Taim Falafel & Smoothie Bar

While in New York City recently, Judy and I met with my sister-in-law, Mary, and we took the subway to Greenwich Village to go to Taim Falafel & Smoothie Bar located at 222 Waverly Place, between 11th Street and Perry Street (phone: 212-691-1287), a restaurant recommended in a guidebook for having amazing falafel. 

The restaurant was tiny, large enough for a couple of people to stand and order and about six people to sit on bar stools pulled up to a ledge table beneath the front window. I've never been particularly wowed by falafel, I've tried it several times and it is okay, but not something I would generally order because I like it. However, I've now found a place where I would actually buy falafel because I do like it. We ordered the mixed falafel platter with three kinds of falafel: the first kind was green (traditional) which is garbanzo beans or chick peas mixed with parsley, cilantro and mint; the second kind was brown or Harissa (mildly spicy) with Tunisian hot chili sauce, including piri piri chili peppers, serrano peppers and olive oil; and the third kind was red (mild), with roasted red pepper. 

The three kinds of falafel looked different on the outside and inside and tasted quite a bit different from each other. The platter also came with hummus; tabouli, made of parsley, mint, onions and tomatoes; Israeli salad made of tomatoes and cucumber; 

two types of sauce, a green hot sauce and a yellow amba, which is spiced mango chutney; and fresh pita bread. 

I stuffed at least one of each kind of falafel in the pita bread, added some hummus, tabouli and Israeli salad and a little of each kind of sauce. 

It was really excellent. I liked both the Harissa and red falafel better than the green. We also got two types of home-made lemonade, one with brown sugar and one with ginger and mint, which was the best. As I'm doing this post, I find that Taim is ranked number 35 out of 6,958 restaurants in New York City on Trip Advisor and it gets 4 1/2 stars on Yelp.