I'm talking about Falafel: a food review

let's eat this thing

a side-view of Chez Marianne's

a sukkah in the Jewish Quartier

where I like to eat said sandwich

the competition

can you see that hot little falafel fritter in there under all that other
goodness? hell yes, if you look for it!

oh chez marianne's.
thank you for your to the point service, but delicious food.

I think amongst tourists who come to Paris there is a consensus that L'as du Fallafel is the falafel place in the Jewish Quarter in Paris, as if there were no others. Not that I'm against the level of deliciousness coming from their quick and over-burdened mis-en-place on the rue des Rosiers, I just like Chez Marianne's more, just around the corner, where the layers of pickled cabbage salad, spiced cucumber and tomatoes, shaved slices of sweet onions, a creamy bed of fresh hummus beneath the small soft, tender garlicky falafel balls steaming and nestled on top, (yeah I said balls, steaming and nestle in the same sentence), with a delicious piling on of tender, surrendering eggplant artfully draped on top, a squirt of hot and yogurt sauce and I always put a few tiny cornichons, offered at the counter, on top for good measure. That big package-inside a freshly baked pita unlike any pita I've seen here in NY (sorry Sahadis), is enough for me and the line is much shorter because those guidebooks don't always know what's good.

I just like my experience there more, where I can duck around the corner and eat my falafel outside against the old school and enjoy one of my favorite lunches in all of the world, this one, at Chez Marianne's. But I always root for the (incredibly delicious) underdog.