Express Power Lunch

Good not great.
I came here because the Jamaican food truck wasn’t around and I was hungry. I asked for chicken over lettuce since chicken over rice can steer you into the 1,000 calorie range. They were quick in preparing my food and were nice. Plus the meal, with a soda, only came to $ 5. Instead of putting my chicken over the lettuce, they had the lettuce side by side with the chicken. Whatever fine. I also asked for some white and red sauce. Barely any white, no red. I’m too short to see what they were or weren’t doing while I was waiting. The chicken was very flavorful but not filling due to the small amount, also I was missing my red sauce. The salad was good and fresh. Overall, they’re good in a hurry but the halal guy on Beaver street is way better.

My favorite halal cart in FiDi. The guys are always friendly, provide a great value for the price, includes a drink with each meal and always provide what I ask for. Try the «extra» hot sauce :)

Great lunch deal here at Express Power Lunch!
$ 5 for a Lamb and/​or Chicken & Rice + a Drink.
The portion for the halal lunch box is quite filling. Thank you to Benny who introduced me to it.

Definitely the neighborhood’s best halal cart, and they’re faster than most. The lamb over rice with extra sauces (while and hot red) is my usual. Even the little salad that they serve seems fresher here.

Definitely one of the top food trucks in the Wall Street Area.

As far as food carts go this one is top notch!
I eat the lamb gyro at least once a week! $ 3.50 of goodness.

This is the place to eat, late on a weeknight, if you’re ever stuck waiting for an hour at the Staten Island Ferry. I come here whenever I’m by the neighborhood. The price is SUPERB, and they’ll actually give a hearty portion of food. The food isn’t sitting around for hours waiting to be served — it’s too busy! So you know it’s usually fresh.

After wanting to try XPL for months (after reading about it in Midtown Lunch), I finally tried out the one conveniently located a few blocks from my new office. I got the combo over rice with white sauce, hot sauce, and green sauce. They immediately won points with me for having green sauce – it’s so rare at halal carts and I love it so much. Their green sauce certainly satisfied my craving – delicious and oh so cilantro-​ey. The white sauce was also delicious and tangy, with a bit of tzatziki flavor. The hot sauce was overwhelmed by the other flavors. While it provided some heat, it was certainly not a star. Both the lamb and chicken were delicious; however, unlike some other reviews here, I favored the lamb over the chicken. It was more moist and more flavorful. The rice was basmati rice, good but not a stand out. The salad was your standard halal salad – iceberg & tomatoes. Also, unlike a lot of reviews, my container was filled fully and it was not mostly salad.
You can read more here:

Xpress Unilocal Review:
— More towards the SW corner of Pearl St and Whitehall St.
— 3 guys in green t-​shirts (1 cooks, 2 prep). Looks like they’re ready to move some fast orders but they move at a snail’s pace
— Upon opening the brown paper bag, the fork had a piece of hair and some dirt on it. pretty nasty.
— 2 standard-​size napkins. None of those cheap small rectangular-​shaped deli napkins
— half of the white styrofoam tray was salad. Sad face. Salad was crisp and 1 slice of tomato that was included was refreshing though short-​lived (1 slice?!)
— portions not too generous
— cubes of chicken, orange in color, slightly dry like chicken breast. Boring in flavors. No smiles here.
— yellow rice fairly plain but tasty, almost like basmati, a bit buttery, yum
— asked for hot sauce. saw him put on a liberal amount but I was barely able to notice it. total disappointment
— Why is the line always so long? The food is mediocre at best. Definitely not to my expectations for a halal cart. Blah. 1 star for XPL. You can do better than that!

Hardly compares to the chicken and rice halal stand at 53^rd and 6^th, but a filling meat lunch for $ 5 in this area is rare and this place is close so I stop once in a while. I find they can be a bit slow though.

aka. XPL…They’ve got a couple of carts down in the financial district serving up Halal food. I like to go to this location, because its right outside my office. This food is so cheap and yummy. There’s always a long line, but it moves pretty quick. They’ve got their routine down pat. Its like an assembly line. For $ 3 you can get a lamb gyro, that’s so tasty and filling. Inside, its got all the right spices, a little sauteed onion, lettuce, tomato, I like them to top it off with some hot sauce… Mmmm. You can also get chicken or veggie…