Baguette Express Brings Their Kosher Brooklyn Falafel Stand to Midtown
A new little kosher falafel & sandwich nook has popped up on 37th Street btw. 5+6th. The owner used to have a small restaurant in Brooklyn, until his customers encouraged him to move to Midtown. With Olympic Pita (on 38th btw. 5+6th) and Crisp (on 40th btw. B’way+6th) just a few blocks away, and Maoz coming soon to Broadway and 40th, Midtown South is starting to get a little falafel heavy. But the price is right, and everything is Kosher so who knows? You can probably never have too much falafel in Midtown.
I couldn’t decide between their baguette sandwiches (pastrami, corned beef, etc.), their schnitzel (fried chicken cutlets) or their falafel. But in the end the falafel won out. (You’ve got to start with the basics.)
A pretty standard Israeli style falafel, the guy behind the counter scooped and fried the balls to order. They were perfectly crunchy on the outside, and really moist on the inside- with a very nice flavor. The pita was the fluffy circular type, and would have been better just a little bit warm. Plus they were kind of skimpy on the Israeli salad- but the taste was good, and for $5 it’s tough to complain.
The guy before me got a schnitzel baguette ($6.95) which I must say looked pretty tasty, and I’d be interested in trying their sabich (although the eggplant in their steam table didn’t look amazing.) Nothing at Baguette Express is going to replace the falafel in fresh baked laffa from Olympic Pita, but if I worked right by this place it would probably get added into the rotation.
Baguette Express, 25 W. 37th Street (btw. 5+6th), 212-944-9800
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:45 am, May 27th, 2009 under Falafel, Kosher, Middle Eastern.
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6 Comments
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That looks pretty tastey
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Yessss…Mama….don’t you find that the lighter and firmer the balls, the more flavorful…nothing like taking in that grassy essence as you cradle them, making sure you hold the whole package firmly..but not too tight now, making sure you catch any stray drips with your velvety tongue…savoring the turgid lettuce and firm yet pliant tomatoes… caressing the smooth dusty pita before devouring the entire package with an animalistic hunger…. yessssss …. yessss….
Eh, I’m more of a kebab man myself.
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Looks like wayne has been sneaking into daddy’s medicine cabinet again…..
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No Schwarma? I may drop by there for the Schnitzel once, but I’m likely to stick with Pick-a-Pita and Kosher Deluxe.
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I was really in the mood for something meat or chicken-y for lunch the other day so I made plans to meet my friend Emily. We decided to check out Baguette Express, a relatively new sandwich place on 37th between 5th and 6th. The place is a tiny hole in the wall with no seating. You walk in and there is a counter in front of you with a brief and basic menu hanging above it. They do sandwiches. That’s it. You pick your meat (or schnitzel or falafel), you pick your bread (looked like baguettes, whole wheat baguettes, and pita), you pick some salad toppings (of the Israeli variety – including grilled eggplant, fried onions, Israeli salad, olives, Israeli pickles etc) and some sauces / dressings, and then you take your sandwich and go. Emily ordered falafel in a pita. I had schnitzel on a whole wheat baguette (like that makes it healthy) with hummus, pickles, fried onions and BBQ sauce. We took our lunches out to Broadway and sat on the benches on the new pedestrian walkway. My sandwich was tasty. The BBQ sauce added a particularly good flavor. Of course, this was no Chickies (in Teanec), but for a local lunchtime chicken sandwich, pretty good. I would go back.
http://whatrebeccaateforlunchtoday.blogspot.com/2009/08/day-61-another-new-ish-option-for.html
What was the color of the falafal ball’s inside? The best falafels I’ve had were bright green on the inside due to all the fresh herbs.