Midtown Lunch

I had a “tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are” moment the other day.  Fresh off my $5 pita sandwich at Shawarma Palace, I got another Pico lunch recommendation from Josh Lurie- the guy behind Food GPS.  I ran into him at my new office, and he handed me a menu for Pita Way and pointed out the half and half combo sandwich featuring shawarma and schnitzel.  Yup, you read that right.  That’s spit roast meats *and* deep fried chicken together at last- a sandwich that he said sounded right up my alley.  Translation: “I see you as a fat, disgusting pig.”  I would have been offended if I hadn’t been busy thinking “Holy shit, are you joking?  Shawarma and schnitzel on the same sandwich!?  For under $10?  That sounds like one the greatest things of all time.  I need to go eat one right now.”

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For fancified Israeli falafel, you could do a lot worse than Pita Bar & Grill on Fairfax, and for a cheap, no frills, good if you’re-starving-and-in-college-on-the-west-side falafel, Hungry Pocket is your spot.  But what about some authentic Lebanese falafel action?  For that, all signs pointed to Falafel Arax in Hollywood, the next stop on my quest to find LA’s best falafel.  Situated right next to Spicy BBQ in Thai Town (on Santa Monica and Normandie), my first Falafel Arax recommendation came in the comments courtesy of Lunch’er Katherine, and since then a bunch more people have mentioned that it could be the best falafel in all of L.A. (most agree it’s the best in Hollywood.)  Clearly it was time to check it out.

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This sign should have been a premonition.  Not all falafel sandwiches require this kind of attention to spillage, but the ones at Hungry Pocket certainly do… a fact I discovered the hard way yesterday.  Situated right across the street from Santa Monica College, HP was first brought to my attention by KCRW producer (and Profiled Midtown Lunch’er) Harriet Els, who listed it as one of her go-to lunches.  Her endorsement was less than enthusiastic (she called the falafel “decent”), but when this week’s Profiled Lunch’er Steven called it the best falafel he’s found in L.A. I knew it was time for a visit to this college student hang out.

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There’s been a lot of falafel talk on the site lately. Yesterdays Profiled Lunch’er, Rachael, asked for falafel recs in the comments, and last week’s Profiled Lunch’er, Julie, mentioned Pita Bar & Grill on Fairfax as her go-to falafel joint.  A fried chick pea ball craving was bound to follow.  My old stomping grounds was chock full of falafel (both Israeli and Lebanese mostly), but my exposure here in L.A. has been limited to a pretty bad version at Zankou.  (Stick to the chicken was the main takeaway from that lunch!)

Clearly it was time for a decent falafel lunch, so yesterday I took Lunch’er Julie’s advice and headed over to Pita Bar & Grill to check it out.

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