^5
Mamoun's is a fantastic, dirt cheap place that everyone can agree on, and its quality has not deteriorated over the years. Just the right amount of grease and fat, wonderfully tender and flavorful meat, dirt cheap. Just some dude from Syria who started parking his ass in the village and started making Shawarma one day. Anyone who doesn't recognize it as the very definition of a true NYC institution either doesn't know or is LYIN.
Also, we're talking about OG Mamoun's on MacDougal. Not sure how the chain expansions are doing.
The places in Sunnyside doesn't really get there, imo. There is supposedly some hot fire places up in Astoria that's great.
Been hearing about this place for a while, but unfortunately they don't have any locations here in Canada/Ontario.
I feel it would be super irresponsible of me to drive out to NY/NJ just for shawarma, lol
I can appreciate a bit of sensibility in a person, but I'm just saying if you end up wandering around MacDougal street in NY at 2 in the morning for whatever reason, possibly drunk, and there's a very long line on the sidewalk snaking towards a hole in the wall, that maybe you stand on that line for a while and see where it leads you.
Yeah ok I was right. It IS gyro meat. Was about to say; carts started upgrading on me?
Shawarma lovers, go to Mamoun's. Maybe this is just something that's different in NYC, but imo it's significant.
I don't recognize any significant differences between gyro, shawarma and donner outside of some peculiarities of spicing and who's doing the cooking. If you mean do they have the vertical rotisserie on site, yes, they do, unlike most other carts in Manhattan. If you mean they taste like gyro meat you can get anywhere else in the city, yes, it's pretty much cut from the same cloth.
The actual cart is good, for me, mainly because it's fresh, and its freshness has to do with its turnover rate. I don't think they have any special secret to their meat or their sauce that puts them ahead of any other shawarma place. The brick and mortar chains can't really duplicate this and I see them as merely capitalizing on the original cart going viral, like Xi'an Famous Foods.
The gyro spits that the carts use are often using a block of formed, chopped meat. Shawarma places that I've been to uses a large stack of sliced meat. In my experience the former was always quicker to crisp and looser, whereas the latter, when made correctly, comes off as tender slices.
Again, someone who knows better can tell me off, but it's a noticeable difference for me.
