New York City / Street food
Best Street Food in NYC
Carts, trucks and markets, with the corner, the cash rule and the hours that actually apply.
The markets are the only things here with a schedule — Queens Night Market and Smorgasburg both run Saturdays, April to October.
- 18 verified vendors
- 4 Vendy winners
- tacos from $3
- platters $8–$14
The best street food in NYC right now is Sammy’s Halal in Jackson Heights ($8–$10, and the cart the green-sauce reputation is built on), NY Dosas at Washington Square ($8 for a masala dosa with sambar and chutney), El Rey del Taco in Astoria (the trompo turns nightly), Tacos El Borrego on Roosevelt Ave ($3.50 a taco, 9pm to 6am) and the Queens Night Market, where nearly everything is capped at $6. Two things matter more than any ranking here. First, the corner: this city is full of near-identical cart names, and the copycat is usually across the street. Second, the cash rule — the taco trucks are largely cash only and the halal carts largely take cards. Both are noted on every entry below.
The short version
- CheapestQueens Night Market caps almost every item at $6. Saturdays, 4pm–midnight.
- Get the corner rightThe real Halal Guys is the southeast corner of 53rd & 6th. The copycat is opposite.
- LatestTacos El Borrego, 9pm–6am on Roosevelt Ave. El Rey del Taco to 4am Fri–Sat.
- Bring cashVerified cash-only: El Bronco, El Borrego, Taco Veloz, Red Hook. Halal carts mostly take cards.
- Out of date everywhereCorona Plaza is now 14 licensed stalls, Wed–Sun 9am–8pm — not the 80-vendor night market.
At a glance
What to order, what it costs and when it is actually open. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Vendor | Order this | Price / hours | Neighborhood | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Halal Guys (original cart) | Combo platter | $8–$12 | Midtown West | $$$ |
| Sammy’s Halal Food | Chicken over rice, green sauce | $8–$10 | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| The King of Falafel & Shawarma | Falafel; chicken-lamb combo | $10–$17 | Astoria | $$$ |
| NY Dosas | Masala dosa | $8 | Greenwich Village | $$$ |
| Birria-Landia (Jackson Heights) | Three birria tacos + consomé | from 5pm | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| El Rey del Taco | Al pastor; lengua | 6pm–2am | Astoria | $$$ |
| Tacos El Bronco (truck) | Campechanos; al pastor | to ~2am | Sunset Park | $$$ |
| Tacos Morelos (Williamsburg) | Al pastor; suadero | $3–$4 | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Tacos El Borrego | Suadero; cabeza | 9pm–6am | Corona border | $$$ |
| Corona Plaza Market | Chalupas; huaraches; chilaquiles | Wed–Sun 9am–8pm | Corona | $$$ |
| Taco Veloz | Carnitas | ~10am–2am | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Royal Grill Halal Food | Chicken tikka biryani | $8–$12 | Theater District | $$$ |
| Kwik Meal | Lamb platter | $9–$14 | Theater District | $$$ |
| Adel’s Famous Halal Food | Chicken over rice | $9–$12 | Midtown West | $$$ |
| Queens Night Market | Everything capped at $6 | Sat 4pm–midnight | Corona | $$$ |
| Smorgasburg Williamsburg | ~100 vendors, free entry | Sat 11am–6pm | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Red Hook Food Vendors | Pupusas; huaraches; elote | Weekends ~11am–8pm | Red Hook | $$$ |
| Chelsea Market | Los Tacos No. 1 quesataco | Daily 7am–10pm | Chelsea | $$$ |
Map: where these 18 spots are
Roosevelt Avenue is the spine of the whole thing. Midtown’s 6th Avenue row runs 44th to 53rd.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
The famous carts, and how to find the right one
Four Vendy winners and the most-copied names in the city. More in our best halal restaurants guide.
The Halal Guys (original cart)
Get the corner right and you are fine; get it wrong and you have queued twenty minutes for the wrong cart. The original is on the southeast corner of 53rd and 6th, yellow and red. A competing cart called “New York’s Best Halal Food” works the southwest corner of the same intersection and catches tourists all night long. The order is the combo platter — chicken and gyro over yellow rice, white sauce over the whole thing, red sauce on the side and in small quantities, because it is hotter than it looks. The honest caveat: the cart is now the front end of a 100-plus location global franchise, and the storefronts are a different product. The cart is the thing.
Sammy’s Halal Food
The first Queens cart to take the Vendy Cup, back in 2006, and still parked at 73rd and Broadway under the elevated 7 in the middle of the Jackson Heights South Asian corridor. Order the chicken over rice and ask for the green sauce — this is the cart that built the green-sauce reputation, and green sauce is the single best tell that an operator is thinking past the bare minimum, because it takes work and almost nobody bothers. At $8–$10 it undercuts the 6th Avenue row for a better plate. The honest caveat: “Sammy’s Halal” is one of the most-copied names in the city. The Vendy winner is the cart at 73rd and Broadway. Payment is unverified — carry cash.
See our Jackson Heights happy hours
The King of Falafel & Shawarma
Freddy Zeideia started this in 2002 and took both the 2010 Vendy Cup and the People’s Choice Award in the same year, which nobody else on this page has done. The order is the falafel, not the rice plate — this is a falafel specialist that happens to also do a very good chicken-and-lamb combo, and ordering it like a halal cart misses the point. At $10–$17 it is the priciest of the Vendy-winning carts, and the portions are correspondingly enormous. There is a cart on Broadway at 30th, a brick-and-mortar a block away at 30-15 Broadway, and a second cart on Park Ave at E 53rd in Midtown East. The honest caveat: none of the three publishes a schedule.
NY Dosas
Thiru Kumar has worked the same stretch of Washington Square South for over twenty years, and the whole cart is vegan with gluten-free options. The masala dosa is $8 — a crisp lentil-and-rice crepe folded over potato masala — and every lunch item comes with a cup of sambar and a side of coconut chutney, which turns eight dollars into an actual meal rather than a snack. Singapore noodles are a Thursday-only item at $9. Samosas and vegan drumsticks are $3 each from the walk-up window with no wait. The honest caveat, and it is the only one: the cart publishes no hours and points you to social media. Check before you walk over, especially outside weekday lunch.
Birria-Landia (Jackson Heights)
Jose Moreno parked the first truck here in 2019 and effectively started the city’s birria wave; there are now five, in Jackson Heights, Williamsburg, the Upper West Side, the Lower East Side and the Bronx. Order the minimum three tacos with a cup of consomé for dipping — they are small, and everyone who orders two regrets it. It is also the only taco truck operation in this guide that publishes reliable per-truck hours on its own website, which is worth more than it sounds. The honest caveat: it does not open until 5pm on weeknights, so a lunchtime trip is a wasted trip, and a handful of recent reviews still report cash-only nights despite the card signage. Bring cash anyway.
birrialandia.com · See our best tacos in NYC
Taco trucks and birria
Where the trompo actually turns. Pair with best tacos in NYC.
El Rey del Taco
The reason this truck has the reputation it has is one detail: the trompo turns every night, so the al pastor is shaved off a live spit rather than pre-cut and reheated, which is what almost everywhere else is doing. Order the al pastor first and the lengua second. It opens at 6pm — this is a night operation, not a lunch one — runs to 2am nightly and pushes to 4am on Friday and Saturday. A second truck works Ditmars Blvd at 31st St. The honest caveat: sources disagree on cards. One guide says cash and card, the operator’s own late-night listing says cash only. Bring cash and stop thinking about it.
See our Astoria happy hours
Tacos El Bronco (truck)
Trading since 2008, and the truck is the original — the 4th Avenue storefront came later. The local move is the campechano, which mixes two meats on one tortilla and is what the regulars actually order while everyone else is getting al pastor. Tortillas are pressed fresh. It runs to roughly 2am daily, which is when the line stops being pilgrims and starts being locals. The honest caveat: the truck is cash only, and its exact parking spot on that corner shifts — if it is not on 37th, walk a block. If you want a table and a card reader, that is the brick-and-mortar on 4th Avenue, and it is not the same experience.
See our best tacos in NYC
Tacos Morelos (Williamsburg)
One of the longest-running Mexican truck operations in the city, now at four points of service, and at $3–$4 a taco it is the cheapest real taco option in north Brooklyn. Al pastor or suadero, from the window on Bedford. It takes cash and card, which is genuinely unusual for a taco truck and worth knowing at 1am. The honest caveat: two sources give the Bedford truck different closing times — midnight per one, “late” per the other. If you want the properly late Tacos Morelos, go to the Ludlow Street truck on the Lower East Side, which runs to 1am on weeknights and between 3am and 5:30am on Friday and Saturday. There is also a weekday lunch truck at 75 Wall St.
See our Williamsburg happy hours
Roosevelt Avenue and Corona
The genuinely late scene is here, not in Manhattan. See Jackson Heights happy hours.
Tacos El Borrego
The definitive after-hours cart on Roosevelt Avenue, and the hours are the whole argument: 9pm to 6am, every night. Nine at night is the earliest you can eat here, so if you turn up at eight there is nothing. $3.50 a taco. Order the suadero and the cabeza — those two cuts are what separate a real late-night Roosevelt Ave cart from a tourist taco, and al pastor is also on if you want it. It sits under the elevated 7, which is why this corridor still works when it is raining and nothing else outdoors does. The honest caveat: cash only, no exceptions, no card reader, do not ask.
See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Corona Plaza Market
This is the single most out-of-date fact on the internet about NYC street food, so read this before you go. The Department of Sanitation shut the original open-air market down in late July 2023 — more than 80 vendors, mostly immigrant women, lost their pitches. It reopened at the end of November 2023 in a scaled-down, licensed form managed by the Queens Economic Development Corporation under a city contract: 14 stalls at a time, up to 10 selling food, Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 8pm. Any guide describing a sprawling 80-vendor night market is describing 2022. What is there now is still very good — Chalupas Las Comadres, Chilaquiles El Chingon, Aguas Lili, Pan de Fiesta — it is just smaller and it closes at eight.
queensny.org · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Taco Veloz
A walk-up window under the elevated 7 rather than a truck, and the thing that makes it worth a stop is that the tortillas are pressed to order, which almost nothing else on this stretch bothers with. Carnitas is the order. Two tacos and a horchata comes in under $10. A second Taco Veloz works Junction Blvd in Corona. The honest verdict: this is an add-on rather than a destination — if you are already eating your way along Roosevelt, stop; if you are coming from Manhattan, go to El Borrego instead. The honest caveat: its hours are the loosest of the Roosevelt Ave group. Sources say “about 10am” to “about 2am” and nobody publishes anything firmer. Cash only.
See our Jackson Heights happy hours
The 6th Avenue halal row
Four recognised carts inside nine blocks, and two of them are at the same crossing. More in Midtown happy hours.
Royal Grill Halal Food
The reason to pick this cart over the two either side of it is that you order something different. The chicken tikka biryani is the dish that won the 2018 Vendy Award, and ordering chicken-over-rice here is missing the entire point of stopping. $8–$12, mid-range for the row, at the southern end closest to Bryant Park. The honest caveat, and it will get you: the Biryani Cart at 46th and 6th is a completely separate operation with two Vendy People’s Choice wins of its own, also selling an award-winning biryani, two blocks away. Royal Grill is 44th. Neither publishes hours. More nearby in our Theater District restaurants guide.
Kwik Meal
$9–$14 is the highest price band on the 6th Avenue row, and the lamb is the reason — this is the cart to go to when you have decided you want lamb rather than the cheapest plate available, which is a different decision from the one most people make on this street. It works 45th and 6th, in the densest stretch of the row. The honest caveat, and it is a real one at this intersection: Mr. Khan’s Best Halal Food works the northeast corner of the same crossing at $6–$10. Two different, both well-regarded carts, one junction. Check which corner you are standing on before you commit to a line. No published hours, like everything else here.
See our Midtown happy hours
Adel’s Famous Halal Food
The white sauce here is thicker and creamier than the 53rd Street standard, which is the entire reason to walk four blocks past better-known carts to get to it. The hot sauce is the aggressive one on the row — ask for it on the side the first time, and then decide. $9–$12 a platter. It runs after dark rather than at lunch, so it catches the theatre crowd and the post-shift crowd instead of the office rush, which also means shorter lines. The honest caveat: hours are unpublished, and one third-party guide places an “Adel’s Famous Halal Food” in the Financial District instead. The corner corroborated by two 2026 sources is 49th and 6th.
See our best halal restaurants in NYC
Markets and covered halls
Where the schedule is published and the price cap is real. See also best cheap eats in NYC.
Queens Night Market On now
The cheapest organised eating in New York, and it is not close. The market caps almost every food item at $6 by its own rule — up from the $5 cap it launched with in 2015 — across a hundred-odd vendors doing Filipino, Burmese, Trinidadian, Korean and Tibetan food in a parking lot behind the New York Hall of Science. Saturdays only, 4pm to midnight, 18 April through 31 October 2026, free to attend from 3 May onward. It received over 300 vendor applications for the 2026 season. The honest caveat: Saturdays only, and it pauses while the US Open is in the park — check the calendar before you commit a Saturday night. And it is genuinely a night market. Do not turn up at two in the afternoon.
queensnightmarket.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
Smorgasburg Williamsburg On now
The flagship Saturday market that made the name, on the East River with the Manhattan skyline behind it: 90 Kent Ave, Saturdays 11am–6pm, 2026 season 4 April to 24 October. The rest of the schedule, because people always ask: Sundays at Prospect Park (Breeze Hill, enter at Lincoln Road, 11am–6pm), Fridays at the World Trade Center Oculus (185 Greenwich St, 11am–6pm), and a fourth market at the Columbus Circle entrance of Central Park that opened 14 May 2026, Thursday to Saturday, 12pm–8pm. The honest caveat: this is not a bargain hunt — there is no price cap and Saturday between 12 and 2 is a crush. Go at 11 when it opens, or after 4. If you want $6 plates, that is the Queens Night Market.
smorgasburg.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Red Hook Food Vendors
Salvadoran, Mexican and Guatemalan food eaten standing next to a soccer pitch on the edge of Red Hook Park — pupusas, huaraches and elote rather than tacos, which makes it the Central American counterweight to everything else on this page. Named vendors include Piaxtlan, Country Boys, Solber, Huarache King and El Olomega. $3–$8 covers almost everything. Cash only. The honest caveat, and this is the least schedule-reliable entry in the guide: the vendors’ own website has not posted a season announcement since 2019, turnout is weather-dependent, and the stated season is roughly weekends April to October, 11am to 8pm. Check social media the morning of, and have a plan B in Carroll Gardens.
redhookfoodvendors.com · See our Carroll Gardens happy hours
Chelsea Market
Let us be honest about what this is: a covered market in the old Nabisco factory with retail rents, open daily 7am–10pm, and the prices reflect the address rather than the street. The reason to walk in is one counter. Los Tacos No. 1 is standing-room only with no seating, doing adobada and carne asada on hand-pressed tortillas; the off-menu quesataco runs $7.75 (nopal) to $8.25 (carne asada) and the vampiro $6.75–$7.25, and they will add lightly fried and grilled jalapeños and onions free on request. The local move: Los Tacos also operates at Grand Central, Hudson Yards, NoHo, Penn Station, Times Square, Tribeca, Union Square and Wall Street — so if Chelsea is heaving, go to one of those.
chelseamarket.com · See our Chelsea happy hours
NYC street food: FAQ
How much does a halal cart platter cost in NYC?
$8 to $12 in 2026 on the 6th Avenue row – The Halal Guys at $8-12, Royal Grill at $8-12, Adel’s at $9-12 and Kwik Meal at the top of the band at $9-14. The outer-borough carts undercut Midtown: Sammy’s Halal in Jackson Heights runs $8-10 for a plate most people rate above the Midtown row. Tacos are cheaper again, from $3 at Tacos Morelos to $3.50 at Tacos El Borrego.
Do NYC food carts and trucks take cards?
It splits by category. Verified cash-only in 2026: Tacos El Bronco in Sunset Park, Tacos El Borrego on Roosevelt Ave, Taco Veloz, and the Red Hook Ball Fields vendors. Verified card-accepting: Birria-Landia across all five trucks, Tacos Morelos, The Halal Guys and Chelsea Market. The rule of thumb is that taco trucks run on cash and halal carts take cards – but Birria-Landia reviews still report occasional cash-only nights, so carry cash regardless.
Is Corona Plaza market still open?
Yes, but it is not what most guides describe. The Department of Sanitation shut the original open-air market in late July 2023, and more than 80 vendors – mostly immigrant women – lost their pitches. It reopened at the end of November 2023 in a licensed, managed form run by the Queens Economic Development Corporation: 14 stalls at a time, up to 10 selling food, Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 8pm. Any guide describing a sprawling 80-vendor night market is describing 2022.
What is the cheapest place to eat street food in NYC?
The Queens Night Market, which caps almost every food item at $6 by its own rule – up from the $5 cap it launched with in 2015 – across roughly a hundred vendors. It runs Saturdays only, 4pm to midnight, 18 April through 31 October 2026, in the parking lot behind the New York Hall of Science, and is free to attend from 3 May onward. It pauses while the US Open is in the park, so check the calendar.
How do you tell a good cart from a bad one in NYC?
Green sauce on the counter is the tell. It takes real work and almost nobody makes it, so its presence signals an operator thinking past the bare minimum – Sammy’s Halal is the cart that reputation is built on. After that: a queue of people who look like they work nearby rather than people photographing the cart, and the right corner. Near-identical names are everywhere – ’New York’s Best Halal Food’ sits opposite The Halal Guys at 53rd and 6th, and ’Sammy’s Halal’ is one of the most-copied names in the city.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
