The Halal Guys 4700 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, NY 13850

"I get that it’s a chain restaurant now but the chicken over rice had absolutely no flavor. All I tasted was the heat from the hot sauce. Then the salad is just lettuce and tomato, no cucumber. It was just very disappointing for $12"

"THE STAFF: WONDERFUL, HELPFUL, KIND AND WORK VERY HARD, SEEMINGLY ABOVE AND BEYOND EXPECTATIONS. The food: I’ve only ever eaten at the OG location, the 14th street location, and the LaGuardia College location prior to eating here. All of those were great experiences, though this isn’t by any means a difficult dish to create at home to a much more flavorful effect. The problem with the chain restaurants is that the recipe is very different from the original to extremely ill effect. I ordered a regular chicken platter with salad, white sauce and barbecue sauce. I’d sampled the beef separately since I already dislike the beef replacement at the original locations (lamb was the best though I haven’t seen it available in a while, it was a mince and wasn’t gamey by any means and added a richness to the dish that is unbeaten compared to their other offerings)The only similarity to the original location/NYC style preparation is the pita which tastes identical and about as fresh. The rice is wrong, it appears to use a shorter grain and less annatto as well as having way less of a bite; it’s the base of the dish upon which everything else rests and it’s revolting and overcooked. The lettuce and tomato are both chopped finer at this location, it provides zero contrast in either flavor or mouthfeel compared to the slightly coarser chop of the original, it simply blends into the dish making it absolutely disgusting. The spice blend for the chicken is heavy in garlic and coriander, it tastes like it has less oregano compared to the original and the texture is completely different as well, it’s strictly chunk chopped chicken thighs in contrast with the mix of chunk chopped and shredded chicken thighs at the original; it’s also way less moist which is again a strange experience against the overly soggy rice. The white sauce is a mess, it literally tastes like mayonnaise, whereas the NYC blend in the bottles has a distinctive tang to it from the greek yogurt; the bottles here likely use the same sauce found in the packets. I’d never eaten the sauce from the packets before and was left with an absolutely strange flavor each belch, like I’d drunk cooking oil or something. NASTY. The barbecue sauce blends into nothing, it lacks the heavy smokiness and sweetness found in NYC. The beef I tasted had the same spice blend, except you could barely taste it, it’s an almost tasteless meat and the texture is again completely different from the original’s which has more of a chunk chop and browning compared to the thin döner kebab style found here. All in all, I would never eat at any other storefront outside of NYC given my experience here, and I suggest avoiding this place if you expect NYC style Halal Guys."

"Loved this place, we enjoyed the super fast and quick service. We had one chicken gyro and combo. I enjoyed both but combo was spectacular. We did order one Baklawa, it was fresh and delicious. Place was nice and convenient, enough parking spots. Highly recommend combo platter."