No Pork In My Fork Columbia Coffee & Grill

I’ve eaten falafel from here a few times on weekdays because it’s right outside my work. It was nothing special, but the guy was nice. It’s cheap. Hence the 2 stars.
Then I went with my friend on a Saturday to get him a philly cheese steak. There was a different, older man serving us, who was basically yelling into his cell phone ear piece the whole time we were there. He puts a bag with a takeout box on the counter, and of course we assume it’s ours, because there was only one other customer, and she had just arrived seconds ago. We get halfway down the block and find the guy is chasing us and yelling that we took the wrong bag. Huh? Whose order did we accidentally take if we were the only ones there? And maybe you could give us the right food, if you weren’t so concentrated on your cell phone conversation? Then after getting home with the «right» food, my friend discovers that there is no cheese on his Philly CHEESE steak.
Save it for a weekday, when they seem to have it together a little more.

The food here is solid, cheap, and served with a side of sass (these guys are funny). There’s always a trickle of people from Columbia Med Center heading to the truck because it’s 1. tastier than hospital food, 2. close/​convenient, and 3. cheaper than Chipotle. Most of the time my go-​to is the beef (lamb) plate ($ 5.50), which is served over rice with a small salad (lettuce/​tomatoes), and topped with a few french fries, warm, delicious pita bread, and a crunchy ball of falafel. It’s the kinda lunch that makes you wanna take a nap instead of return to work, but definitely worth it. Also, if you’re needing a quick caffeinated beverage, they sell canned sodas for a $ 1 and bottled ones for $ 1.25. Not bad!

Picture this. You walk out of Hammer Health Sciences Library having taken a horrible exam consisting of questions that only some professors powerpoint slides know the answers to. It’s cold. You’re hungry. You feel defeated. What better way to pick yourself up than to face the simplest yet most important question you will be asked that day?
«White Sauce Hot Sauce?»
Honestly, the food is so-​so. It’s not the best yet, it’s not the worst. What it is though, is size-​able, available, and relatively cheap. Rarely as a student in the medical center realm are you casually strolling around with lots of time on your hands. Whether it’s running to a class or rushing to the library to get that last minute studying done, time is of the essence. This cart gives you that fast and affordable lunch/​dinner that you can take with you to class or eat while you study. I’ve gotten the mix gyro/​chicken platter which comes with a heaping amount of meat piled on rice with some veggies and fries on the size and, of course, smothered in white sauce hot sauce. It’s definitely not healthiest thing you can get but every time I’ve gotten it I’ve been fairly pleased. Their eggplant pita sandwich is also very good if you’re eating on the go. Recently, I’ve been getting their breakfast special for $ 2.50 which comes with 2 eggs, homefries, and wheat bread, a clutch power meal when I’m rushing and didn’t have time to make my own breakfast.
All in all, it ain’t half bad. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Since my last review, I’ve gotten the eggplant only pita a couple of times, and I’ve had no digestive problems. People have told me that falafels are natural laxatives. Okay. I guess that’s where I went wrong. Well, the food is quick, no-​nonsense, and filling. The eggplant is prepared excellently (and I am such a sucker for eggplant), but this is not food that I would go out of my way for. Since it’s right at the base of Hammer, I only come here if I’m starving and really need food in a hurry.
I don’t think the food is bad, and it’s certainly palatable, but I don’t think it’s the healthiest :(

As far as halal carts go in relativity to NYP campuses, my boys on the corner of York and East 69^th reign supreme. However, on days that I’m working on the CUMC campus, I can fulfill my halal craving while being somewhat satiated.
These guys have a leg up because they serve all crowds: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hell, you can order a falafel sandwich for lunch along with a jelly-​filled donut.
Their chicken over rice platter is unique: chicken over rice, grilled carrots, extremely weak iceberg lettuce and one sad chunk of tomato, garlicky grilled gyro sandwich bread slices, cauliflower, broccoli, French fries (!!!), and one solitary falafel ball. Smothered in white sauce, it’s all melded together in harmony. Once it’s half-​consumed and the white sauce has absorbed… or been mostly consumed, in most cases… it’s just not as great. Passable, certainly. But… just okay. The chicken is good. The rice is good. The salad is, as I said, pretty pitiful. The French fries are always amazing, which is the last thing I’d expect. (Covered in white sauce, they are even better!) My solitary falafel ball always sucks, pretty much. (Taim’s in the West Village has spoiled me over the years.)
Yes, this place calms my halal craving on my CUMC work days, but I’m always left thinking, «I wish I was working at the Cornell campus today…»

This food cart serves its purpose for the students, doctors, and nurses studying at the medical campus. I often get my morning coffee from here, and the occasional bite. The breakfast sandwiches are just as they described, but get it with their hot sauce for an oomph to wake you up. Their chicken gyro are filled with juicy pieces of well-​seasoned chicken, and I love it with both the white and hot sauces + extra jalapenos. The lamb gyro is also standard, but the felafels are too dry for my liking. They also have philly cheese steak, Italian sausage roll, and a few other options I have yet to try.
It gets the job done, whether if you need a quick bite or a coffee for cheap. Otherwise I might trek a bit further for sit-​down food.