Express Power Lunch

Awesome Awesome Awesome. Cant describe. one of my fav. I ate 5 days a week for 6 months every single lunch. Its near my office and cant wait for my lunch time.
Daily in the morning hours I try to think of going to different place of lunch but I cant. 6 months in a row. My golden days. For $ 5 its a steal. You have veggie option too.
Every one says Halal Guys are best but this beats them in taste.

This place has the best falafel and rice! I work on 48^th Street, but with recent construction, they have not been able to park in their usual spot. DOES ANYONE WHERE THEY MOVED???

This place had been getting a lot of buzz lately, and they always seem to have a line at lunch time, so I decided to check it out.
In a nutshell, it was fine, but not worth seeking out. Fallafel was good, not too moist or dry. The eggplant they served sort of on top of it was a little bit on the runny side, and needed a bit more flavor. I did like how along with the normal assortment of veggies that come on a X and rice platter, they gave some stewed chick peas, and other Medeterranian stuff.
Pretty good. I enjoyed my lunch, and it was tasty and filling for five bucks, but I don’t know how often I’ll be back.

STOP HATING…
.on this cart. The chicken/​lamb combo ($ 5) is probably the best. scratch probably…
THE BEST STREET MEAT I’ve ever had. Before this, the XPL on Wall & Pearl was my fave. They give a free can of soda/​bottle of water, which they don’t here. To compensate, their lamb is far superior here. Also, portion sizes are bigger. Downtown, you get two tongs full and that’s it. Here, you get one spatula of each of chicken AND lamb, veggies on the side, 4pcs of cut up pita (from the steamer, kept warm), and shredded lettuce. Definitely weighs over 1lb and the basmati rice is super moist. If you are in the mood to break a diet or have a hankering for street meat, your journey begins and ends here. The infamous 53&6^th Halal Cart is far more commercialized and overhyped, albeit their superior hot sauce. I have renewed faith in ‘chain food’!!!
Total came out to $ 5 after everything.

My first foray into nyc’s meat and rice street cart scene came at the hands of the XPL cart at 48^th and Park Ave. This was mostly because I had an engagement later that hour at St. Bart’s so a walk to the fabled 53^rd and 6^th cart was out of the question. Pity.
Verdict? Not bad but not great either. To start with, the portions are dainty, I easily gobbled up my combo which left me satisfied but not food coma full. The meat is well seasoned, chicken is dark meat while the gyro mystery meat was extra spongey which was a tad off putting. Their hot sauce left a nice tingle on my tastebuds and the white sauce was just meh. LIke the other reviewers here and on Midtown Lunch, the best part about XPL’s street meat package is the rice. It’s cooked well and there’s a nice spicey kick to it, not unlike biryani rice.
Methinks I have a little more searching around to do before I hit street cart nirvana. Let the search begin!

Rice is good here. The meat is good here. The price is also good. But the portions? Please sir, may I have some more? They literally Oliver Twisted my dish!
This place is adjacent to my office building so I always see it as I walk by go to OTHER lunch spots. There’s usually a sizable line but I always wonder why. They must all be carb-​conscious, weight watchers because this place underserves like woah. There’s plenty of good halal food vendors nearby so there is no reason to come here.
To be fair, I must iterate that their food is good but their portions are far from and considering the fact that better alternatives remain (ie. Steak Truck across Park), why would anyone want to discount themselves? Don’t make my mistake. Don’t Oliver Twist yourself.

I work right on this block and get a «combo rice» nearly every week. I’m not a street meat connoisseur (this is the only one I’ve ever tried), but I’ve introduced two of my coworkers and my girlfriend to this place and they all like it as well. By 1:00, there’s usually a few minutes’ wait as the guys in suits who work at the financial companies in the area line up to get their $ 6 halal cart lunch. In answer to Jason P.‘s comment about pricing, by the way, it’s all $ 6 and a drink is included, so don’t forget yours.

Express Power Lunch, many may know it as XPL, is a truck stop on the South-​West corner of 48^th St. and Park Ave. Some may know XPL as there are a couple of them downtown by Wall St.
I finally made the journey out here to try the midtown XPL to compare to the other food carts. I don’t think there are regulations in prices here or if they are just in the habit of charging women less. Two of my friends came with me. My first friend (girl) ordered a Chicken over rice and a soda which came out to $ 6.00. I was next in line and I ordered the Combo (Chicken and Gyro) Platter for $ 6.00. Okay, I said to myself. They probably charge an additional $ 1 for combo meats. Then my other friend (guy) ordered the chicken over rice, and his came out to $ 6.00. I was a bit stifled, but nonetheless I didn’t want to hassle arguing with the guy why he was giving us different prices. I probably wasn’t going to come back down here anyways, since it was a bit far from the office.
And now to the taste-​testing. I added white sauce and hot sauce to my Combo Platter. I noticed that the hot sauce was a bit thin in consistency (similar to Red Devil’s hot sauce) and not very spicy for that matter. The white sauce was good but nothing more. The chicken was tender and well-​seasoned, but some pieces were dry at times. The gyro meat was a bit salty and tasted a bit processed. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing the guy shave the gyro meat off the döner kebab, and I believe he was just scooping it out of some tray or something. The side salad was fresh and crisp, but typical to many other halal food carts. The basmati rice was pretty delicious though, having a distinct Indian flavor (reminded me of curry ever so slightly) and perfectly cooked, not too hard and not too soft.
In all, XPL is just average in my book, and with their random pricing to each of their patrons, I will most likely avoid this place for bigger (portions were slightly smaller than the average) and better food carts.