Let’s be honest here: most people who went to Halal Guys during their grand opening have absolutely no idea what they are eating. They may as well shat between a pita and put sauce all over it, and most people would have gobbled it up believing the PR. They just know it was advertised and some people said that it was “good” and they read some bullshit story and press release about how “Halal” meat is better for you. (It isn’t)
First of all Halal guys is New York Street Food. That should be enough to make you want to throw up daily.
You know those carts that push around day old meat for hours in the hot weather, pollution, dirty water, spit from customers and vendors, rotting away? That’s what street food is. It’s a New York tradition that often ends up with people deathly ill from eating this non-regulated food, the trash that most restaurants won’t take and put between bread, pita or on rice.
According to the New York Daily News, these carts get half of all complaints about dirty food and food poisoning in NYC.
The complaints relay graphic details of gastric distress: Everything from projectile vomiting to stabbing stomach pains to three days of diarrhea. They described food handlers working without gloves, workers scooping spilled spices off filthy sidewalks, a bare-chested cook with his body hair wafting onto the grill.
In fact, these “Halal Vendors” that claim that their food is actually cleaner are the worst violators in NYC! “That’s wheely gross. Mobile food vendors racked up a stomach-turning 2,517 violations this year — ranging from poor personal hygiene, to serving up mystery meat, to live rodents — but the city Health Department doesn’t grade them or let the public know just how filthy they are.”
Why would we want this in Las Vegas, where temperatures often exceed 115’ in the summer, making even the most qualified Chef scared about food poisoning? This is a food poisoning epidemic waiting to happen in the near future.
In Chicago they even failed inspection, with food poisoning complaints, unwashed hands, no soap for employees to wash hands, no bug and rodent prevention — a total of THREE serious violations not including the Food Poisoning.
I’m not saying that Halal guys is going to kill you tomorrow, but that taking fast food, low quality meat that isn’t monitored constantly, often warmed for hours to serve, to potentially hundreds of customers a day is dangerous. This type of food poisons thousands of New Yorkers each year, and with our own health department in Clark Country overwhelmed and only checking some establishments once a year, I believe this may be one of the most horrible ideas ever invented for Vegas.
Again: food served this style, slathered with sauce to cover the disgusting meat and by-products of meat, is a health hazard in my opinion. If there wasn’t a long history of these type of restaurants poisoning people in NYC, I wouldn’t be saying this – but it’s the truth and something we need to take a lot more seriously in Vegas.
