East Side Pockets — Restaurant in Providence

This is one of my favorite spots in all of Providence, never mind just Thayer Street. The food is always fresh and insanely flavorful. If you've never been, I highly recommend getting a wrap "with everything"--the gyro/falafel combo is my usual go-to, though the kafta and chicken are also great. Don't be put off by the hot sauce and hot peppers. The peppers are banana peppers, more pickly than spicy, and the hot sauce has a little kick but is mostly just really flavorful, and gets balanced out by the tzatziki and tahini and cooling veggies so it doesn't knock your socks off. If you want to customize it the next time you come back--because you WILL be back!--go ahead, but make sure you try it as is first because these folks know what they're doing.

I also want to tell a story from today that prompted me to write this review, because it illustrates the subtle things that make this place so great beyond the amazing food. I was in line to get a wrap behind about 4 other parties, with a woman and her young daughter, probably about 10, immediately in front of me. By the time it was their turn to order, the daughter had taken a seat at the window counter while she waited for her mom to order the food. You wouldn't necessarily know they were together if you hadn't seen them standing together before. The woman ordered two wraps with everything. The man making it (I think the owner?) paused, glanced at the daughter sitting at the counter, and asked, "everything including hot sauce and hot peppers?" Clearly she hadn't realized those were part of the standard condiments and modified her order to make it a little more suited to a kid's palate.

Just that subtle awareness, going the extra step to check with the customer (without outright saying "are you sure that's not too spicy for your kid?") is indicative of what makes this place really special. I absolutely recommend giving it a try. If there's a line, don't stress--it moves fast, and it's only because everyone knows...

The cashier was nasty and rude. She barely opened her mouth when I asked her questions. And owner or the owner's son didn't even acknowledge me while I was here until he had to.

I won't be coming back.

This little thing wrapped in foil was the pita that came with my meal. It looked and tasted stale.

The meat portions were small, slightly charred too much. But there was plenty of lettuce and hamburger pickles (?!) on my plate.

The lentils and rice needed salt, too.

And I only came here because there was a line at the Chinese restaurant across the street. If I read the response right, you own the Chinese place across the street too. No wonder because the food doesn't taste authentic. McDonald’s hamburger pickles don’t seem very Syrian or Chinese. You can't master both Syrian and Chinese food.

The rude cashier messed up the order, by not putting in the walnut pastry. When I asked her about this she acted as if she didn't understand what I was saying. One of the cooks tried to clarify what happened, and she responded to him: "I didn't charge him for it."

However I ordered it and expected it in my bag.

To the person who responded to me: instead of talking about how the workers are trained just apologize or say you'll do better next time or you want another opportunity to...

I can't comment on the atmosphere because we got delivery via Grubhub. I say the service was good because the order was ready in a timely fashion and wraps were properly assembled with care as well as the pita chips and hummus orser was put together and packaged neatly.

However, the wraps left some things to be desired. First of all, my falafel wrap: it was absolutely doused with tsatziki sauce and stuffed with pickles. The sauce and the pickles overpowered the falafel to the point were I could barely taste them. Moreover, the pickles were the type that are cooked that you find in a jar unrefrigerated on the grocery aisle as opposed to the barrel-cured type that you find refrigerated in the deli counter. Even better would be if these included pickled turnips, which I love.

My wife's chicken shawarma wrap was equally soaked in pickle brine and tsatziki, and the chicken was dry, under seasoned, and stringy.

The pita chips were very good and the hummus was smooth and delicious, our only complaint being that the latter was served in the smallest of ramekins, the size that are normally used for condiments as ketchup or mayonnaise.

We haven't written this place off yet because it's possible the maker of the wraps might have been inexperienced and got the balance way off on the...