The Halal Table: NYC's Most Famous Halal Cart Lands in San Diego

The Halal Table

The white-sauce-and-yellow-rice empire that started as a New York street cart just planted its umbrellas in San Diego, and the story behind it is the most American halal tale we know.

The Halal Table is our weekend tour of halal food worth talking about. Good food, good people.

From a hot dog cart to halal history

In 1990, three Egyptian immigrants, Mohamed Abouelenein, Ahmed Elsaka and Abdelbaset Elsayed, were running an ordinary New York City hot dog cart when they noticed who kept pulling over: Muslim taxi drivers with almost nowhere to eat. So they swapped the hot dogs for halal chicken and gyro over rice, and the drivers came. Then the drivers' friends came. Then, over three decades, everyone came, with lines wrapping the block at 2 AM and a word-of-mouth legend that grew into more than 400 restaurants worldwide.

One of America's great fast-casual chains exists because somebody decided Muslim workers deserved a decent halal dinner.

Now serving: San Diego

After years of delays and setbacks, The Halal Guys finally opened their first San Diego location on Saturday, August 16, at 3825 Fifth Ave in Hillcrest, their fifteenth in California. The grand opening ran from 10 in the morning to 11:30 at night, with the first 50 guests scoring a free small platter.

What to order

If it is your first time: the combo platter, chicken and gyro together over that yellow rice, white sauce in quantities your cardiologist does not need to know about, and one cautious line of the hot sauce (it is not a suggestion, it is a dare). The falafel sandwich quietly carries the vegetarian side of the menu, and the baklava is the correct ending.

To our San Diego readers: go say salaam, stand in the line, and report back. To everyone else: there are now more than 400 chances to catch the scent of that rice on your own block. If a food run is in your weekend plans anyway, our Yemeni coffeehouse tour makes the perfect dessert stop, and our 100% Halal Certified mug is the uniform for the ride home.