Falafel Salam — Restaurant in Seattle

Let me start this off by saying that the food was overall good and seemed to be made of fresh ingredients. That being said I have a significant issue with the way this restaurant is marketing itself trying to obviously create an impression that this is authentic Arab middle eastern cuisine.

I am a Lebanese American, first of my family born in the US, which means I got to grow up in an immigrant household, enjoying Lebanese cuisine my entire life and I know it like the back of my hand. Beyond that, I was lucky to grow up in Northern Virginia on the east coast, which has a large Arab population, which means I also got to experience the cuisine of many other Arab countries and cultures, such as Afghani, Iraqi, Turkish, Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian. I appreciate many of the dishes of each culture, and can tell them apart.

This food is not authentically Arab, at all. The hummus is runny where it drips off the "Pita" and has Zatar instead of parsley and cumin for seasoning, and lacks the lemon zest. Hummus should be thicker like a paste that wouldn't immediately drip off or succumb to gravity before one would reasonably have time to eat it after dipping. The Tahini just tasted bitter. The meats tasted alright, but had different spices. The "Arab Salad" didn't seem anything closer. The Pita bread should not taste buttery and structurally it was more like a fluffy middle eastern hamburger bun than a Pita bread (and there's definitely no air pocket inside of it so I don't know why "Pita Pocket" is mentioned at all) Finally the Baklava was outright offensive and quite honestly, shameful to the point I couldn't touch it again after one bite.

When I looked into the restaurant's website afterwards, I learned in the "about" section that the owner is Israeli. I am admittedly ignorant of Israeli cuisine, so perhaps on some level these are faithful renditions and authentic in that sense. As for my ignorance, it is for no other reason than circumstance.

Were this restaurant marketing itself as Israeli cuisine, or even just left it at "Middle Eastern" with out further elaboration, I probably would have just thought it not for me, and moved on. There are plenty of other places that offer middle eastern food that don't meet my expectations, and it's just something that's part of life.

My problem is that this restaurant is very obviously going out of it's way to capitalize on Arab culture, from the Arabic spelling of Salam, to the fact that the menu has the word "Arab" several times over and Israeli exactly zero times. In fact, if you just look at the store on door dash, you'd see nothing mentioning Israel at all, since its only on the one little about section on the actual website. Even my country of Lebanon is mentioned multiple times more on that website, as a source for several ingredients, yet there is nothing Lebanese about this food at all.

I'm not going to hold beef on this stranger for events he has nothing to do with happening on the other side of the world, but this must be comparable to someone from Mexico seeing Taco Bell being praised as authentic Mexican, while also understanding that while the people running it might not be personally responsible for it, this company and their rendition still come from a country that says some pretty awful things about their culture on the daily.

So please, at the very least drop all the "Arab" descriptors and drop the sourced from Lebanon stuff until you have at least one item that fully resembles Lebanese cuisine. If you can tolerate going just one further, own the Israeli thing. You're just serving food after all, you're not an embassy, and if you own it, there's no reason for any rational person to give you a hard time and it might improve your reviews since I'm clearly not the first Arab or person aware of the culture who has ben put off by the way you are presenting things. You can still serve all the same dishes and if it's good enough as authentic Israeli, why wouldn't people who appreciate that cuisine seek it out?

Just some food...

I enjoyed Falafel Salam so much I visited it twice in two hours. I visited on a quiet Sunday morning and was one of two parties present at the time. The space is airy and with the two garage doors opened to the street a lot of light was brought in. The staff were friendly and the woman working there at the time was happy to talk about the food and had a lot of charisma. I shared the Hesitator and it was delicious. It’s a great dish to order if you’re unsure of what to get – hence the clever name. Everything on the plate was great. The hummus and tahini were not bland and had wonderful flavor. The purple cabbage slaw was flavorful and colorful. The gyro meat was tasty as well. My favorite parts of the meal were the falafel that were fried to a crisp with a soft interior, the chicken shawarma that was seasoned perfectly, and the pita. The pita is a marvel. These things are thick. If you are accustomed to the pita you get in the supermarket these will blow your mind. They are probably as thick as three or four of the supermarket pita stacked up. The Falafel Salam pita are fluffy and pillowy and taste great. I mentioned I visited twice, so after going to the West Seattle Farmer’s Market, I returned to get the sabich which is offered during their weekend brunch. I’ve wanted to try sabich and I’m glad this was the first place I got to try it. The eggplant was delicious and the tahini and hard boiled eggs made the sabich a very hearty sandwich. The addition of the fries was a pleasant surprise. This was all wrapped in the great pita. I’m disappointed I’m not in West Seattle more often, otherwise this would be a go-to restaurant for me. I hope to be back...

Far Too Costly; Meat Needs Improvement

Firstly, $13 is crazy for a gyro sandwich. That's exclusively for the Whole Foods market.

The meat used in the gyros is too lean, it's cut too thin, and it's lacking in seasoning. I don't expect Shawarma King levels of packed gyros, seeing that these guys make it a point to do most stuff in-house; but the small amount of meat you get for $13 is a tough proposition.

Overall, the taste and texture can't touch a traditional cheap gyro. They're popular for a reason. If you want an "upscale gyro", I'd visit Mr. Gyro.

That said, the falafel is stunning. Absolutely flawlessly executed; perfect texture, perfect seasoning, perfect fried exterior. A bit more expensive (and smaller than you'd probably want), but a perfect little morsel that pairs wonderfully with their Tzatziki sauce.

The owner seemed very passionate about his methods and product. The process he puts his potatoes through shows me that he knows a lot about food science (maximizing fry texture with starch-building). At the very least, I respect their efforts to do things the hard way.

The pita bread is interesting, but could use more salt and color. Avoid the lamb. It's dry and not at all worth the exorbitant cost. Definitely try the falafel.

Also, props for having the nicest and cleanest bathroom I've ever seen in...