Why dine here
The Halal Guys began in 1990 when Egyptian founders Mohamed Abouelenein, Abdelbaset Elsayed and Ahmed Elsaka opened a cart at West 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue. They shifted from hot dogs to filling halal meals for Muslim taxi drivers, establishing the chicken-and-rice format in 1992.
What to expect
The core platter combines chopped chicken, gyro meat or both with seasoned orange rice, lettuce, tomato and pita. Creamy white sauce softens the meat and rice, while a concentrated red hot sauce supplies heat; the same elements can be folded into a sandwich rather than spread across a foil tray.
Before you go
Long lines made the corner cart a Midtown landmark before the business expanded into permanent restaurants and international franchises. The original menu remains deliberately narrow, and its influence can be seen in countless New York carts that adopted the vocabulary of meat over rice, white sauce and hot sauce.
