De Falafel, Rotterdam
Looking for a quick lunch in downtown Rotterdam? We chose De Falafel, which is situated right outside the metro station Beurs. It’s a tiny place with only 5 seats as most people get their falafel to go. The falafel here is freshly made – there is a bowl of batter and the lady behind the counter uses an ice cream scoop to portion and place the falafels in the hot oil. The result is crispy falafels with great flavor.
You get four falafels in your pita sandwich. You can go for the traditional white pita, or if you’re feeling healthy, take a brown pita. There is a topping bar that holds a selection of various pickled items, vegetables, chili sauces, sweet sauce, sesame sauce, and garlic sauce. The toppings are all quite good so select whatever you feel like having that day. I usually go for chili (second from bottom left in picture) and pickled cabbage. I like eating my pita there because when you get halfway through, your toppings are all gone and you’re just left with falafel and bread. So I head back to the topping bar and refill my pita generously.
At €4,80 for a falafel pita, it’s not the cheapest ‘sandwich’ you can get, but it is worth it because the flavors are great. A couple that came in when we were almost done had a long discussion in Spanish about the price of the falafel, of course we eavesdropped. Afterwards we did our own calculation about raw ingredients and buying it in bulk… then we stopped ourselves: don’t go there. It’s like thinking about the cost of popcorn at a movie theatre. It’s corn. Do you know how cheap corn is? In the end, I’m not going to put in the effort of making my own falafels and pickling 5-6 different vegetables, so I will gladly pay for my falafel at De Falafel.