Adventure 22: King of Falafel

King of Falafel (website)
453 W. Gilman St.
3 Adjectives: Fancy, ethnic, helpful.
Price: app (4-7) entree (4-15)
Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Other Opinions: madisonatoz, yelp, dane101 ...
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With one entrance facing University and right next to a small parking lot, it's pretty hard to miss the white and green building that is King of Falafel. A couple of weeks ago, I finally got a chance to go inside and check the place out. Interestingly, I had not gone in the past because one of my friends claimed that it was a takeout place with little to no chairs, while about a year later another insisted that it was a sit-down restaurant. (I questioned both of them about whether they were talking about the same place!) It turns out both of them were correct: while King of Falafel has a take-out counter on the side facing University, the portion facing Gilman looks like the fancy dining room of any other restaurant.

The dining portion of the restaurant was a small room with about ten tables and lots of Middle Eastern decorations. Nice drape-like cloths covered the ceiling, giving the feeling of sitting in a tent. The take-out area lay beyond two double doors and looks like a counter out of Asian Kitchen. There were also a few Middle Eastern groceries on sale.

After taking a seat, we were greeted by a very pleasant waitress who gave us a wonderful cup of Turkish cardamom tea. The biggest perk in dining here is the free tea: served in beautiful Turkish tea glasses (right). The waitress was so good that neither of our tea cups or water glasses were ever empty - a huge perk!

We ended up settling on ordering the Vegetarian Mazza (above), or many small plates of appetizers. While some of the dishes were amazing, others were rather mediocre. One of our favorites was the M'hamara, a red pepper hummus-like dip. The sambosia, or samosa-like dish, was also very good. Other dishes, like a bowl full of pickles and the favabeans, were not as tasty. We ultimately decided that the Mazza was not worth its price ($28).

Overall, King of Falafel was a nice place to try out some Mediterranean food and sip delicious cardamom tea (which I have yet to find in a grocery store in town). However, if you are looking for a more tasty location, I'd recommend Husnus.