May | 2009 | Scrumptious Seattle

I am embarrassed to say that Hallava Falafel is less than 10 minutes from my office and even though I’ve known about the truck for over a year now, today was my first venture onto Airport Way in search of Seattle’s “best” falafel. Yelpers pretty much proclaim their love for the little Yellow truck unanimously. A pretty simple menu, falafel or Shwarma- with plentiful accompaniments. For my first time I decided to try the falafel, that is their namesake after all. For $6.50 you get a healthy sized falafel sandwich surrounded by delicious crunchy beets, salted cucumbers, sauteed peppers and drizzled with their homemade tzatzki sauce contained in a warm soft fresh pita bread slightly grilled. No gimmicks, just good homemade food. No website, just a simple Myspace page. No marketing, just word of mouth for Hallava, which according to a blog post means “hell of a sandwich” in Russian.

Upon my first bite, I thought wow, this is really good and normally I’m not even that huge of a falafel fan. After a stint as a vegetarian for many years, I find myself gravitating towards meat especially a gyro over the normally dry and flavorless falafel. But, this is different, moist spicy and rich with flavor. Plus, its not the token soggy lettuce, bland tomatoes and overly rich yogurt sauce that most often is associated with the Middle Eastern sandwich. Instead of devouring my sandwich in a few bites, which honestly I could of easily done, I utilized some self restraint and waited to get back to my desk to enjoy while catching up on my google reader. To be honest I couldn’t really taste the tomato zucchini spread, but that’s OK because I normally dislike zucchini. I would rate this for sure in my top food eats in the past month and one of the best sandwiches I have tried in a long time. The complexity of spices, flavor and texture is well rounded, not one overwhelming taste. And the pickle, yum! Tasty bits as a friend would say. I am for certain going back to the little yellow truck.