Sandra’s Food Spot Cart

First off, the women in the cart were so sweet and friendly! It was my first time at the cart and they gave me the low down on what is good, they also knew their regulars by name and order — so charming! I ended up ordering the tilapia on rice. Now I am not usually a fish person, but I tried it because the woman in the cart recommended it, and it was truly so very good. I had her dress the meal with whatever sauces she thought were right for it. You can see them cook the meat on the stove right in front of you and the tilapia was wonderfully cooked — no fishy taste, and it fell apart perfectly on the form. My friend ordered the lamb over rice and the lamb was super tender as well!
The rice and beans were good but I found them under-​flavored — I could not taste any spices but I am also not very familiar with the Puerto Rican spice palate. However, the yellow rice were perfectly cooked and the beans were not too heavy.
I paid $ 8 (cash) for the meal and it lasted me two days.
Great food and great service — would recommend! It is right in front of the Chase Plaza

Omg the best food cart I’ve had I eat here like 3 times a week best chicken over rice ever. Sandra is super nice

Hands down! Best fish… Other Indian trucks sell really good fish as well but too spicy for me!

Probably the best street cart food around here. I always go for the tilapia over rice with beans at $ 8 with salad on the side. When asked what sauce/​toppings I’d like, my response is, «Surprise me and make me happy.» She’ll top off with fried onions, white sauce, some hot sauce, and etc. I don’t ask… I just eat and I like it.
Ask Sandra for a business card, so that you can call ahead if going during peak hours, 12 to 130PM. She gets busy, so don’t hang up if she doesn’t pick you up after 3 or 4 rings.
The lamb isn’t as good as the tilapia or the chicken… But I always go for tilapia and then chicken when she runs out of the fish.

Tuesday there will be chicken pasteles available for lunch at 11am at Sandra’s food cart.

I ordered the steak plate with rice and beans with salad. With white sauce, hot sauce, and italian dressing. It is soooo freakin good! And cheap! Cost me $ 7 bucks for a huge plate!!! I’m stuffing my face right now, i’m so hungry! I’m going to come here more often! :-)

I love this place. I usually order the tilapia with rice, beans and salad. It’s fast and Sandra is great!

A successful mid-​day meal rendezvous with a potential love interest (at the time, anyway) may have endeared this joint to me for the most arbitrary of reasons, but at the end of the day, a (quick) damn tasty bite with little damage to my finances is what this cart sets out to do; and damn does Sandra deliver in bunches.
First off, I’m already of the mindset that FiDi doesn’t have too much to offer in terms of a vast array of cheap, quick, tasty, and affordable food options. For the most part, I am correct in this mindset. But here comes Sandra, wanting to be the exception to the rule. And while I hate being wrong, Sandra has proved to be one of the more pleasant ways of proving my incorrectness.
All the other reviews for Sandra (nine, currently) have sang praises for the tilapia and rice, and I would only be echoing those (very correct) sentiments. Sandra’s lamb and rice is nothing to bat an eyelash at though, rivaling any and all other street meat purveyors cranking out the same/​similar type of product.
And while potential love interest of a day gone by, on the day we met for that lunch rendezvous, may have just turned out to be another disappointment in this writer’s size-​able (though not as extensive as many of you may and should believe) rogues gallery, I’m happy enough to have found Sandra. I doubt she (and her goods) would be letting me down any time soon.

This cart came highly recommended from someone I know and it DID NOT disappoint! I came here for lunch on a weekday in the fidi at around 1pm. As expected, there was a small line of about 4 – 5 people, but they were all lined up against the Chase Plaza wall waiting for their orders. The $ 7 Tilapia with rice and beans plate was the dish of choice according to my source so that’s what I went with. It took about 5 – 7 minutes for the order to be ready and it wasn’t something I minded as they cooked the fish right on site in their cart, which was nice to see! When I reached for my order, she gave a pleasant «Hope you like it.» Good hospitality and service goes a long way people!
I can’t say the rice and beans were anything spectacular, but they were really good combined with the tilapia. As for the tilapia itself, that was the real deal! It was fresh, soft and perfectly cooked! I asked Sandra to add a bit of hot sauce to the plate as well adding a bit of spice to it too. Also included in the plate is a small salad, which she adds a bit of dressing on if you choose. For $ 7, you can’t beat the bang for the buck!

Not where I’d go for chicken over rice, which is still serviceable, but I’m a fan of their burgers and hot dogs. Sandra’s is also run by very nice women who try to remember their customers which is much appreciated. Looking forward to trying their pasteles.

Amazing tasty food!!! Favorite food truck in the city. The tilapia is flavorful and the chicken also.

Just found it after looking on Unilocal and searching the area. No one said where it was located. It’s on Nassau St near Cedar St. By Chase Plaza on the side closest to Broadway. The ladies were very very nice. Customers knew her by name and she knew them also. I ordered the tilapia with rice and beans and salad. WOW… delicious. I ate in the office and NO smell of fish at all. She told me in around October is when she sells pasteles. Too hot now. I was happy and I will be back for more. I am glad the photos showed a building I was familiar with and found her fast.

Its so hard to find pasteles these days. Growing up in LES i use to eat them all the time. It seems restaurants (even in the hood) stopped making them because they take forever to make apparently. But if you want your fix, stop by Sandra’s on tues and thurs! You can even pre order a dozen the day before! reminds me of the days growing up buying a dozen from the neighborhood little old puerto rican lady that would crank em out once a month or so and keeping them in your freezer! So good! She also has normal stuff like hot dogs, cheese steaks etc. During lunch time there is usually a line but its worth the wait!

My favorite at Sandra’s has to be the cheesesteak. Admittedly, if you’re from Philly you’ll probably be horrified at this monstrous creation of steak shavings, peppers, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, hot sauce, and American cheese but it is so good I don’t care. Really by «good» i mean it satisfies all your inner fat kid cravings and gives you a stomachache/​food coma for the rest of the afternoon.

SANDRA’S CART BRINGS PUERTO RICAN FOOD TO FiDi!
Midst the row of food trucks that line the west and east sides of Chase Plaza, sits Sandra’s Cart which looks no different than the rest. Sure she sells the typical stuff that any self-​respecting food truck should sell. Gyros, burgers, hot dogs, and cheese steaks, and knishes. That’s not to say that they don’t make any of those things well, it’s just there’s nothing new or exciting in those choices. Those are just the basic staples that you’d find at any cart and by all means something that I might be craving on any regular day of the week. But for me stopping at Sandra’s occurs on special days of the week. These days are special because Sandra brings in some of her home cooking and if you don’t get there early, then you may have to go back to work grumpy and have to try again next week. That’s because on those days of the week Sandra brings some of her famous Puerto Rican cooking and there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else in the Financial District.
For me my love affair with Sandra began when I learned that my Friday’s would now be spent running to Chase Plaza as close to noon as possible so not to draw stares or unwanted attention toward my platter. In Puerto Rico, pasteles are a cherished culinary recipe. The masa consists of a combination of grated green banana, green plantain, taro, and tropical pumpkins known as calabazas. It is seasoned with liquid from the meat mixture, milk, and annatto oil. The meat is prepared as a stew and usually contains any combination of pork shoulder, ham, bacon, raisins, potatoes, chickpeas, olives, and capers, commonly season with bay leaves, recaito, tomato sauce, adobo seco, and or annatto oil. The pork shoulder can also be replaced with chicken.
Assembling a typical pastel involves a large sheet of parchment paper, a strip of banana leaf that has been heated over an open flame to make it supple, and a little annatto oil on the leaf. The masa is then placed on banana leaf and stuffed with meat mixture. The paper is then folded and tied with kitchen string to form packets. It can also be done without the string using aluminum foil. Once made, pasteles can either be cooked in boiling water or frozen for later use. Because they are so labor intensive, large Puerto Rican families often make anywhere from 50 – 200 or more at a time, especially around the Christmas holidays. They are usually served with rice and pigeon peas (arroz con gandules), escabeche, roasted pork, and other holiday foods on the side.
This should help you to understand why Sandra only makes them once a week and during the Summertime she makes them in smaller batches and will only bring them in on Thursdays due to the excessive heat that can accumulate in her kitchen while producing enough pasteles to sell the next day. Given the limited quantity, it is easy to see why I get antsy as the hour stretches past noon and it becomes later in the day. I’ve had both the pork and the chicken versions and have decided that my personal favorite has to be the pork. The flavor is just so much more intense and each bite is so much more moist. Both versions are served with traditional sides like salad and arroz con gandules, so every time I pickup an order it’s just like grabbing a care package from my family in Brooklyn.
There are some consolation prizes to missing out on pasteles, but these too are only available on special days. I’m not pro on people bringing fish back to the office, but on some days I can make an exception. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Sandra brings in a wonderful Tilapia served over salad and with a side of yellow rice, pinto beans and chunks of potatoes. Perhaps on this day even more than Fridays you want to get there early. Not just to prevent missing out on fish, but to make you that you’re not tagged as the fishy guy when you get back to the office. Opposite those days (Tuesdays and Thursdays) you can get meat and potatoes done Puerto Rican style with Sandra’s Beef Stew. There’s lots of veggies in here that I grew up with in the version that my mother cooked including carrots and potatoes and served over a bed of yellow rice with some salad. All of these dishes are great with a couple of squirts of hot sauce just to bring a bit more heat to the mix.
I’m going to have to head over to Sandra’s Cart a few days this week before it gets too hot. Once Summer sets in I can never quite get my schedule straight about what she’ll be making for the day. While everyday is a surprise to me, one thing that’s always certain in that Sandra serves up Puerto Rican food that makes me feel like I’m eating with family without having to make the 4 hour flight to San Juan.