Falafel Maison

Restaurant: Falafel Maison
Cuisine: Middle Eastern/Fast Food
Last visited: February 28, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/Robson)
516 Robson Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4 (based on shawarma)
Service: 5
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Family owned and operated
• Fast food on Robson
• Specializes in falafel and shawarma
• Late night/munchies
• Very friendly service
• Quick and cheap eats
• Eat in/Take-out
• Mon-Sun 10am-11pm

**Recommendation: Shawarma, Hummus, Shawarma Plate (I haven’t tried the Falafels, but they should be good)

I decided to hit up Falafel Maison for a late night bite after winning the Olympic 2010 GOLD for Canada Men’s Hockey!! I had originally been craving donairs but settled for a shawarma.

Donair and shawarma are different, but it’s debatable what the exact differences are. For me, donairs are made up of ground meat and shawarma is pieces of whole meat. The shawarma is more of a Middle Eastern/Turkish item and the Donair I find is more Greek. Vancouver is full of donair and shawarma places in the downtown core and Falafel Maison is one of the popular ones…I’m not sure if it’s the best though because I surprisingly haven’t tried many in Vancouver.

I must give a shout out to the owners who are super nice, friendly young guys that treat everyone like family.

On the table:

**Shawarma 4/6

• Chicken, lettuce, tabouleh, hummus & yogurt sauce wrapped in pita. Optional hot sauce. I think it’s about $5.50
• Hot, fresh, made upon order.
• They spread a layer of hummus onto the pita first. It’s good creamy hummus but I could have used more. It was very subtle and had a garlic flavour.
  

• They load it with iceberg lettuce and tabouleh, but the tabouleh wasn’t very good here. It’s a traditional Middle Easter salad that’s mixed with vegetables, olive oil or spices. It was pretty much plain parsley here. I didn’t expect gourmet, but I expected a little more than this.
• They give you a little bit of tomato, but not enough.

• There’s a large amount of shaved chicken which is tender, juicy, moist and actually quite spicy. It's very well marinade with lots of spices. They do a great job with the rotisserie style roasting too.

• Last is the yogurt sauce. It’s not like tzatziki, but it’s more garlicky and also a bit spicy.
• There’s an optional hot sauce you can get which I think is used in the chicken marinade as well.
• Overall the shawarma was very good, but it was a bit dry for me. The pita was dry and although the meat was quite juicy it got lost with all the veggies. There's lots of ingredients, but when it's all rolled up I tasted a lot of pita and parsley.
• I definitely wanted more hummus and next time I’ll ask for extra yogurt sauce.

Zankou Chicken

Restaurant: Zankou Chicken
Cuisine: Mediterranean/American
Last visited: August 9, 09

Area: Multiple, California
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: 3
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• Only available in California
• Fresh, natural, healthy, super casual fast food chain
• No cans, freezers, microwaves, or preservatives
• Freshly baked daily pita
• Really juicy and flavourful chicken
  
• Famous for chicken with their homemade garlic spread - must try!!
  
• Homemade hummus and falafels
• Garlic flavour in everything, simple recipes
  
• Voted "Best Fast Food" "Best Cheap Eats" etc.
• Since 1962

**Recommendation: Any chicken plate WITH garlic spread, Chicken Tarna wrap

Ok so healthy fast food is hard to find - but this place is great and yes it's pretty healthy. I mean there's still oil, but its not super greasy or anything. Really good, fresh and natural ingredients. Hole in the wall feel, but it's a chain and it's always busy. Famous for their secret family recipe garlic spread and chicken, don't miss out on this fast food eatery!

On the table:

• **1/2 White Chicken Plate - 6.99USD 6/6
  
• 1/2 rotisserie chicken, served with hummus, diced tomatoes, garlic spread, pickles & pita bread
• The chicken is juicy, tender, flavorful, and moist with a crispy golden brown skin - cooked to perfection
• Chicken is all natural and delivered daily
• **Garlic Spread 6/6
  
• This gets its own review because its so delicious!
  
• Secret family recipe it comes in a simple little white sealed plastic container
• It looks, bland and boring, but its AMAZING!
• It looks like finely minced garlic, almost looks clear - it's not really a butter even though there's butter in it, but more of a spread...SOOO good! It doesn't have that spiciness fresh garlic has though, it is fresh garlic, but it's not so fresh that it still carries that spicy flavour. Use it on your pita, chicken - on everything!
  
• **Hummus & Pita 4/6
• The hummus is made of all natural ingredients: garbonzo beans, fresh garlic, sesame seeds and olive oil
• It's good! I could eat it on its own. It's so fresh and smooth in texture. Simple recipe, and simple tastes good!
• Pita - served warm. Baked fresh daily.
• Impressive for a fast food chain to actually take the time to bake and make these things that they could easily buy and serve.
• Tri-Tip Shawerma wrap - 4.99USD 2/6
• Marinated and flame broiled USDA choice tri-tip, diced tomatoes, and tahini wrapped in pita bread
• Good, but the other stuff was better - I found it a bit dry actually...which is surprising because usually it's easier to dry out a chicken when you cook it - but the chicken was so moist it made this one taste dry
• **Chicken Tarna Wrap - 4.99USD 6/6
  
• THIS was my favourite!! Marinated and flame broiled chicken, diced tomatoes, and garlic spread wrapped in pita bread.
• For me, it was better than chicken + garlic spread. Each bite was so full of flavour so it doesn't need anymore filler in the wrap, I really enjoyed this! The chicken is all shredded and the taste was a bit tangy. You couldn't pick out the exact flavours, but it had this tangy bite you'll crave for even after you leave.
• Falafel Plate 8.29USD 4/6
  
• 5 falafels served with hummus, tahini, diced tomatoes & shredded lettuce. Pickles and pita bread included.
• Yes it sounds a bit more expensive for a fast food chain, but these are homemade.
• Not a must try for me, because I've had better - Mona's Mezza Bistro in Vancouver. The BEST homemade falafels I've ever had. Zankou falafels are simple - made of natural garbonzo beans grounded up and then fried. I'm sure they use a very simple recipe and it comes with this tahini dip which is nice. You need it or the falafels may get boring after 3.