Sam’s Falafel Stand

This is the heaven of falafel. Only vegetarian bliss in the form of falafel sandwich or platter and if you can take of rest of the day and sleep peacefully listening to some melodious music on a busy weekday afternoon @ Zucotti park for couple of hours, then I would say you have been to heaven and back.

Delicious, quick and so reasonably priced. Friendly cooks. Highly recommend this stand.

This is a great deal; platter is 6 bucks with all the veggie deliciousness! Note that it does not come with rice; no rice! It all works out with a pita Sam places in the bag. Enjoy!

I love falafel and Sam’s Falafel stand is awesome. It’s been around for many years so you know it must be good. I used to eat here when I worked downtown in the late 1990s and I still like to stop by whenever I’m in the area.
The staff is friendly, the food is 100% vegetarian and the prices are dirt cheap. Definitely worth a visit!

Located on the south side of Zuccotti Park. $ 4 for a delicious falafel sandwich that will fill you up for at least 3 – 4 hours. Can’t argue with that deal. I’d recommend going at an off hour if you’re in a rush as the line can be sizable. As an FYI, he does not do business there on weekends and does not accept credit.

This is falafel cart is a little tricky to find, but look out for the big green Sam’s Falafel sign because there’s a lot of food trucks and carts in the area.
They only have two options: the pita sandwich or the mixed combo plate which is almost identical to the sandwich, but you get one stuffed grape leaf.
The sandwich is $ 4 which is a steal because the sandwich is massive! The plate is $ 6 and was kind of a small portion compared to the sandwich (and the size of the takeaway container), but you do get a hefty amount of falafel, so you better like it. I had 9 pieces, but other reviews have quoted 12 pieces, so portions are dished out randomly.
The falafel was pretty good with just the right amount of crisp outside, yet soft inside. I thought the other accouterments like the lettuce, onions, and eggplant were all dished out a bit light though.
If I came back, I would definitely get the sandwich though! At $ 4, it’s the perfect, tasty and filling lunch!

It is a falafel truck but it was very good and very cheap. Great eggplant. In front of a small park/​seating area so nice but NYC noisy.

Food is really good. I got the sandwich. Falafel is well seasoned and has great crunch. The fried eggplant and onions are also very flavorful. However, the guy running the cart forgot to put hummus on my sandwich. When I went back to ask for it (sorry can’t do falafel w/​o hummus), everything would have been so easy if he admitted it was a mistake. Instead, he told me people have to ask for hummus. «A lot of people don’t like hummus.» First of all who doesn’t like hummus? Second of all the menu says hummus on it and finally everyone else got it without asking. I told him the person behind me got it and he goes, «yeah because he’s my friend, I know him.» The «friend» was actually my coworker who went with me and had never been to the cart before. Such BS.

What a great falafel stand.
For $ 6 bucks, you get a huge platter of falafel with hummus, eggplants, peppers, salad and pita. What more can you ask for?

Finally visited Sam’s after reading the rave reviews. Luckily there was no line at 12:45, probably because of the gloomy weather. I ordered the combo platter solely because it came with a stuffed grape leave.
The portion of the platter was ginormous, about 12 falafel balls and numerous toppings including hummus, babaganoush, lettuce, tomatoes, carmelized onions, and yellow peppers.
The falafel balls were fresh, crispy, delicious. My two complaints are that 1. The sauce poured over the falafel balls was a mistake, I would have preferred the sauce separated on the side, and 2. the hot sauce lacked any heat. I suggest requesting more.
Overall, it is a solid lunch spot in Zuccotti park that I would definitely return to.

A food truck in a small park. Tried the falafel platter for lunch and it was top notch food truck quality. I believe that it was only 6 – 7 bucks. You will be hard pressed to find a better quality meal for that price in this area. They get really busy around lunch and you could wait for 10 – 15 min. The cooks are definitely working as hard as they possibly can to keep the line moving. Give it a try at least once.

Picture ten or twelve food vendors, literally side by side, selling gyros, hot dogs, falafel and other assorted foodstuffs in a large open area. Most vendors have a person or two waiting for food, some have none and one vendor has ten or fifteen people in line. You wonder what his secret is and you then get in line to find out.
I stood in line for about ten minutes and got a delicious falafel platter for $ 6 to try out. My platter came with plenty of falafel, tomato chunks and salad, hot sauce and white sauce, a stuffed grape leaf and a hot pickled pepper. I was too stuffed to eat the pita bread that came along. Fresh, delicious, filling food that was healthy and well priced. That is their secret and it keeps them coming back again and again.

Why is there a long line at Sam’s Falafel Stand. .. . Because the food is GREAT!
If we were around Cedar St and Broadway everyday, we would have eaten at Sam’s everyday.
For street food in NYC, nothing better!

Come here almost every day for lunch. Only 2 items, the falafel sandwich or the combo platter, $ 4 – 6 respectively. Huge huge huge portions, pretty good quality. People working the stand are very fast and are really nice people.
Hot sauce could be hotter.

This is now my go-​to falafel place! It’s very reasonably priced. $ 4 for a sandwich and $ 6 for a platter – you can’t beat that! The lines are usually long during lunch, but if you avoid the 12:30−2 rush, you’ll probably get lucky with the lines. The hot sauce is delicious and now that I can say I’ve been here multiple times, I can safely say the falafel always cooked to perfection.

It is with great displeasure that I leave a 2-​star rating on what appears to be a trusted neighborhood eating destination for so many.
Saw the reviews in excess of 100 for this cart with a pretty stellar average rating, and figured I should try it before my office moves to midtown. Apparently they’re quite famous for what they do down here, but in all my time downtown I was unaware due to the inconspicuous nature of the cart, which blends in with most others in the Zuccotti Park area. So when a colleague started ranting about how much he loves Sam’s, and had been a patron as far back as ~10 years, I knew I had to try.
Food was prepared super quick — pointed at the combo platter sign, and it was a quick as wham, bam, thank you Sam. Now for the food — maybe I was expecting too much amid all the praise, but I will say that I didn’t feel the desire to finish the platter, and not due to the size of the serving. To touch on the size of the combo platter ($ 6), it’s pretty substantial — I counted 10 falafel, served with an array of sides and a pita. But with street carts, I think it’s all too common for people to allow portion size to make up for quality of food.
With that said, taste-​wise I wasn’t impressed. The falafel seemed over fried, and gave the taste as if the oil was burning too hot (those who cook and have fried something will know what I mean). Then there’s the sauce (not sure what it was, kind of had the consistency of tahini), which was liberally ladled on and left half my platter swimming — didn’t give me much of a choice about how much I wanted on each piece. The platter was also advertised as coming with baba ghanoush, but instead I got some sautéed pieces of eggplant. Also, the hummus was definitely lacking garlic, salt and tahini, tasting almost purely of pureed chickpeas. I was really excited about tasting the grape leaves (only came with one, menu states in plural), but that too left me disappointed. The salad was as to be expected from a street vendor, just a bunch of diced up lettuce and tomatoes.
I don’t mean to critique so heavily, but as someone who is accustomed to authentic middle eastern cuisine following many, many years of consumption, I had a certain expectation. So it is my hope that this review helps others that were in the same position as I.
Would not return.

Sweet lord, this place is amazing. This guy gives you like 12 falafels that are fresh, crunchy, and excellent in flavor. Total cost with pita: $ 6.00! Go crazy and get yourself a drink.
And no, you should not eat all of the falafel, you’ll feel like killing yourself.

I’ve heard so much hype for this little stand and walked past the long lines many times during lunch hour. For $ 6, only $ 1 more than the sandwich, you get a platter of falafel (around 8 – 10), lettuce, hummus, pita, some baba ghanoush, grilled onions, and hot sauce. The falafel were kind of dry and could’ve used more hot sauce in my opinion (hummus is dry too so doesn’t count). Pretty filling meal for one of those healthy vegetarian meals that’s all the craze these days. From past reviews I see the sandwich used to be $ 4, and now it’s $ 5…with downtown rapidly developing expect this to continue to rise! Met but didn’t exceed my expectations. Overall, a quicker, cheaper Maoz — both are still food coma-​inducing!

Sam is the nicest dude! He will remember you always on top of how you like your falafel. The falafels are HUGE. He has got his technique down too. Instead of just throwing all the balls in the pita, he’ll smash one up real nice on the inside and then just layer on more balls and delicious everything.
Only $ 4!

A massive, delicious falafel sandwich for $ 4? You can’t beat that. The falafel sandwich, made with a fresh pita absolutely overflowing with falafel, was filling (I couldn’t finish it…) without making you feel bad about yourself for stuffing your face at lunch.
The line took a little while, because I think they were waiting for some fresh falafel to come out of the frier, but it was definitely worth the wait. This will be in my weekly work lunch rotation for sure.