Dig Into LA’s Best Halal Cart-Style Food at New York Chicken & Gyro in the Valley (2024)

One of the first things Muheb “Moe” Mehirdel noticed when he moved to Los Angeles in 2015 was the lack of halal cart-style food available in the San Fernando Valley. At the time, the most well-known restaurant serving something that felt similar to it was Halal Guys, a national chain that started as a cart servicing a constant flow of Muslim taxi drivers in New York City.

While the Los Angeles Halal Guys outpost had a similar menu to its New York counterpart, the taste of its food paled in comparison to the food back in Mehirdel’s hometown of Flushing, New York, where halal carts that serve meat and rice platters, along with gyros, dot nearly every block. Missing the food he was raised on and seeing an opportunity to cater to the local Muslim community, Mehirdel decided to bring his nostalgic version of New York-style halal food to Los Angeles.

For Mehirdel, the decision to open New York Chicken & Gyro in Canoga Park was natural. Back in New York, his extended family owns a handful of halal restaurants across the state, including Shah’s, Hamza & Madina, and Naz’s. When Mehirdel’s father, Habib, and brothers, Sam and Hafiz, joined him in California, the family completed work on the first location in a storefront that was previously a pizzeria. For the new restaurant, Mehirdel envisioned a menu that would bring a taste of Queens to the city he now called home. New York Chicken & Gyro opened its doors in June 2017.

NY Chicken & Gyro

Recipes served in the restaurant take cues from best-selling dishes at the New York restaurants run by Mehirdel’s family and the halal carts he frequented growing up. The menu spans dishes including chicken, lamb, and falafel, which are available as a platter with basmati rice, salad, and a housemade white sauce or tucked into a gyro sandwich that comes with lettuce, tomatoes, and white sauce wrapped in pita. The restaurant also sells hamburgers, fish, crispy hot wings, creamy “drip” wings, and chicken nuggets.

For New York Chicken & Gyro to be considered halal, the Mehirdels had to find purveyors that offered halal-certified meat at a price point that allowed them to keep the cost of dishes on the menu affordable. Currently, the restaurant works with Wayne Farms and Delta Valley, which sell certified halal products in addition to their non-halal meat.

The guidelines for halal meat — “halal” translates to “permissible” — originate in the Qur’an and govern the types of animals that Muslims are allowed to consume, as well as appropriate slaughtering methods. For meat to be considered halal, a Muslim must perform the slaughter, the name of Allah must be invoked, and the process must spare the animal any suffering.

Even though serving certified halal food at the restaurant was non-negotiable, Mehirdel doesn’t view New York Chicken & Gyro as a restaurant for only those who consume halal foods. Instead, he hopes the restaurant offers an accessible way to introduce his food to new communities. “We’re not only paying attention to our own culture, we’re paying attention to all cultures,” Mehirdel says. “We’re making sure that all people enjoy this food, and it’s just the way we treat people.” While halal used to exclusively refer to what foods were permissible for Muslims to eat, it has since been conflated with the style of dishes from halal carts in New York. Now, both are referred to under the single term of “halal,” though the style of food at halal carts only represents a small segment of certified halal food.

The first few years of the family’s business were quiet: The restaurant only made $137 on its first day and $263 on the second. As concerns about the future of the business set in, Mehirdel’s father told him and his brothers not to give up hope. For the next two years, the family built a local customer base by focusing on service, keeping prices affordable, posting on the restaurant’s social media channels, and building relationships with regulars. They also kept a careful eye on the restaurant’s Yelp page, which maintained a five-star rating for years.

The tide began to shift for New York Chicken & Gyro in January 2019 when Brennen Taylor, a YouTube creator, posted a video titled “Eating At The BEST Reviewed Restaurant In My City (5 Star)” from the restaurant. The video has garnered over 1.5 million views. Suddenly orders poured in and more back-of-house staffers were hired to keep up with the influx of business.

With the Canoga Park restaurant on firmer financial footing, the Mehirdels opened a second location in a West LA ghost kitchen in February 2020 just before COVID-19 lockdowns. While the entire restaurant industry grappled with an uncertain future, the Mehirdels kept faith in the business and invested $270,000 to expand the Canoga Park location into the storefront next door. “We really didn’t know if we were going to come out of COVID,” Mehirdel says. “It was a risky time, and we didn’t know what we were going to do if this didn’t work.” Taking the risk ultimately paid off for Mehirdels. New York Chicken & Gyro opened its third location in Pasadena in 2022 and a forthcoming location is planned for Venice.

In the seven years since New York Chicken & Gyro first opened, the options for halal cart-style food in Los Angeles have grown but not exponentially. Halal Guys is still the largest chain with seven locations across the city, while Halal House, a restaurant serving halal platters, opened in Northridge in 2019 and Naz’s expanded to Garden Grove, marking the first expansion of a New York-based halal business to Los Angeles since Halal Guys. But the slower momentum for halal options hasn’t deterred Mehirdel, who sees a future where halal platters and tacos are served side by side as iconic street foods in Los Angeles.

“I know, for sure, in five to 10 years in LA you’ll see halal food everywhere,” he says.

New York Chicken & Gyro is located at 7553 Topanga Canyon Blvd Canoga Park, CA 91303, and is open from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. The restaurant also has locations in Pasadena and West LA.

NY Chicken & Gyro

NY Chicken & Gyro