Saturday, September 19, 2009

Falafel King - Minneapolis, MN

CLOSED Sept 2014(?)

701 W Lake St

The teenage boy cashier at the ordering counter says he will bring the food to me. I see the prepared food in trays behind the glass display. Typical of a place that serves gyros, there are two rotisseries with gyro meat. So I thought it would be  few moments, especially with only a few patrons.


We grabbed a table and sat about 7 minute thinking it's already too long. I went to the counter and watched for a few minutes. I see food being scooped out and believe it's our food, watching the server/preparer place the items  on the plate. Except that it's not. The teen cashier takes the plates to the table next to where we seated ourselves. He  returns as we continue to watch the server/preparer work on the next order again believing its ours. I watch for a few more minutes as the server/preparer seems flustered by my presence. The cashier tells me he'll bring our food so I return to our table.

I don't intend to eavesdrop but I'm listening to the table to our left. They're slowly picking at the food without enthusiasm. They make small talk and they seem to be going through the motion of eating, because they paid for the food.

A couple arrived and have ordered and sat at the table to our right. Another 10 minutes have passed. The couple get their food before we do. What??? They sit and eat silently. I get the same feeling watching them as I do watching the table to our left. They have the same joyless expressions and body language as the table to our left. They aren't saying anything about the food.

Our food finally arrived another 10 minutes later. No apologies for the delay. This better be worth the wait and the money. The platter is penny short of ten bucks. Falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, salad, salad and fries. In the background with a third of a plate shown is a gyro for $8.

The falafel was hard on the outside. The inside is pistachio green and more dry than moist. It's mildly flavorful and lukewarm. The hummus tastes thin and lacks complexity. The Baba Ghanoush was the best thing on the plate. The fries were dry.

I grabbed a slice of the gyro meat. Not bad but comparatively, this was the lowest grade gyro I've had in the TC area.

Owner's teen kids strong armed to work in the restaurant often have a "this is the last place on earth I want to be at" attitude. I'm assuming this was the owner's kid.

Mediocre food, overpriced, and bad service - the trinity reasons to reject a restaurant.

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