Promenading in Paris: Fancy some Falafel?

I have never in my life eaten falafel before. Sure, I have heard of them on travel shows, on cooking programmes and read about them in books and magazines, but I have never tried one before. During my research on food to eat in Paris, L’as du Fallafel popped up. It is well received and most of the reviews I read rated the place above average and a “must-try”. This is tempting enough for me. However, it was also because we were in the area that we decided to pop into L’as du Fallafel. We would never have purposely sought out the restaurant. After all, why eat falafel in Paris?

No regrets though. We had a filling and satisfying meal. Needless to say, we could not finish everything and had to doggy bag it back to our apartment for brunch the next day. The restaurant is not big, but could seat a sizeable amount of people. They packed the tables close together to create more room. Fortunately, the servers there are mostly slim men in tight jeans and black tees who have no trouble navigating the narrow pathways, and they are very courteous and friendly. Some are actually quite pleasing on the eye *wink wink*.

Their logo printed on the dining tables.

This photo has no aesthetic merit at all. I'm only posting to point out the green interiors.

The restaurant is located in what is known as the Jewish quarters in Paris, The Marais (Le Marais). When we got there in the evening, there were already two queues outside the shop. One is to dine-in, which is substantially longer, and the other is for takeaways. It is a non-descript shop except for the queues and the large signboard bearing its name. I am guessing its corporate colour is green because the shop façade is green and their logo (yes they have a logo – branding yeah?) is green. They even have a slogan, “Often imitated, never equaled”, which seemed to bear some validity because we have walked past a few falafel shops and “empty” is the word I would use to describe them. I supposed the intent of their corporate colour is to highlight what they are selling, since falafels are pea-green inside, although they are made of mashed chickpeas (which are yellowish) but rendered green by a variety of herbs (parsley, cilantro, etc.) mixed into it. We waited for about 20 minutes before we finally got a table.

Falafel.

Beef and mutton Schwarma.

Curry chicken pita sandwich.

Their menu comes in a variety of languages (European mainly). I went for a curry chicken pita sandwich, which is stuffed to the brim. My friend ordered the mutton and beef Schawarma, and got a huge plate of sliced meat, fries, salad and hummus. We also ordered a small bowl of falafel. It is really more than we can eat but IT IS SO SO SATISFYING. I love my curry chicken sandwich (it isn’t spicy and the curry flavour does come through), the falafel is incomparable (literally, because it is my virgin experience) and the Schawarma is moist and flavourful. It is also my first time tasting hummus and I am mildly surprised to discover that it is nothing like mayonnaise or sour cream. That is the impression I get looking at it, but upon tasting it, I realised that it is a burst of smoky pea-like flavour (?). I don’t quite know how to describe the flavour but I liked it.

My curry chicken pita is camera shy, that's why you only see its paper-covered back.

This is one of the better meals we had in Paris. Everyone is friendly, the atmosphere is bustling and down-to-earth, and the meal is extremely worth it because you get more than what you paid for (Lenny Kravitz would agree). I highly recommend going for a meal there. Then you can walk off the meal around the area, which has a collection of indie-label shops that unfortunately, were closed after our meal *sad face*.

For more info: Yelp reviews, Timeout Paris, Paris Cheapskate