Midtown Lunch

A couple of weeks ago, one of our Profiled Lunch’ers mentioned her love of a falafel plate (with extra white sauce) from Adel’s Halal cart at Maiden Lane & Front St. Lo and behold, we’ve never written about the cart’s falafel, only gave it a shout out in a review of their lamb/chicken over rice. There’s always a line in front of the cart which isn’t too common at halal carts in the Financial District unless you’re Sam’s Falafel or Alan’s Falafel – both of which put out great food, so it would make sense that if there’s also a line at Adel’s there must be a reason.

There are more decisions to be made at this cart when you order a rice plate than how much white or hot sauce you want. You must specify a type of rice as there are four options, and you need to decide which of the vegetable options you want (be warned that all of them are raw, including the onion). I went with spicy brown rice which seems to be the most popular option, and got all of the vegetables including carrot, onion, lettuce, tomato and plain chickpeas, but left off the broccoli.

The falafel is the last thing to be put on the plate, which costs $5, and I liked the touch of the squishing the orbs with the tongs as they were taken out of the fryer basket. Also, this was some killer falafel! It had good taste, wasn’t soggy and they give you seven balls when a lot of places give five or six. The rice was also great, although not particularly spicy.

So what did I think the flaws were here? Well, the vegetables were pretty weak, and I could have used some hummus or something to jazz things up. I found myself comparing this plate to the one at Alan’s Halal cart at Water St. & Old Slip which has excellent falafel, and tops it off with homemade tahini and hummus, also for $5. If you work in between these two carts and want falafel, I’m going to say Alan’s has the edge.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• They squish the falafel after they’re fried which is an interesting touch.
• There are four different kinds of rice to choose from.
• They load you up with a variety of vegetables.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• The falafel plate could use some hummus or real tahini.
• Why are you giving me raw onions and carrot?

Adel’s Halal cart, corner of Maiden Lane & Front St.