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View Full Version : Falafels in the CGY



nambis
09-16-2005, 10:29 AM
Does anyone know where to get good falafel sandwiches? And by good, I mean FRESH fried falafels (not pre-fried and microwaved like most places), pickled turnips (yummy pink things inside the sandwich), and REAL Tahini sauce (like a salad dressing made from sesame seeds, lemon juice, and garlic) not tahini paste, humus, yogurt, or tzatziki sauce.

By far the best falafel sandwiches I've ever had were in St. Paul, Minnesota, at a great Palestinian deli called "Abu Nader's." You could get the dopest falafel sandwich, made as described above, for $3 USD. :thumbsup:

Weapon_R
09-16-2005, 10:48 AM
I doubt you'll find the fresh fried falafels here man...There simply is not enough demand for them to have a dedicated fryer. I could be wrong, but everywhere i've gone to (and I suspect we have pretty similar favorites), they always microwave them because they don't sell enough to cook them fresh.

nambis
09-16-2005, 10:53 AM
yea, i even checked falafel king downtown, which based on the name you would expect to make them right, but they are premade there as well.

I'm not sure why, because it seems to me if there wasn't enough demand, it would make more sense to just keep the raw falafel in a big container and cook each order rather than prefrying them all and having to throw a bunch out at the end of the day (unless the just keep them until they sell - ICK!).

The place in St. Paul was very small and not ultra-high demand, but still made them fresh to order. Of course you had to wait about 5 minutes but it was well worth it!

Weapon_R
09-16-2005, 10:59 AM
The falafal you see in frozen bags comes precooked and prepackaged by an external supplier. Otherwise, it'd make sense to keep a couple of raw ones and cook them to order.

nambis
09-16-2005, 11:02 AM
ahhhh.... OK, i didn't realize that a lot of these places were buying them frozen.

OK well i am on the search for homemade, fresh falafels then I guess!

Orbie
09-16-2005, 01:24 PM
I'm not sure when you went down to Falafel King, but that place gets absolutely slammed during the lunch rush in downtown. I've seen line ups around the block past McDonalds. Could you imagine how long the line would be, and correspondingly, how much business they would lose, if each person in line had to wait 5 minutes for a wrap?! The reason that place is still in business and doing well is because of how fast they whip people through that line and get them what they payed for; not mentioning the good food of course. When you're still outside they're asking you what you want and before you know it you have what you ordered in your hand!

Besides from what I've seen there most of the time people aren't ordering the Falafels but your basic beef. Unfortunately, I don't know any places off hand that would provide what you are looking for, but good luck in your Falafel hunt though!

nambis
09-16-2005, 01:31 PM
Originally posted by Orbie
Could you imagine how long the line would be, and correspondingly, how much business they would lose, if each person in line had to wait 5 minutes for a wrap?! The reason that place is still in business and doing well is because of how fast they whip people through that line and get them what they payed for.

yea, all fast food joints are like that but that doesn't mean they serve good food. i can wait in line at McDonalds for 2 minutes and eat shit, or i can wait a half hour at a good restaurant and get an awesome burger...

BTW, I'm not looking for speed, efficiency OR a pompous name, just quality falafel sandwiches.

Ajay
09-16-2005, 02:09 PM
Once again I'm going to recommend Shwarma King in Kensington. My cousin from NY is a vegetarian and when we went there he got the falafel and he said it was pretty good. I personally am not a big fan of falafel but try it out. Don't know if they make it fresh or not.

Hash_man
09-16-2005, 03:08 PM
My mom makes the best falafel... mmmmm

But umm, there is this place mediteranean grill or something like that accross from chinook next to the computer place.. I have heard they have fresh stuff, but havent been there myself.

JordanEG6
09-16-2005, 06:49 PM
pita basket cafe on 5th ave and 6th st. downtown. i go there all the time by my work, great shawarmas too! :D

dDUB
09-17-2005, 01:16 PM
whatsa fallafel :dunno:

2.0turbo
09-17-2005, 02:14 PM
La Shish Pita in the NE. Go up 52nd just across mcknight, make your first left, then go strait throught the intersection into the roger video parking lot, it's on the left side of rogers, they make everything fresh there except thier ice cream and donair meet but they did inform me it's 100% all beef, whatever that means. Doesn't really matter cause they also have the best donairs I've ever had. Alot of those little places up around Falconridge and Temple have awesome ethnic food for obvious reasons.

Hash_man
09-17-2005, 07:01 PM
whatsa fallafel

Its small balls made of mashed up chick peas and other stuff that are fried and eaten in a pita with other good tasty stuff

PinkKitty
09-18-2005, 01:10 AM
Extreme Pita.

There's three of those in downtown, and one in Market mall.

They give you three falafels for small, four for regular.
Totally oil-less, they grill it with water.
Then a lot of vegetables for you to choose, along with cheese and source (saziki [however you spell that] is just really good).

It's not that bad too, $3.91 for a small, I think, or somewhere near that price.

Nissanaddict
09-18-2005, 06:45 PM
They have an extreme pita in shawnessy...and I could see Meditteranean Grill serving them fresh...they have DAMN good food (and it's all fresh)

ZorroAMG
09-19-2005, 03:59 PM
Extreme Pita Falafels are NASTY....if this guy doesn't like Falafel king's, he'll barf all over the extreme Pita ones....