Joe's Falafel — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Best mediterranean food in LA! Everything is made in house, including the crispy and great falafel, the perfect, flaky baklavah, and the tabouleh.

Located in a Strip Mall, the moment you walk through the doors, it's like you are being welcomed into Joe's house. This restaurant was clearly a labor of love, his home, and we were treated like an honored guest. Each order is taken with care, and the owner asks, "Is it your first time here? Oh, how did you hear about us?" Uhmm, cuz you Yelpfamous!

We grab a seat in the simple restaurant and relax. The owner brings all our food to us, and then a sample of the falafel (since we didn't order any). "Trust me, you will like this. We make it fresh, here." And boy did we! Both me and my dining buddy usually don't prefer falafel, but this was delicious! Crispy on the outside, warm and not too dense on the inside. Great flavors, instead of just deep fried tasting.

Our main courses were a Grill Combo Plate (plate with rice, hummus, salad, chicken schwarma, chicken kebab (so juicy and amazing), beef, etc. etc. etc. DELICIOUS! We also got a gyro on lafta bread to split. It was amazing! The gyro was full of great meats and not at all skimpy. The portions looked smaller than some other mediterranean places, but my friend and I left very satisfied and full. The baklava was also perfectly made. Not too sweet, with the nut layer so delicious with honey. The other layers were flaky perfection. The pita was warm, and the lafta bread was wonderful! They also offered a great hot sauce, also made in house, and Joe hooked us up with some samples of his rose water cake.

All in all, I will definitely come here, from wherever I am, whenever I've got a craving for a kebab, gyro, or hummus. It's amazing, homey, and delicious.

Will certainly be...

The lemon chicken is ridiculous. So juicy and creamy, even though it's dairy-free (I have an allergy). The rice it comes with is yellow and fluffy with a nice texture.

The hummus is sooooo goooood. It's addictive. Lot of tahini makes it creamy. And like everything at Joe's, it's homemade and fresh. The pita / laffa it comes with is also soooo gooood. Airy with the perfect combo of slight crisp with a bit doughy.

The falafel is dellliiiiicious. And the way it's done in the wrap is perfect. Garlicky but not too Garlicky, crunchy but not too crunchy, soft on the inside but not too soft. Just really good. It's my second favorite falafel in LA (sorry my favorite goes to Kobbee Factory but the rest of their food is meh).

The lentil soup is my favorite in LA. It is perfect. I can drink gallons of it. I take it home and eat it for a couple days, with the hummus and pita.

I don't like tabouleh but I like it at Joe's! A lot of places make it too acidic, and too much tomato flavor. Joe's is really balanced, and you can taste that he chopped it up that day so it just tastes more fresh and not like it's been in a fridge for weeks.

Joe himself is very kind and gracious. He aims to please and greets everyone warmly. He's proud of his food, as he should be.

I live far from here but I will continue to make the drive to eat at Joe's.

For what it's worth, I've eaten this type of cuisine all over NYC, the Middle East, and...

I really wanted to like Joe's Falafel. Joe is very kind and greets customers personally. When we walked in he offered us each a freshly prepared falafel ball on a stick ... one of the best Falafel balls I've eaten in a very long time. While we waited for our food to be prepared, Joe brought us a plate of freshly fried pita chips ... soft and incredible tasting. We ordered Kafta in a Laffa bread, A Falafel in a Laffa bread, and a small humus. All were disappointing. The Laffa bread was not soft - rather it was thin and seemed grilled; the Falafel balls were mushed in the Laffa sandwich, and their fantastic taste got lost in all the ingredients. And the humus was just ordinary. The humus was served with one pita bread, which seemed undercooked, almost raw. If I ever return (and that's a big if), I'll try the Falafel balls on a plate, not in a pita, but I'm not sure what else would taste good with the Falafel balls - maybe the Baba Ghanoush, but definitely not the Humus. For the best Humus I've ever tasted I would recommend Humus Yummy (served with incredible soft pita apparently imported frozen from Israel), and for a superb Laffa sndwich, Tel Aviv Grill, both located on Burbank Blvd...