Falafel

This is one of my favourite places to head for lunch when I’m at work — it’s usually my pay day treat. You’re served very quickly and choose from either a pitta or salad box — the choices of sides and fillings are a little overwhelming, there’s lots to choose from and they’re all delicious! I usually go for a the salad box with either olives or stuffed vine leaves. You get a huge plastic bowl filled with lettuce, coriander, tomatoes, red cabbage, jalapenos, green chillies, about six falafels, lentils, chickpeas, hummus, beansprouts and shredded carrot with whatever you’ve chosen added (so in my case either olives or stuffed vine leaves). Their portion sizes are enormous and to top it off you get a nice, freshly toasted pitta bread to accompany it. It’s doughy and tastes freshly baked and is still warm. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to finish a full salad box and usually end up taking it home so I can eat the rest for dinner. All of the salad items taste nice and fresh and come drizzled in chilli sauce and tahini.
The only downside is how small this place is, you’re served very quickly but you can end up waiting a while to pay because of how slow the card machines are. There’s also not really anywhere to sit inside, so unless it’s summer time you’re going to end up eating your lunch at your desk. The falafels are nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, but they’re cold. I prefer hot falafel.
My usual order of a salad box and coconut water comes to £6.49 — pretty pricey, so it’s something I only have once a month (like I said, a pay day treat). However, when you take into consideration how much food you’re given it’s actually very good value for money. A great place to come for lunch if you’re a fan of Mediterranean flavours and aren’t much of a meat eater.

Meh. I like the selection of salads, but their falafel tasted like it was sitting out for a while. They give you a lot of food but cold soggy falafel kills the experience for me.

If you happen to wander down the side streets of St Paul’s during lunch, Falafel is a great place to stop into. They serve only one thing– falafel! As this is the only thing they serve (either in a pita sandwich, or a salad box) they do it very well. I had the wholemeal pita sandwich with everything inside. They somehow managed to stuff hummous, tahini, 5 different types of salads and at least 6 – 7 falafels inside the pita.
The shop is really small however there is a place to sit along the window and people watch. Fully satiated and clean (the pita didn’t break and spill hummous all over– a super plus!) I will definitely come back again.