Restaurant from popular State College halal cart to open soon. What’s on the menu?
Most who live in State College are familiar with the Sher Halal Gyro & Grill cart found at 137 E. Beaver Ave., near 3 Dots. A long-standing fixture on the downtown dining scene, the cart serves a mix of platters pairing chicken, lamb and other proteins with rice; gyros; and desserts, to positive reviews on platforms like Grubhub, where happy customers mention delicious food and large portion sizes.
Later this month, the cart’s owner is bringing more of what customers love to downtown, but with some slight changes, as a Sher Halal Gyro & Grill brick-and-mortar location opens not too far away, at the former Woodrings Floral Gardens location at 145 S. Allen St.
Hazrat Ali, Sher Halal Gyro & Grill manager and nephew of owner Nanat Rahmaa, said, “Allen Street is the heart of State College, and the restaurant has a different menu from the cart. ... That’s why we start(ed the new location).”
The new storefront menu will be slightly larger than the cart’s current menu, and will offer different styles of barbecue, including Mediterranean and Indian, as well as rice dishes like Afghani pulao — a rice pilaf typically made with lamb, carrots, raisins and saffron — and mandi, a rice and chicken or lamb-based dish that Ali said is particularly popular in Arabic countries. As a result, he noted, the menu will offer a range of international cuisines that are already popular in larger cities like Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Philadelphia, but which have yet to be seen in State College.
The menu will also offer a fast-food section with wings, fried chicken and sandwiches, including chicken and lamb sandwiches, and a specialty sandwich called the “kaburger.”
Pending inspection, Sher Halal Gyro & Grill will open by the end of April. The Sher Halal Gyro & Grill cart will still be open and ran separately, for the foreseeable future. However, this first location isn’t the end to the brand’s expansion. Following the South Allen Street location’s opening, Ali said the team would like to open another storefront next year.
