Best Fallafel in Paris ?

Finishing up my field reports here.

I sampled the falafel at the restaurant across the street from the Ace (it has an odd, probably phonetically spelled Hebrew, name, but is most likely just known as the restaurant across the street from the Ace) and at the King of Falafel's shop. Both were markedly less interesting than the Ace's or Hannah's. The restaurant across the street from the Ace also has specially sized plastic bags for the pita (much appreciated for keeping the sandwich intact), like the Ace, but the product just doesn't have the Ace's zip. Ditto for the King's sandwich, which uses the dread tinfoil as well.

So, to my taste the Ace and Hannah's are the shops to beat.

Marc

Oh, and Al, I was assured that none of these candidates had any calories in them.

MARC.......It was BP's lucky day when you signed aboard. Rest assured that your efforts are above and beyond !!!!

But one thing seems to be missing. Any research on the relative caloric contents????

Follow-up. It may be akin to heresy, but to my taste, Chez Hannah is pretty much neck-and-neck with the Ace. Hannah's seemed rather better balanced, with a somewhat richer taste. The Ace's was zippier, and a little more exciting. Hannah's is messier to eat, even though they give you a fork to help out. (You can get a fork at the Ace, too, but they don't hand them out routinely.) Moreover, Hannah's is wrapped in tinfoil, which you've got to look out for while eating. (The Ace gives you the sandwich in a custom-sized plastic bag, which holds the sandwich together much more conveniently.)

Now science is telling me that to be thorough I'd better try the King's product, as well as the big stand directly across the street from the Ace. You see what I mean by sacrifice, Al?

Marc

You know how important science is to me, Al, and the sacrifices I'll make for it. So I set out for a late lunch at the Ace, hoping to go toe-to-toe with its falafel and Chez Hannah's, which claims it makes the best in the world.

(As an aside, I don't know why neither the Ace, Hannah, nor the King of Falafel [who makes no claim to being the world's best] was open when I walked home past the three of them on my way home at 2 a.m. New Year's morning. There were plenty of people about, and I'd have thought they'd have seen there was money to be made among the late-night snacking crowd. But I digress.)

Hannah was closed, however--whether because they're closed Tuesdays or because I arrived outside of regular meal hours, I didn't determine. But the Ace had a line of about a dozen people at its take-out window outside in the rue des Rosiers, and that number stayed pretty constant from 2:45 p.m. when I turned up until at least 3:15. Even at that late hour it looked like the chances of finding a sit-down place inside would have been slim to none.

With the line outside, payment was a little different than Mark Bittman described. There were two Ace employees working the line. You pay one of them for the sandwich(es) you want; he writes you up a ticket to that effect; you then give the ticket to the sandwich maker when you reach the window. The only falafel question the sandwich makers want you to answer is whether you want hot sauce on your falafel. The answer is Yes, since even with it on the sandwich isn't hot at all. Since everyone connected with the restaurant speaks four or five languages, communicating won't be a problem. (A young German couple ahead of me seemed to want to conceal their nationality, and tried to pass themselves off as Spanish speakers. But the sandwichman's Spanish was much better than theirs, and he must have heard their German accents even in Spanish, so he switched to German in mid-stream. They didn't want hot sauce. They were being foolish all around.)

Well, it was a pretty superior product. Those marinated cabbages (two colors) and cucumbers added a dimension you won't find in the States. But I'm not sure the Ace can't be taken. If I ever get to try Hannah's, I'll report whether she's just bragging, or if there's a real competitor.

Marc

When I told a friend visiting us for the holiday yesterday that we were going to the Marais for brunch and to meet us on the rue des Rosiers, her immediate remark was, "That is where I had the best Fallafel."

BILL..........You and the expert in the Times article (a food editor and recipe mavin at the Times) both "never miss" this place on a trip to Paris. Quite an endorsement ! I'll have to try it this spring.

Glad to see you back posting and enjoyed your trip report.

My wife and I have been there every time we've been to Paris and we have never been disappointed. We can't really compare it to other places in Paris (since going there we've been hooked so we haven't tried other places), but we did have some really realy super falafel from one of the stands at the Naschmarkt in Vienna.

It is claimed that L'As Du Fallafel in the Marais has the best Fallafel in all of Europe. Anybody been there to support or refute that claim? See an interesting little article in Sunday's NYTimes.


http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/trave...html?ref=travel