I was passing by Bechara El-Khoury a few days ago when I noticed Just Falafel will soon be opening there close to Falafel Sahyoun.
I recall hearing about Just Falafel from some of my friends living in Dubai, and what basically makes it special is that it offers various Falafel mixes which are Lebanese, Indian, Greek, Egyptian, Emirati, Italian, Mexican, and Japanese.
Let’s see how will it taste compared to our local Falafel joints such as Sahyoun or Khalife for example…
Tried it yesterday and it totally sucks! The falafel doesn’t taste at all like falafel and it is even not well baked. The staff are very unprofessional at making the sandwich as if they have never ever a made falafel sandwich. From the way they make it you can tell it wont taste good, simply because falafel is an art, tradition and has its masters, it can never become the way they’re turning it to.
Even more, they got their place right next to Sahyoun, that’s such a devious plan in order to catch as many of his loyal customers on their way to his place.
If you want the real taste of falafel and experience originality try falafel Sahyoun or Khalifeh which in my opinion is the best in town, i tried every single one so far and think that’s the best.
Whenever I think about falafel in Lebanon, I directly think Khalifeh or Sahyoun, with Barbar coming at a close third. When I first heard about Just Falafel, I was sort of defiant to the concept of a falafel fast food place. To me it seemed ludicrous to take something that traditional and meddle with it. There is nothing like having a full on falalfel sandwich with lefit (pink turnip pickles), pickled pepper, some fresh mint and coriander, ripe tomatoes and a splash of tahine all barely wrapped in Arabic bread, obviously with a cold soft drink to accompany that. With all that in mind, I am a food lover so I decided to try Just Falafel.
Stopping right before Sahyoun, I walked into Just Falafel, with the store resembling any other fast food place, which was refreshing seeing that I was just about to buy falafel. There was a healthy variety of falafel choices ranging from a traditional falafel to a Japanese falafel. I decided to go a bit exotic and go for the Japanese. It took a while to get my order defeating the whole purpose of a fast food place but like any other new operation it was understandable as the staff get used to the operation. I finally got my sandwich, more like a wrap actually with my fries and soft drink. Getting fries with your falafel sparked my first sign of resistance to this concept, because falafel is not supposed to be eaten with fries. Furthermore, the Japanese falafel has avocado, wasabi mayo, sweet chilli sauce, and tomatoes, certainly a weird mix, and I have to admit I didn’t have great expectations. I had my first bite, and then it really all made sense. The bread was toasted to the right temperature, the bite size falafels just big enough to be satisfying and filling and small enough to spare you the annoyance when eating, and that weird combination was actually delicious. Eating away and indulging into the fast food experience, it only made sense to have the fries. Not filling but satisfying, not too greasy but juicy enough, and the amazing mix of sauces and ingredients was just spot on; it felt like the first time I had a mushroom swiss burger and thought to myself, oh you can actually do that to burgers, but a little more extreme version of that.
By no means is JustFalafel a substitute to the traditional falafel store, and neither is it an attack or our heritage. This is actually none sense. What it is is a transformation of our heritage; its taking a traditional food and making it more appealing, more exciting, and more accessible and for that I congratulate them. I will always have my cravings for a Sahyoun falafel sandwich, but I am happy to say that I have developed a new falafel craving, and that is JustFalafel.
You honestly sound like you work for Just Falafel!
LOl.. that what I was thinking!
I honestly didn’t like it at all, I thought the taste of the falafel was disgusting. I would definitely go Sahyoun for a falafel but never again to JustFalafel. Also I though it was annoying of them to have opened next to Sahyoun. And one more thing, the fact that the place and meaning of the place just removes entirely the home/family/warm feeling when you enter a local falafel store. I felt no comfort whatsoever. If they want open, open somewhere else but no in Lebanon.
I tried one the other day @ citymall.
You can not go into a franchise & expect to have a “home made / Traditional” taste, can you?
Personally I don’t mind changing the flavors (kicks) of any food, actually I do like it, a lot. If I want the taste of the traditional Falafel the ones mentioned above + Falafel Arax are the ones that I do eat, but JustFalafel was a good, different, maybe odd too experience that will repeat!!