Trini Paki Boys Cart

Been eating here for ten years. I’ve tried a lot of other food carts in mid-​town. This is the best one I’ve found. It’s complex, lots of flavors, textures.

I’m a Trini who works in midtown. This cart is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for.
Bake and Shark is phenomenal.
Doubles = Perfection (make sure you use sauces to flavor to your liking)
Roti is a must
Curry goat falls off the bone.
As you can see… you can’t miss with their menu and their prices are very very fair.

Quite a good place to have lamb and rice. It comes with two sizes — small and big. The portion is good for the price.
The lamb is bit on spicier side and tastes awesome with the rice. Sometimes there are huge queue and have to wait for your order.
You can take order and eat in in the patio of the office next to the cart. So great food with great seating :).

It looks like if you want any of that trini/​paki stuff you have to ask for it because they’ll default you to chicken and rice. I’m not hating on chicken and rice. Lord knows I love it. But it can be had on nearly any block in most of this city and oxtail cannot. I asked for the combo hoping for some indo-​carribean food and instead just got a decent chicken and rice box.

Had two doubles here. I’m not from New York so I’ve been waiting to try authentic New York style doubles for a while. I can say these hit the spot. Had some pepper sauce and tamarind sauce as well with them. Not too spicy as I feared. Bake and shark was not available the day I was there.

Maybe I haven’t gotten the right things, but I don’t get the crazy lines and hype on this place. I’ve had the chicken — pretty similar to any other cart? and the goat curry. Typically I LOVE curry goat, but this one was all bones and too difficult to eat back at the office in front of coworkers.

The best street meat in Midtown in my humble opinion, better than Rafiqi’s or anything around. I get it at least once every other week. I usu. get the chicken on rice with some curry beef or oxtail gravy for $ 6, cuz they’re usu. sold out by 1pm.

Not your generic food cart. They actually have an interesting menu; beyond just chicken and lamb and rice. They offer things you usually don’t see from food carts like goat, bake and shark, and oxtail. The Curry goat is delicious, especially with their unique hot sauce. Too bad they usually run out of it by noon-​1pm.

Try their jerk chicken with rice OR chicken with rice with Tamarind sauce and scotch bonnet sauce is the greatest tasting food you will find

Okay I tried this place twice. First I got lamb and rice. It tasted like any other halal food cart and was extremely disappointed. The rice was a little different and had a little of a paki swing to it.
Next I went and tries their curry goat over rice. Goat always has the problem of being hard to eat if you don’t know how to eat it of have the patience to do so. But I have to say that his curry goat was pretty good. I hate the rice (it is a sticky brown rice) but his goat was cooked and curried very well.
Price is very good. Expect to pay less than 10 bucks while here. Next I want to try their bake and shark…

Very delicious hearty food in midtown that shakes up the usual halal cart monotony. Grab the oxtail or curry goat if they have it. Finally, if you’ve got a Costco mentality, get the large size and save half for dinner. The medium was more than enough for me, but at only $ 2 less than large size, I’d have gotten the large size. Just make sure to control what you eat so you don’t completely explode…

I got the medium size chicken biryani for $ 5. It had an off-​putting fishy aftertaste and there was no white sauce, even though I asked for it. It also has a natural spiciness to it so to ask for hot sauce was extraneous.

Found the cart today and tried the jerk chicken. Wow is it ridiculously spicy… but very good. Juicy chicken pieces.
You can choose any combo of rice, veggies, chickpeas and salad with your meat which is cool.
Also tried the doubles, a vegetarian sandwich made with chickpeas and a homemade flat bread. Really good too and only $ 2.
Vegetable or Chicken Samosas are only $ 1. Pretty nice size for the price.
Chicken Tikka Masala — first off this is NOT your regular Indian style chicken tikka masala. Its seems almost mis-​labeled because it tastes and looks like plain chicken curry — so just be warned when you order it. That being said, the flavor is pretty decent and the chicken is cooked very well, not dry at all. Small is $ 7 and large is $ 9. Decent portion of chicken. But I wouldn’t order it again.
Finally, tried the famous shark and bake. Its a huge sandwich loaded with shark meat on full size pita cut in half to make 2 slices. The meat was great but what really makes it is the combo of all the sauces they put on. This is probably the best value on the menu I found so far.
When it comes to your typical meat+side dishes (chicken over rice, etc) though, the cart loses points. A «large» size costs $ 8, which is the same shallow rectangular white Styrofoam box all the other carts fill up for $ 6.

We tried Trini Paki Boys Cart place last night based only on the number of 4and5 stars review here on Unilocal.
And it was ssoooo delicious! I don’t know why I haven’t tried them before, I was pleasantly surprised by this spot.
I had the Curry Chicken Roti –it was so delightful. My girlfriend tried the combo platter, and she loved it too. I will get it next time for myself. The tastes great and the portions are huge. The service was nice too, very nice people working here.
I totally recommend it!

Trini Paki is an excellent fusion of Caribbean and mid-​eastern. But on my quest for the best chicken and rice halal street meat, this popular steel box O’ food on wheels falls short of the best. To be sure, it is excellent Pakistani food, but the flavors and quality just aren’t up to snuff against the other entrants in this hotly competitive market space. Sammy’s cart seems to be a better showing overall for Pakistani style street meat.
If south Asian curry flavors are what you crave in a street meat lunch box, then this has awesome flavors, BUT the rice, my oh my, this white matter was just a few drops of water short of Chinese/​Korean rice porridge (jook).
This stuff was soo mushy it could have substituted for a savory flavor from Rice To Riches in the LES.
As for quantity, it is definitively smaller than the halal guys or their imposter’s platters. And meat style? Large slices of their skewer are laid upon the soggy rice.
All in all, great flavor, but a texture that is lacking.

i’ve had 2 things from here (so far,) the small chicken and rice for 4 bucks and the Bake N’ Shark which is 6.
Both were excellent, will make a full review later when I have more time.

Food was better than those around the area and so many selections … not just your typical chicken and rice biryani + they have all dishes in 3 sizes. I picked the medium chicken and rice biryani for $ 5. Although they put the medium sized food in a small container, it’s really packed and you’ll be full.
However, I am not crazy about their lines at 1:30 in the afternoon! Then again, it’s probably because the place is so good.
I gotta try the other dishes in the menu next time.

You mean there’s more to it than The Halal Guys?
«The best chicken and rice ever» as claimed by a coworker, we decided to make the 15 min trek one afternoon, so I could open my eyes and never look at chicken and rice the same again.
On the outside, it doesn’t look that much different than any other food truck. The menu is on a sandwich board to the side and their availabilities vary from day to day. With assembly, I didn’t notice they included a few extra ingredients including a potato curry that topped the chicken.
In terms of taste, to be completely honest, I didn’t notice much of a difference, but it was still tasty! The rice wasn’t plain yellow rice and had mix-​ins in it. The chicken wasn’t dry, which is the most important thing. The potato curry was a welcome addition, although it wasn’t mind-​blowing.
All-​in-​all, I don’t think the lunch is worth the walk over, but if I happen to be in the area, at least I know of another option.

Sweet, sweet curry beef. This is the best street meat option in Midtown, in my opinion. It’s a little something different that the standard Rafiqi’s style carts, the food is really good, and the surly old woman in the headscarf collecting the money is a nice touch. There’s no better feeling than sitting back at your desk after lunch, full of spicy goodness and thinking, «I hate myself a little, but it was definitely worth it.»
The line gets crazy, so earlier is better. Just not before me.

HAD to try this truck after it was featured by Midtown lunch since it’s right behind my school!
NOTE: love how they offer DIFFERENT SIZES to cater to different appetites! the small is $ 4, the medium $ 5, and the large $ 6 (granted you get more food for $ 4 in the east village, but what can you expect for midtown)
—-I wasn’t a huge fan of their chicken & rice… instead of a mix of intricate spices it had an overpowering curry taste & the rice was missing that saffron taste (are they cheaping out?!)
—-another BIG COMPLAINT: the spicy sauce WASN’T THAT SPICY & the MEAT WAS OVERCOOKED
although I give them credit for having a unique mix of bell peppers & other veggies that they add on top