John Loftus needed 20 stitches after he was attacked as he walked home from the pub near North Wembley Station just after midnight on Saturday (November 22).
The 56-year-old said he was eating a chicken wrap when a stranger asked him if he could have some.
John told this paper: “I was like ‘No mate. The fast-food shop’s down there… £3.99, get your own’.”
The man lunged and grabbed part of the wrap out of John’s hand then ran off.
John said: “I was standing there saying ‘What the f*** mate. What the f***.’
“He then turns around throws the wrap to the ground, pulls a knife out of his pocket and runs at me shouting ‘I will show you what the f***’.
“I tried to defend myself, I blocked his right hand but with the knife in his left hand he swiped it across my face, as I pulled back the knife sliced along my jaw line. I could feel the blood straight away.”
The attacker then ran away, though John said he believes he later doubled back to North Wembley Station and got a train to Harrow and Wealdstone.
John said: “If I was two inches taller or he was two inches smaller that knife gets me in the neck and I would have been dead. For what? A chicken wrap?”
The Met Police said an investigation is ongoing but the attacker remains on the loose.
“We have to catch this guy because if he’s done this to me over a chicken wrap, he could kill someone else,” John said.
He described the attacker as a young black man, possibly in his late teens or early 20s.
John said he has always lived in the area and had never felt unsafe until this incident.
“My friends couldn’t believe it. It makes you wonder what London is coming to,” he added.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Police were called to reports of an assault in Harrowdene Road, Wembley, at 12:29am on Saturday, November 22.
“The victim, a man in his 50s, received treatment from the London Ambulance Service for facial injuries. Paramedics later transferred him to hospital where his injuries were confirmed to be non-life-changing.
“Local officers are now investigating the incident and encourage anyone with information to contact 101, quoting 200/22Nov. No arrests have been made at this stage.”
