The Halal Guys — Restaurant in New York

Had a decent bowl of ramen here. We came here mid-week around 6pm and were seated within a few minutes. It is a very crowded place and not just because there were a lot of people. The layout of the space is rather uncomfortable. There are several rows of communal tables with wooden stools and a bar along one side of the restaurant. They sure pack in the seats at the communal tables. There was nowhere to hang my coat, so I kept it on while eating and trying to keep my arms tucked in, so as not to bump into the people next to me. Needless to say, it was also tough getting into and out of our seats too. Though it was clean and I liked the simple wood theme of the place. Space issues aside, we each got the Momofuku Ramen. As for me, I ordered it because I always feel compelled to order a restaurant's namesake, but also because the other options didn't sound that appealing to me.

Momofuku Ramen ($17) - pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg: I always start by tasting a little of the broth on its own. The broth is savory, but not rich. The noodles are more like an al dente egg noodle than the buckwheat variety. The pork belly & shoulder were fatty and delicious. The fattiness of the pork belly kind of melts in your mouth. But I could definitely use more of each, especially for such an expensive bowl of ramen. The star of the bowl was the perfectly poached egg. Some people might prefer a more substantially cooked soft-boiled egg. But I appreciate how smooth and silky the egg turned out. Whenever I poach eggs, it doesn't come out looking so perfectly spherical. But I think his process is more of a slow-cooked soft-boiled egg to achieve that perfectly round shape and silky texture.

We also got a slushie drink with some sort of alcohol in it for about $6. It was peach-flavored, I think. It was good, but very tiny. I needed about 4 of them to go with my meal.

Service was pretty good. Actually I'm impressed that the waiters carry around bowls of hot soup in small spaces. Food is not bad. The ramen was quite good, though not the best I've ever had. Apparently they take reservations on their website. I'm not sure if that is specifically for the Fried Chicken meal, which seems awfully expensive and includes a ridiculously rigorous reservation protocol for about 4 servings of chicken. Overall, I give...

SOOOOO salty and this is coming from someone who is obsessed with Salt & Vinegar chips.

I was a huge fan of the original Halal Guys food stand in Midtown and frequented for years during my high school and college years. Throwback to when a platter was $6 instead of $13 and they actually served lamb instead of beef gyro.

I moved into this neighborhood in the beginning of this year and gave this particular branch FOUR chances from February to now. You might ask why I didn’t stop giving them my money after the first time I got a garbage batch. I used to work in the food industry in hs/college. I know that this isn’t a Michelin star establishment and that there are off days where I might potentially be ordering when there’s a bad batch. Nostalgia builds up over weeks and sometimes months so I end up putting in another order while sending prayers to the universe that this will be the day I receive a decent platter but NOPE. Somehow each and every time my order has been inedible due to amount of salt the food crew here puts in the food which means that it’s the norm around here. So sad because the original Halal Guys was incomparably delicious.

Am I asking for the platters to contain steaming and flavorful jasmine rice, and juicy meats that glisten in the light like they used to instead of the sad-looking dry grub they serve now? With hot sauce so hot that you had to beg the Halal guys to only put a dab along with copious amounts of white sauce to offset the heat? No. Just a decent, edible fast food meal that can feed into my memories of the old days.

ALSO! I just need to know. Who is making the executive decision on the amount of salt that is being tossed in the food? Put a blindfold on a stranger and they’ll assume that they’ve been fed spoonfuls of actual salt and this is not an exaggeration. Is someone even tasting the food as they season?! If they are, then a replacement is needed STAT because their tastebuds are 1000000% fried and probably melted off by the copious amount of salt they’ve subjected themselves to on a regular basis. Another platter tossed in the bin for the East Village rats to enjoy. Feast away giant critters.

RIP to any warm fuzzy feelings my past might have drudged up in regard to the Halal Guys. The sodium killed off the brain cells that stored those emotions...

Food was excellent as always. Friendly team except the guy with the red shirt and the longer brown hair at the register. The second I asked why my food was $1 more than the price on the board - not accusingly, just because I was curious - he went to negative-tone-town responding in a terse, snippy fashion.

Okay, whatever - annoying, but no harm. He asked if I had ordered fries and I said “nope” then he rang me up and I sat down. I guess there was a miscommunication, I must have mistook “fries” for “rice” when the guy was making my food earlier because then another guy comes by the register and says “fries?” I simply responded “nope, I didn’t order fr-“ when the cash register matador cuts me off saying “RELAX SIR, we got it...” It was so rude and randomly aggressive! Hahaha! I was just sitting there thinking “where did that come from??” I said “... okay man, I was just responding to him” and sat there feeling uncomfortable as I shoveled down my food to leave quickly. Well, that’s only half true. I love Halal Guys so much, I have no control and eat it fast every time.

Anyway, I had just finished work on a cold, rainy night and chose Halal Guys to sit and relax over some food before my trek home and my visit was ruined by Mr. Maroon aside from the food. I would have just packed my food to go and eaten at home but I didn’t even want to ask this dude for a plastic bag in case he still had a snippy comment left in the chamber. Meditate, man! Take a breather - it’s a rainy Wednesday and definitely not busy. I won’t be back to this location anytime soon and that’s a bummer to me. Sometimes one person can totally make or break an...