Christopher G.
Google
My first time at a brick-and-mortar Halal Guys restaurant. I’ve visited the food truck in New York before, and yes, it is definitely pretty good. That said, it’s not like *mind-bogglingly epic* or anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love their story and the hustle—they’ve definitely put in the work and really built a miniature empire at this point.
This new store on 5th Avenue in Hillcrest is nice, super clean, spacious, and has a cool wall mural inside. It’s only been open a couple of months, and I stopped by two days ago to try it out. The girl with the bleached short hair was very friendly and informative—great customer service.
I ordered a pita sandwich with spicy chicken BBQ, and got everything on it. I had the dairy-free mayo and the super hot sauce as toppings, too. It was tasty, and that hot sauce packs a serious punch, but it strikes me as mainly drunk street food more than anything.
I mean, it’s good, but it’s not great. It’s in the right location to capture a lot of the partying crowd in Hillcrest on the weekends, though. The flavors are there, and it’s filling and tastes fresh, but ultimately it tastes mostly like halal street food. Maybe it’s the scaling that’s cutting into quality slightly, I don’t know.
I’d say it’s worth trying out forsure, and definitely worth hitting up after a handful of drinks, but beyond that, I wouldn’t go too far out of my way for it.