| |
House of Falafel
(Mediterranean cuisine)
$
|
9
JaT Rating |
408-736-3747
|
|
|
     
 
|
| Mediterranean restaurant serves fast, tasty, big portions. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 10/18/2006
Rating: 9
My photo gallery
|
Having been a loyal customer to the Cupertino location, I was excited to hear a new House of Falafel had opened up in Sunnyvale. It's near Fry's electronics so it's a perfect nerd combo in the making. The new location sports a larger seating area with odd shaped mirrors on the walls and huge speaker system. I think I counted 6 large speakers which leads me to believe this place might double as a club at night?
Since I bought lunch the previous day, Terry was buying and I ordered the chicken shish plate ($8.99) with a drink. The plate comes with 2 full pita breads cut, rice, salad, hummus, and 2 skewers of chicken. The pitas came in an uncovered red basket and if you know my germophobia, I can only wish they would use a paper tissue between the container and the food. (I hope you guys are listening).
rice - I love their fluffy rice mixed with orzo. I've never had a bad batch and can eat this forever.
salad - mixed greens with tomatoes and red onions. If I'm making a pita sandwich, this stuff goes over the meats and topped off with hot sauce and tahini.
hummus - blended and mild tasting. Not very runny nor is it overwhelmed with garlic which I believe many restaurants overdo. They give you a nice serving of this stuff which is always welcomed in my book.
chicken shish - cubes of white meat separated by onions skewered over a grill. Cooked till juicy, eaten until gone. Easily a repeat order. If you're confused between the shawarma and shish, the shawarma is the one on the rotating spit and normally mixed white/dark meat, and topped with orange or tomato, and onions. The shish is a kabob over the fire grill. Both are excellent tasting dishes and I normally order the shawarma since it contains more fat drippings.
Sunnyvale HOF did not disappoint and delivered the wonderful foods. I happy with what I ordered and glad to see other people enjoying their meals too. As always, the prices are excellent and portion sizes are even better. Guaranteed to get full without breaking the bank. The seating area is 2-3x larger than the Cupertino location but believe the parking situation to be much more difficult during the lunch rush. House of Falafel is on a roll and let's hope they continue their much deserved success.
|
| |
Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 10/18/2006
Rating: 9
My photo gallery
|
I was a bit disappointed to see that the second House of Falafel location was in this strip mall. It is one of the most crowded in town, mostly due to the St. Johns nearby. The exterior reminded me of some high tech discounter outlet. I saw our review in the window (come on, this review is for a different location!). I saw the interior disco speakers and mirrors. What kind of place is this? My initial impressions were kind of low.
I went with my standard HoF order: the Veggie plate. I grabbed some dirty silverware from the counter, and sat at the cleanest table i could find: it still had some crumbs on it from previous patrons.
I was seriously thinking this place would rate an 8, tops. Then my plate arrives. Oh my god. This was like a Jonathans Fish and Chips experience. Its just better than you can remember it being. I forgot all of the minor nitpicks I detailed above. I forgot everything and melted into the heavenly bliss of the best damn Middle Eastern food in the bay area. And no, I am not just saying that because they put up our reviews in the windows. This stuff is LEGIT.
The hummus is probably the weakest part of the dish. I can get better stuff at Habibi in Fremont, but this is still solid stuff. Very rich and not overly bean-tasting. The falafel balls are legendary here, and fried up perfectly. The baba ganoush (usually not a favorite of mine) was done incredible here. It finished every little scrap. Pitas were standard, yet still fresh tasting. The tabouli was fantastic, full of flavor. The cool dolmas melted in my mouth. I scavenged my plate completely and could have eaten another full plate of this stuff, even though I was full. I seriously could not make myself stop eating.
I attribute the crumbs on the tables and the water spots on the silverware to growing pains of a new establishment. The food makes you forget these minor dirtiness, as they came into town to win, and its all about the food here. Trust me.
|
| |
|
|
Reviewer: Stevetacular
Total Reviews: 25
Reviewed: 11/26/2006
Rating: 8
My photo gallery |
I went here Saturday night just because I didn't feel like having a greasy burger at St. John's (although it WAS 1/2 burgers off day...hmmm...). My friends and I get in and it was literally empty so this either means:
A. Not many people no about it/it's busier during lunch hours.
or
B. This could be disastrous.
I was hoping for the former situation. I ordered the Lamb Shawarma Lamb Combo Plate. What after seemed for quite a while (Probably around 10 minutes or more) my friends and I get our food. I must say they sure love to pile on the meat at this place. I mean seriously there was lamb under every piece of lettuce, rice, etc. Pita bread was also brought out, and I was hoping that there would be a napkin at the bottom or SOMETHING to divide the bread with the tray, but it wasn't necessary.
The lamb on its own was very good and it seemed like there would be enough lamb for several pita sandwiches. However, in conjunction with the salad, hummus, rice, and hot sauce this was a great meal. All the ingredients are very good on their own, but when they are all combined they're even better. After I finished my plate I tried some of my friend's chicken shawarma and that too was quite good.
With all this said, I would have given them a higher score, but I would like to have the location a bit closer than they are. However, if you live pretty close to the location or don't mind driving then there's no reason why you should miss out on this place. |
| |
Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 84
Reviewed: 8/10/2007
Rating: 8
My photo gallery |
After hearing all the praise on Jatbar, I visited HoF in Sunnyvale at high noon on a Monday. Parking was a bit of a pain, but I found a spot in a few minutes. The line inside was pretty big and growing fast, though ordering was pretty quick and efficient. I ordered the falafel plate and took a seat. Three minutes later I had my food, consisting of 5 large falafel balls, hummus and salad. The falafel balls were fresh and quite tasty, but just a tad on the dry side for me, maybe an 8 out of 10. The hummus was very thick and dense and not that impressive. I like something a little more fresher tasting and not quite as thick. This didn't stop me from scraping my plate, which was tough considering the large amount of food they gave me. And it cost me just $6 and change. Good value. 8 points so far.
Apparently the word is out on this place, because as I sat down the line became huge and pretty much stayed that way until I left. All tables were claimed, so people who wanted to eat there were out of luck. I was glad I got there before the rush.
On my next visit here, it was around 1 pm, the line was small, and there were plenty of open tables. However, I was in a hurry so ordered a lamb schwarma wrap to go. I waited about 5 minutes and received my wrap. The first thing I noticed was how light it was...uh oh. Then I got back to the office and opened it up. Hmmm...still feeling very light. This was not a big wrap and they were not very generous with the meat. Kind of a ripoff for $6.48. The meat itself was on the dry side, but was fairly tender. This was just a so-so wrap. I had to add some yogurt sauce to liven it up a bit. In the end it left me a bit hungry and I bought some chips from the machine. Not good value this time. Kinda disappointing based on my expectations. This meal rates 7 points.
On my third visit I ordered the combo shish kebab plate with lamb and chicken. The chicken was about the best I've had: nicely flavored and cooked perfectly. The lamb was just OK. The salad and rice they gave me was on the small side, though the rice was cooked perfectly. Hummus was the same as before, not that impressive. Maybe an 8 for this meal. Once again, line was small when I arrived but was huge by 12:15 or so.
On my most recent visit I tried the chicken schwarma wrap. This was a bit better than my previous lamb wrap and filled with slightly more meat. It was good but nothing spectacular. Maybe a 7.5. I prefer the wrap from Mediterranean Wraps in Palo Alto.
Rereading other reviews of this place, I see that people have raved about the large portions, but I haven't found this to be true at all, with the possible exception of my first meal here.
Tempted to give this place a 7.5 but I'll be nice and bump it one level.
Pros: Decent food, nice selection
Cons: Very long lines at peak lunch hour; disappointing hummus; smallish wraps |
| |
Reviewer: Humbucker
Total Reviews: 11
Reviewed: 10/16/2006
Rating: 9
My photo gallery |
I've been to the new House of Falafel location twice now, and was a devoted fan of the original in Cupertino. The new branch is a little hard to find since it isn't visible from Lawrence. Both times I went I got the chicken schwarma wrap. This space has much more seating that the Cupertino branch, and while still very much a zero-ambience dive, it seems like it'd be a more comfortable place to eat in. It appears they rent the place out for private events, as the second time I went they were setting up for a hundred-person party (luckily, I just dropped in for take out). The food seems to be the same as the original, with no increase in prices or decrease in quality or portion size, so HoF remains my favorite middle eastern/mediterranean eatery. I'm looking forward to trying the new weekend special they advertise, which will be different dishes from whatever region the proprietors are from (I really should find out since I love this place so much) that aren't part of the normal offerrings. I'm so happy that there are now HoFs conveniently located off of 280 and 101! |
| |
|
|
| Disclaimer |
|
|
