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| - I'm a long-time vegetarian & love falafel sandwiches, which I've had dozens of times from restaurants around the country.
In the area already, I stopped by around 4:30PM on their grand opening day.
They're located in a small strip-mall, and I was lucky to find a parking spot quickly -- I think after some of the "buzz" about this place ends, parking should be a problem, other than the lot being kind of narrow.
As expected for their opening day, the place was pretty busy, but thanks to their rather limited menu, I was in & out of there in about 10 minutes. All the staff was very friendly, and I expect by now, they're probably better at knowing what's what.
I ordered two falafels, one with "white sauce" & the other with their hot sauce. They were cautioning everyone that the hot sauce really is hot, and I'm very glad they suggested that they just give me a packet of it instead of them putting it on my second falafel!
The falafel sandwich consists of 3 or 4 meatball-sized falafels on a bed of chopped lettuce & diced tomatoes, wrapped up taco-like by pita bread, and then with a small drizzle of whatever sauce you want (packets of extra sauce are 99 cents).
Not liking tomatoes, I got mine without.
The price for two was $17 something. No drink or anything else is included. It's not a scenic location, no ambience or anything else special inside the place, so maybe I'm just an old, cheap-bastard, but I find the pricing to be very high. Remember, it's a falafel -- mostly ground chick-peas & lettuce (in fact. I think they put a little too much lettuce in, as a cheap 'filler' for the sandwich. The pricing might be normal for NYC & would be for the LV Strip, but not the location that they are at.
Falafels have very little flavor. Most places season them with paprika, garlic, onions or something, but this place doesn't. Most of the other places I've gotten falafels at have onions that they add with the lettuce & tomato -- obviously, onions add a lot to the flavor. This place doesn't, and seemed not to have onions at all. The white sauce that came in my one falafel sandwich was just a very light drizzle, probably the equivalent of half a teaspoon-full. Not enough, especially when the "white sauce" doesn't really have a lot of flavor to it...
Thankfully, as part of their grand opening, they have me two packets of the white sauce, and one of the hot sauce. To give the falafel any sort of flavor, I used a whole packet of the white sauce, and it's just dumb that the white sauce packet is a 99 cent option, when the reality is it's a requirement to give the sandwich even a modicum of flavor.
Sadly, even then, the falafel sandwich from The Halal Guys was just OK. Part of the reason it was even OK was simply because I hadn't had a falafel sandwich in a while.
Later on, I opened the hot sauce packet. Many of us foodies are accustomed to sauces described as "hot" or "spicy" really being neither, but not only is the hot sauce here truly very hot, but it's also somewhat of a different flavor to it. I'm glad I sampled the hot sauce via a drop in my finger instead of pouring it on my second falafel sandwich, because I don't really like the flavor (yeah, I know, but at least I'm being consistent...) & even if I did, it would have been a little too hot to eat when you've got to go back to work for a couple hours...
So the bottom-line for me is that due to lack of flavor, and also a lack of value for the price, I doubt I'll be back unless I have a falafel sandwich craving late at night -- it is AWESOME this place is apparently open until 4AM!!! Hopefully that will last.
For the owner: I doubt you'll lower your pricing, so after the initial buzz dies, if the profits aren't matching your business plan, please think about including a small drink or bag of chips to bring better value to at least the falafel sandwiches! Also how about more vegetable options (onions), to give some actual flavor to the falafel sandwiches.
Your lamb dishes might taste great & be a good value, but the falafels don't & aren't.
I'm not happy to write such a review -- I was really hoping to find a great new falafel place that's open late, but for the aforementioned reasons, you currently aren't it for me.
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