Taim Falafels

Happy New Year! Let’s start 2008 off right with a tasty review of Taim’s Falafel’s. Taim is a tiny tiny restaurant in the west village that only seats 4 or 5 (you can eat there alone because all the seats face the window or the wall). The majority of the business is take out and delivery, but we opted to dine-in (we were the only ones there since it was the first big snowfall of the year and no one wanted to leave their apartment). Taim has a surprisingly large amount of offerings (how do they make everything in that small kitchen?!):

If you can read the menu, you can tell that it’s a lot more expensive than Mamoun’s or Chickpea, but everything is carefully prepared by the Israeli husband and wife team that own Taim. Chris and I decided to share the mixed platter (the best of all worlds since you can sample a bit of everything) and an order of fries. Our platter:

The mixed platter is a great deal because you can sample the three different types of falafels – green (traditional), red (with roasted red peppers), and harissa (with special Tunisian spices). Out of the three, I liked the harissa falafel’s the most, but the green and the red falafels were really good, too. The mixed platter also came with an assortment of sauces (the oil that was also brushed on the pitas, a cucumber sauce, and a honey/mustard-type dipping sauce). The hummus was also DELICIOUS (especially compared to Mamoun’s, where I occasionally think my tongue is burning off from the amount of salt they add to the hummus) and the tabbouleh salad is the perfect amount of parsley and Bulgur (the grain).

We weren’t sure if the falafel platter was going to fill both of us up, so we ordered a side of french fries with saffron aoili:

The fries were fresh out of the fryer (yay!) and the slightly sweet saffron aoili was a perfect complement to the salty fries. Chris REALLY liked the aoili…and wanted me to let my readers know that you should get an extra helping of aoili with the fries (that’s how good it is).

My favorite part of the dish was the tasty pita brushed with oil and wonderful toppings:

The pita was HOT, oily, and delicious. The bread was very fluffy (but still chewy) and the hot oil that was brushed onto the pita made it SO much better than the regular pita bread restaurants usually serve. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to return to Mamoun’s!!

Taim also offers a wide assortment of smoothies, teas, and coffees:

It’s a small shop, but it’s definitely worth the trip (and if they deliver to your area, you never even have to step out of your apartment!).