 What's underrated, overrated, and fairly rated in New York City? Joining us today on this talk is Kareem from SubwayTakes. Keep the meter running. The best creative director impersonation I've ever seen in my life. Maybe because it's, you actually are. No, no, no, no, no, I would never be a creative director. For this video, I would never be a creative director. But you play it so well. It almost, something tells me that it's in you somewhere. I studied. I studied. I have a lot of those. Those people are familiar with their game. That's how I refer to creative directors, those people. Kareem, you're going to play as our New York expert. You've been in New York longer than us. You make content about New York. It's hilarious. Check it out at the links down below. Also, check out Smala Sauce, Guy's Shipping, Mid-November. This is the number one hottest chili oil in New York City. About to be in a market soon. I can't wait. But David, what is underrated, overrated about New York City? I want to let Kareem start it off, man, because you said something off camera about burritos that was crazy. Burritos are. They're not even rated. There's there's there's no burritos in New York are not good. They're not rated. They're they're literally they're not on the scale. They're not on the scale. Did you have electric burrito that want to be San Diego? I don't even know that is. That's how much I've checked out of the conversation with burritos. Are you like, no, no, are you checked out? In your opinion, what is the best burrito right now? Chipotle. Chipotle. Are you like, hey, guys, call me when you got something good or you're just like, don't even call me. No, I'll if you have a good burrito. Yeah, call me. Hit me up. Tell me to put it in the comments. I will come. But right now I've given up the search and that's why I've resulted. Like I've just said, you know what, Chipotle? It's hard to beat the stretchiness of Chipotle tortillas. But I'll say this. I like the top. That's not a crazy take for a New Yorker to say that burritos suck in New York because well, I think it's not good. I think it's crazy to say that Chipotle is the best one. That is a hot. Hot pot boys. It's a bull take. There's this place called Yellow Rose that does San Antonio style, chili, beef, cheese, beef burritos. See, that's too specific, bro. I just want a fucking burrito. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. See, I'm the one. No, what you're saying is you want a burrito, but not like a fairly priced burrito because I think you can get. I would pay for an expensive one or a cheap one. You'd pay 25 for a burrito. Yes, really? I'll pay it, dude. I'll pay any amount of money if it's good enough, dude, for a good San Diego style surf and turf with shrimp and steak in it. You love styles. Yeah, it's not surf and turf. It's San Diego style surf and turf. Yes. Yes, with the French fry. There's a Bay Area burrito, too, this week. I got a crazy hot take not. And by the way, see, I got a hedge now, like I'm making a statement about something else going on right now. But I got a hedge by saying that I've had some amazing pizza in New York City, but I just think that other styles of pizzas in other cities are also really good. Well, the nice thing about New York is that you can get those other styles in New York City, like Detroit style, I fuck with Detroit style pizza. You cannot get a California style pizza in New York City. And what do you want? People like, what is California style? I'm sure it's thin with big, juicy avocados on it or something like that. A lot of ranch, a lot of, you know, non-marinero based slices because California's so wacky. That's just flat, Brad. All right, I'm just that's literally say pizza's over. You can't just talk about the California pizza. No, my guy wants to destroy flat breads. You want to go to a flat bread restaurant, not a pizza restaurant. Hey, the flat bread, they're better than people. Back up, David, back up your statement. You felt this way for a little pizza is overrated in New York City. Why? Because. It's still good in other places, too. Where? Where else have you had really good pizza? I've had good pizza everywhere, except Seattle. Seattle has really bad pizza. But then all the other good pizza that you had in other places, I think we're based off of like New York pizza. No, like, if you go to New Mexico, you can get like a taco pizza. If you go to like, I don't want that's not pizza. That's just a taco. No, you don't. Have you ever had a tombstone taco pizza, like the frozen joint? Tombstone is my favorite frozen brand. No. OK, what if you said this? What if we said this, David, that New York has the best slice bots because no other city can compete with the amount of slice but there are no slice spots anywhere else. Yeah. No, there's not. But I'm just saying that's why I'm let me just amend what I said. Tradition of New York pizza because it's like it's so limited in flavor. And that's why I like spots like cuts and slices out in a bedside that's putting, you know, West Indian or Jamaican oxtail on pizza stuff that people would feel violated by 10, 20, 30 years ago. You like collabs. I'm just all about the new. You like when like when Indonesia collabs with New York South. Yes, I want to like collaborations. I would buy 20 dollars for it. You know, like Indonesia, you said, like you are going to be cute. But I don't want to offend anyone in Indonesia. All right. All right. So pizza, burritos, I'll tell you what doesn't exist enough in New York. What a regional specialty from Minnesota. What it hasn't been exported. What is it? Is it cow milk? The Juicy Lucy. What is it? I got to Google it right now. Juicy Lucy is a cheeseburger, but the cheese is inside the beef, like a chicken cordon. Oh, looking at it. Yeah. And what it does is it creates, you know, chocolate molten lava cake. Yes. Where the chocolate is all wet. Yes. Yeah. And it oozes out. Yes. So that there are a couple of spots in New York. The one that I've had that's really good is at Whitman's. Whitman's is good. But this is a Minnesota specialty. There's a there's like a battle between who invented the Juicy Lucy in Minnesota that's been going on for 70 years. And the lower is that this guy at a place called Matt's Bar is the one that invented it. But there's another restaurant that I won't name. Who's coming at it? Correct me if I'm wrong. Like the Shake Shack shroom stack with the cheese inside of the Portobello. That's kind of like it. But it's inspired by inspired by it's inspired by. And I have a new song that's coming out. It's called Juicy Lucy because I love the burgers. What genre is the music? It's rock and roll, bro. Juicy Lucy by Kareem Rama and Tiny Gun. Can we get a little riff? Go. Who we doing? We got that Juicy Lucy. Hey, man, this sounds good. I can see this starting a campaign to bring the Juicy Lucy more to New York. Like more people are going to have to serve it. It's missing. You know what it is? You're going to be able to. The fact that you guys didn't know what it was. It's missing from the conversation. You know what, Kareem? You want I know what you want. You know, you're a culture maker or you're a culture like curated partially. That's a bunch of stuff that you do, right? And you're a culture vibrator. What you want to do is so that you can go to a bodega or some deli and ask for a Juicy Lucy in like five years and they are going to cook it up. That would be a win for the city. It's like, OK, where did we get cheese steaks? Philly. OK, they're in New York. But people don't eat them that much here. I mean, how do we know what they do in their homes? People might be in their homes eating in Philly. That's true. But I feel like the more that transitions to our next topic, what's more popular is the chopped cheese, right? Yeah, which is the New York version of the. Do you have an opinion on chopped cheeses? I actually think they're they're good. I think they're not. They're not trash. They're super good. Do people think they're bad? I don't I see people from out of town, Andrew, you know, especially we know a lot of people from West Coast, LA area that come. Do you? There's a variance of opinion on my thing. No, no, here's my thing about the chopped cheese. It's you. If you don't get it at a good spot and you have no extra add-ons and you have no creativity and you're zero creative, then I think it's super mid because it's just a cheeseburger. But, but, but let me if you ask for extra, the extra sauce I get the sometimes the Dominican red sauce or you either have a Chipotle in there, you get the Chipotle mayo and you get a little bit extra see ask for extra seasoning on the beef and all this stuff. Then it can be pretty good. Let me ask you a question. Yeah, how do you feel about French dips? French dips can be super plain. I know, but they're fire. French dips are fire, but as, as plain as they are, when you dip the French, they're just fired. There is something about the bread soaking up the ajul that is like, it's got, yo, Wendy, not Wendy's, Arby's, Arby's suburb and classic Arby's French dip is not bad. Arby's is underrated in general. I haven't been there in a while. Arby's, because I don't have them in the city. Well, when I was growing up, my dad loved five for five. Bro, five sandwiches for $5, are you kidding me? It's crazy. You could feed the whole family for five. That is, I'm thinking about that right now. That is insane. Five for five, and then they changed it to five for six. Yeah. Sad day in my life. Do you eat New York Chinese food? Like, you know how like that's such a, it's like a hood staple. Like particularly New York style Chinese food. I would say a lot of people that are New Yorkers, they pick a level of Chinese food. Maybe you're an Upper West Side, Upper East Side person. You have your things that Marilyn Monroe and stuff used to go to and then like obviously if you, you know in the hood, they got their spots and it's like everybody has their Chinese spot. I'm a more of a Chinese takeout kind of guy. Like I get a deliver to the crib. When I am eating it, I like, I read, I mean, this is a classic. I don't know if this is considered New York Chinese, but what the hell's the place called? I just had it on the tip of my tongue and I forgot it. Where is it? There's a couple locations. Chey and famous foods. Xi'an. Xi'an. That's more authentic. That's more like food from China that they slightly New York eyes. It's so good. It's my lamb, human noodle soup. Can I tell you something about that food? Actually, that's the only thing in order because I found something good and that's also, I'm a creature of habit. I've never had another single thing on that menu. I'm not kidding. I've lived here for 12 years. I've been going there for 12 years. I got the lamb, human noodle soup the first time, NS2 on the menu and I never got anything again. That's where in the ancient days, a few thousand years ago, where someone who looks like you and someone who looks like me, we would meet on the Silk Road. And you know where the Silk Road ran through? Where? Xi'an. Really? Because the Silk Road ran all the way from the Middle East to China. You know why you love that food so much is because it is influenced by the Middle East. Really? Is that true? No, no, literally. I didn't know much about you. That's why you love that food. The Silk Road was the ancient trade route from Xi'an to Notre Dame, Iran. Silk Road is a dope name. Wait, so what is a good, I will go check one out. What is a good New York style Chinese restaurant? Oh man, all right. What is a good example? So there's like New York American Chinese food, but I think what you would like even more is Chinolatino food. Yeah, I've had Chinolatino food. There used to be a restaurant in Minneapolis called Chinolatino. Okay, okay. Like Chinese people from Dominican Republic or wherever. I don't even know. I don't know the history. They're basically Chinese people from a Spanish speaking country. If you go to New Apollo, New Apollo is crazy. That's the spot. That's the spot? Yeah. But there's a spot called Caridad. Caridad de China. I got a Williamsburg. Oh, no. Sabrosura, sabrosura. Dude, uptown. There's a spot called Golden Forest down the block from here. I think top notch. So these are New York Chinese spots? New York Chinese spots. You can get chicken wings. They're fried rice. Our Chinese grew up either in Cuba, PR, DR, they moved in New York. Damn, you guys are good with the subgenres. Because I wouldn't even notice. I would have just been like, let's get Chinese food and that's what I would have had. No, try it. Try it. Favorite deli sandwiches. Do you get? I was going to talk about this. Bacon, egg, and cheese or blah, blah, blah. What's your pick? If you had to say, yo, try one sandwich at a deli. It's going to be really embarrassing. It's going to be really embarrassing. It's going to what? It's going to be embarrassing. Okay, go. Something super Minnesotan or something. I get like turkey clubs. Okay. But anything else on it? It's a fire sandwich, though. No, so I get wheat, bread, sliced, toasted, cold meat, turkey. Sometimes I get the boar's head honey one. So it's a little sweet. Lettuce, tomato, mayo, turkey bacon, salt, pepper, splash of vinegar, and leave it cold. I don't like the hot set sandwiches. And I just had one yesterday. I think that's my go-to. That's my go-to. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's my, like I said, I'm a creature of hell. I literally get the same thing. Everywhere, all the time. That's your comfort zone. I just, when you find something that works, here's the thing. There is a lot of bait and switch happening in the city, where like something's really good and then something else is really bad at the same restaurant. Yeah, like not everybody's going to be 10 out of 10 on everything. Right. And so when I find what works at a specific place, I'm a repeat customer. Like I was thinking about it the other day, I have given, oh, there's a smoothie spot in Bedside called Brooklyn Blend. I go there every day for lunch. I get a smoothie. I get the same smoothie every single day. I've probably given them $2,000 this year, if you really think so. Yeah, it was a 10-house smoothie. That was a subway thought. I was like, wow, I've literally given these people $2,000 over the course of year, only with smoothies. Yeah, if you use the Apple Card, you'd be able to see the breakdown exactly of how much, you know, because they got the analytics. In the Apple Wallet? Or just the Apple Card? You have to get the Apple Card. Oh, I don't have the Apple Card. Do you guys have the Apple Card? No, but I just know that that's what everybody who has it, they like the analytics. Wow. Because they'll be more, you know what I mean. How do you feel about analytics? You need them. I think you need a lot of context to interpret analytics because obviously that's more of that. Analytics, overrated or underrated? I think overrated is. Fairly rated. Wow. I'm a big numbers guy. You? What's your opinion? I think it needs to be rated a little bit less. Yeah, so I'd say it's slightly overrated. When it comes to yourself, as a human, I think do not rate. I think if it comes to your businesses, videos, blah, blah, please. You need a macro sample size. You need a data sample of like a certain scale. I don't want to know how much I slept. I really don't. I'm like, I slept? Do I feel good? Yes. Oh, I only slept five hours. Oh no, no, I feel so bad. You know what I mean? Oh, I didn't get my seven hours, but I feel great. No, you're not the type that's tracking every single step, every calorie, every day. Steps, I do like because I try to hit that 10,000 because I don't go to the gym. Because it's a goal. And I don't want to die. So you got to do it. You know, camera adds 10, 15 pounds. You're doing subway talks. You can't look. I have a friend that tells me every day, he's like, bro, you got to lose 10. Like you're about to audition for the lead in the A24 film. He says that to me every day. He's kind of a bully, huh? That's cool that you have a goal, though. You think A24, you're like, that's what I'm sure. They're like, look how thin Rami was. Yeah, he was thin. Rami was thin. Chris, I'm mad. He's the same thing. Oh, to be Rami. I don't know. You might have to jump. Bro, if you want to make an A24 film, just get a bunch of skinny, weird-looking people in a room together. Yeah, that's the movie. And you have to color grade it. Put the special LUT on there. Yeah. I did, you know, what about Middle Eastern food in New York? We're so close to the Middle East here. There's a lot of really good Middle Eastern food. OK, wait, can I ask you this? Overrated or underrated halal carts in general? Not talking about Adele's, which is top tier. The halal carts, do you eat the food? I do eat the food. I think they're fairly rated. I have a problem, though, with halal, which is that I've eaten so much, like Arab Middle Eastern food in my life, that I, generally speaking, would rather go to a jerk chicken truck or some other sort of truck. But I think that the halal food is good. The halal truck foods are good. Yeah, they're better than a lot of other cities. I don't say every other city. They probably have the best halal cart food in New York. No, I haven't. You know what I'm talking about? That's the new hype halal guys. You know how halal guys are super corporate now? There's like 1,000 in the world. Does it matter, to your previous statement about how halal carts are really good, does it matter that a lot of them are ran by Egyptians and you are Egyptian? Yeah, I fuck with Egyptians, bro. I fuck with Egyptians, bro. That tribe is the vibe, bro. The vibe is the tribe. So what are your favorite Egyptian spots? Because I know that, I want to say Baladeh is one. Baladeh, yeah. Baladeh, yeah. But that's in Manhattan. Yeah, I've been there. I've been there. I've been to Mahmoun's. Mahmoun's is fucking. Mahmoun's, everybody loves Mahmoun's. Mahmoun's, their pricing is like almost all New York. Dude, they're right. They didn't raise it to be New York. It's $6 for a falafel sandwich, which is what it was 12 years ago when I moved here. So they fuck with the vision. They're fighting inflation. They are fucking with the vision of the New York we want to keep. Cause they could charge 12. I think they could charge $12 for that sandwich and I would happily pay it. Don't listen to this Mahmoun. But I think that's the best falafel in the city for sure. Took my mom there, she agrees. Right. She's from the whole country, right? Best falafel. No, no, best falafel. Best falafel, okay. Because it's green on the inside. And if you notice, a lot of the falafels are brown on the inside. Yeah, that's true. That is not how you make falafel. The Egyptian style, which is called ta meya, is green on the inside because they put parsley in there and it dyes it. And that's how you know it's a good falafel. If you go to a lot of the carts or a lot of other restaurants, it's brown or it's like golden. Yeah, it's like a rice ball. They're not using enough parsley or they're using the wrong kind of beans. They're using chickpeas. And it's not the right way to do it. It's probably cheaper. But that's why I fall with Mahmoun's Oasis in Williamsburg. Great falafel, also good prices. I think most impressive restaurant for me, and I've said it so many times, but I love this place called Abu Kiir in Queens. And it's super basic. One room, seafood, Egyptian style seafood. Yeah, cause people wouldn't think of that, right? No menu. You go in there and you say, I like that fish. I'll take it. I'll take like a handful of, literally a handful of calamari. And he just goes. There's no. And then there's two options. Grilled or fried. Fire. That's one of those spots that you only find in Queens. You are not gonna get that a minute. It's so fire though. And I think they had a little glow up cause some people discovered it on TikTok and stuff, so I'm happy for them. But that place, I also took my mom there. They have a Samaq Meshwi, which is this Egyptian, it's Alexandria style, Alexandria Egypt style grilled fish. I've never had it anywhere else in the world except for Alexandria. Well, now you think it all the, and Abu Kiir has it. You think they were like eating that, like, you know how in the West, we're so exposed to such a, I guess a stereotypical image of Egypt with sphinxes and spheros. Were they eating that food? I don't know if they were eating that specific food because the reason that food is so good is because the fish is covered in so many spices. You can't even see the fish. It's literally encrusted in spices. And I think in order for them to get to that level of perfection, the spices came from probably from Asia. They probably came from like Latin America. The trading routes had to open up a little bit more. Because it's like such a mix, it's such a unique mixture of spices. I've never had anything that tasted like it. I don't know what the spices are. If you ask the owner of Abu Kiir, he won't tell you. He won't even tell you where he gets the fish. I asked him. He goes every morning, but I'm like, where'd you get it? And he's like, I can't tell you, it's my secret. Have you been to? He's protecting the rest. Have you been to the Kawa cafe? I've never been there. Yemeni spot? Yeah. I've seen it. Unfortunately, the branding turns me off. But I think it's probably good. Let's go. We had some pretty strong coffee there, it was good. I want to shout out Zuba, which is around here. Yo, Zuba, we went there in no leader, bro. It's like an electric Egyptian spot. They're Egyptian, but that is their first location outside of Cairo. They have like 10 or 15 or 20 locations in Cairo. And this is the first one anywhere in the world. Is it called a Halawash? How I wish it. That's like an Egyptian thin hamburger sandwich. That was Pita, right? That was like a hamburger and a Pita. It's fire. But yeah, that place, I went there when I was in Cairo this time around because I was like, oh, let me compare it. And I'd say it's very solid. It's like a good Egyptian fast casual dining experience. What if we did a Lucy, Juicy, Lucy, Halawash? Whoa. Juicy, Lucy, Halawash. That would be in the Korean. You'd have to just call that the Korean. Yo, maybe I'll go there and ask them for a collab. You know how much I love collabs. Peter Luger's overrated, underrated, fairly raided. Was good now. Meh. Hot dogs in New York, do you eat them and are they overrated or underrated? That's hot dog in New York because it cats is deli. Okay. Unexpected. Bagels? Bagels, bagels, bagels. Do you eat them? Yeah. I eat bagels. There's a special treat. Do you care what you get them? Like for me, this is me. No, I care. I think S of bagel is the best to me because they have the bagel. You know, especially the one that's in Stigh Town. It's like the factories in the thing. So it's like. Look, I care about where I get them, but I don't care so much. Usually for me, it's like a special treat. Happens once a month, maybe. And usually I'm in bed and I don't want to leave my house. The caloric density is crazy. 11 a.m. I'm like watching a movie. I'm having a real lazy day and I'm like watching a movie for brunch and I'll order like a fat ass bagel. I like black seed, but I think those are Montreal style. Yeah, very chewy. Which I like. Okay. Some people don't. And then I remember there's a local spot in Bushwick that I like, but I don't remember the name. I have to check my seamless. What food do people got to look out for, man? Because like, what do they got to look out for? Like I feel like the city's changing so much. Like we said, you would never would have believed that the first Zuba chain outside of Cairo would be in New York, but there's more of that with globalization and the technology dissemination. People can blow up a spot through TikTok. What are you on the lookout for? I mean, honestly. What are you looking forward to incorporating in your diet? That's a very interesting. Like I said, I'm a creature of habit. To me, that question is so difficult because I have to make a real big effort to try something new. Right. You are not the foodie going Yelp elite style. I'm just like what is, like what looks good and I pop in there, but I don't have a list. I don't have a list of restaurants I wanna try. I don't really subscribe to anything. You know what I mean? Either you're not on it. If I go with whatever my friends recommend, honestly, that's the easiest way for me is somebody's like, you gotta try the spot. I go try the spot. Somebody do that to me the other day about a restaurant in Queens. Unbelievably good. What was it? I went there and again, tip of my tongue. I just made a reservation there. We have to find it, right? Well anyway, yeah, I mean, you know, clearly not necessarily food content creator, but you still know about, you know about what you've had. The thing is, I also- But you're just not trying to try like 50 things in a day. The thing is- Through your credit, can I defend you in that crea- You know, for us in our content, we're always out exploring, but I will say this, that creating new neuro pathways and trying new foods, it is tiring. Yeah. And it's weird. It can take you out of your zone. But a lot of what I do and like keep the meter running is I tell them, take me to your favorite place, which takes the, takes it off of me. So you're down to roll with other people. 100%. But as far as you like spending, racking your brain, trying to like, you're just like- It's a lot of men, yeah. Like you see a new spot, open up like two blocks away from the crib. You're not necessarily immediately shooting there. No, but if I read about it, maybe in New York Mag, and it's all of a sudden I'm like, oh, it's in my neighborhood. You just need to push. I need a little gentle push, but I'm not out there exploring. If I come across it, I'll go Rolos, by the way. Rolos is the spot in Ridgewood. I think it's, I wrote a review. I don't even write reviews. But like, what kind of food is it? Dude, I'll just read it. It's so fucking fire. It's like some sort of like- Read the description? Easygoing venue featuring a cocktail bar and wood fire grill plus brunch at weekends. Not a great description. But this place, No, this place, look at this. This is my review. We'll pop it up. And I don't review. I feel like it's very hard these days to find a meal or a restaurant that makes you feel like you've discovered the best place in New York City. I feel like Rolos is that place for me. Everything on the menu is 10 out of 10. I would eat here every day if I could. Great for impressing your visiting from out of town friends or family or just having a nice intimate meal with your closest pals. I've been wanting to go ever since I went. And that's when I know it's really good. Cause like I said, I'm a regular. I'm looking it up right now. I can't even, this food looks interesting. Dude, it's so good. Anyways, wow. Also, you know, sometimes I go to restaurants for the vibe rather than the food. So like Balthazar has good food. It's not amazing food. It's good food. But the dining hall, it's an experience. It's theatrical. You think you and- Dude, you know what? The one time I mustered up enough energy to go to the courage to go to Balthazar, I walked in and they said, we're closed for the next two hours. And I was like, I'm never coming back. You Karen, you pulled Karen on them? Have you had the burger at Oshavall? Yeah, I like that. Oshavall is fine. Overrated, underrated, fair rated. I'm going to go ahead and say maybe overrated. It was still good though. No, with fries it's 45 bucks. I think overrated. I just had it like maybe six months ago. Overrated. I was like, why is it so fun? I think the best burgers are actually in the $22 range. I think the best burgers are like in the $10 to $14 range. I think it's fair too. I think it's like under 18 bucks. I like Superiority Burger. I think that one's 16. And that's not even made out of meat. But Superiority Burger is also very good. What do you think about all the impossible in the Beyond Beef? I'm fully out. When it came out, I liked it. And I was like, oh, this is interesting. After maybe six months, I was like, this is disgusting. I want to go back to veggie burgers. Oh, man. And Superiority Burger makes veggie burger. No, the ones where you can taste like the bean. Well, it's not trying to imitate me. No, no, no, it's just its own thing and it's better than the fake meat. I'm like, you know what? I don't eat that much meat. Like how many burgers do I eat a year? 12, one a month? I'm not gonna be like, oh, I need the fake meat. Even if I was a vegetarian, which I have been, I've been a vegetarian for a year. I would still eat a burger every once in a while. That was my special treat. A Beyond Burger Juicy Lucy. I'm out. Don't even bother. I'm literally out. All right, guys, we'll go to your deli or your nearest bodega in a couple of years from now and ask for a Juicy Lucy and maybe they'll know what it is. I like it. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching. Check out Karim's stuff down below and until next time, we out. Peace.