once you’re up to the $ 5.50 range you’re looking at a Subway footlong as an option, but Rafiqi’s is for my money one of the best values around.)
For the record, I’ve never gotten sick from them nor have I heard of anyone else who did other than one of the previous reviewers. Perhaps the DMV made him nauseous? That sounds more likely…

I think I’ve had better halal cart food than this one.
Portions: VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF LAMB, CHICKEN, and RICE
Price: $ 0.50 EXTRA (I WAS NOT AWARE) FOR PITA with Combo
Serving Guy: UNINTERESTED
Taste: TOO SALTY
Avoid this one, there’s one across the street and for same price, gives free falafels, pita, and even fries with your combo and much nicer
serving guy. Will not eat here again I ate here only cuz the one across the street was SOLD OUT, now you get the word. Unfriendly service and Over-​priced and Small Portions=lose customers no matter how good you are. AVOIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The lunch I had here was friggin’ fantastic — while waiting in line, immediately before me a Cabbie pulled up and barked out an order completely unintelligible in English, so when «The Man» asked me what I wanted I said «Exactly what he just ordered, exactly the same way, please.» It turned out to be stewed chicken (mostly dark meat, from the thigh — which was absolutely amazingly terrifically tender, and also super extremely delicious) on a pita, for some reason it came with canned sliced black olives, grated American «cheese,» cilantro, lettuce, stewed tomatoes, canned chopped corn, grilled onions, and a really tasty red «hot sauce.» It was a weird, slightly Tex-​Mex combination, but it was particularly enjoyable due to the fact that the chicken which was, seriously, in all honestly, perhaps the best chicken-​meat I’ve had at any point from any street-​food vendor anywhere in NYC.
And then came dinner, the same day — it was a long, tedious, stressful one — I’m a beast of burden and repetition… DMV — which is nearby — need I say more… I got the lamb on yellow rice (which was way over-​cooked AND super-​greasy) with «everything» — it came with not only the aforementioned condiments but also some sort of repulsive repugnant white sauce, which to my recollection was some sort of Mayonnaise reduced with Sweetened Condensed Milk and perhaps even Heavy Cream… So, basically, even though I normally have a tough-​as-​nails wrought-​iron gut, I for whatever reason became nauseous, I really can’t explain why, but on the walk home I bent over and cough-​slash-​almost-​vomited every few blocks, and continued to do so for the next couple hours… Perhaps the Cabbie, whose lunch order I mimicked knew what he was doing, SKIP THE WHITE SAUCE, but that’s absolutely no excuse, they shouldn’t be serving this disgusting stuff — it made the meat (which was delightfully greasy and wonderfully overcooked) almost inedible (unless you do as I did: wipe it off with a napkin, scrape it off with a fork, or just avoid it entirely).
I’d go back for the chicken on a pita — skip the «cheese,» perhaps include the olives (for texture?), perhaps include the corn, perhaps include the cilantro, ask for extra lettuce, ask for extra tomato (minus the canned «stewing» liquid), and ask for extra hot sauce (which isn’t really that hot but is otherwise very flavorful). But for now I’m avoiding this place entirely — which is really too bad, incredibly unfortuate, because of all the Halal Carts on Broadway, this one smelt exceptional — my roommate walks by this place pretty-​much every-​day on his way downtown and on his way back uptown, and he whole-​heartedly endorsed it based upon its smell alone.