Falafel

a nice little hangout you could easily pass by. strongly recommended for it’s delicious food, friendly staff and soothing mint tea. enjoy! also great for vegetarians…

My friend and I had our first falafel in Manchester and I must say they were delicious!
The venue wasn’t spectacular, looked rather dull, bright light and some Arabic kitsch on the wall but all in all I would definitely come back again for a snack (it is pretty cheap as well).

Just to say that I lunched again here on a falafel with mixed mezze plate (see photos) and standards are still high on all fronts — falafel, bread and mezze.
A return visit is also in order as the boss here has explained that another vegetarian option is ‘sauce’ with rice. Basically, they make a different vegetable stew fresh every day — green beans, tomatoes, okra and so on — which can be had as is as a vegetarian dish or served as a sauce over a non-​vegetarian dish. And the price for the sauce and rice is £3.50 or something — win!

Falafel is one of the original arabic restaurants/​fast food outlets at a time when every other shop was selling curry. After coming back to manchester for the first time in a long while I was surprised to see quite a few more arabic style shops open. I tried a few of them but nothing can beat good olé falafel. I love the new additions they added since my absence, such as the falafel meal and the spicy potato fatayer with cheese, plus the old favourites. Amazing place, with excellent food, and the staff are always happy to oblige my questions on arabic food and culture. I even practice my arabic with them! A* place!

The best just got better — oh do try the spicy potatoes. My mother and I ordered two falafel sandwiches alongside a tub of tabbouleh and a massively densely packed tub of the spicy potatoes, and the whole thing still only came to a tenner!
Falafel, will you please open up an equally awesome branch of your restaurant in Withington? K, thanks. Hugs!

Good staff, clean and top food

Used to love this place but then the guy on the til short changed me by £10 and was really really rude and shit about it so I’m never going again.

Falafel is, without doubt, one of my favourite places in Manchester.
Admittedly, it isn’t the most handsome of places to eat, but you shouldn’t look at this place like a restaurant as it’s more of a café.
And what a café it is! Instead of being faced with the most dreary, predictable stodge, Falafel does (surprise, surprise) falafel. For a frankly insultingly cheap amount of money, you can buy really brilliant falafel sandwiches, which basically is a light naan filled with hummus, salad, chillies and falafels. They are amazing.
Alongside the falafel (which I recommend to absolutely anyone who will listen to me) there’s mint tea, fatayer and other bits that are great.
There’s some room to sit in smallish groups if a few of you need a feed en masse and the chaps who work there are speedy and nice enough to welcome you in.
Basically, stop reading this and get to Falafel as soon as you can. It’s one of the best places in Manchester bar none.

There seems to be a lot of love for Falafel floating about and I can totally see why. Nestled in the centre of Rusholme, between hundreds of Curry Houses, Chicken shops, and assorted other greasy takeaways; Falafel is such a breath of fresh air.
Serving all things Mediterranean from Falafel (obviously) to Tahini, Tabuleh and Mezze aplenty; it’s fresh, it’s healthy and it’s really wonderfully tasty.
It would be wrong to go in and not have a falafel; and why not? They are great! You can have it as a sandwich in a Kobeda wrap, or as part of a salad or as an accompaniment to a plate of Mezze.
Personally, I would say that the Mezze plate here is the best option as you get a plate piled high with weird and wonderful salads, olives, stuffed vine leaves, hummous etc AND some falafel on the side. Filling, good for you and not even expensive. Lat time I went, I had a falafel sandwich and a salad and it came to less than a fiver — what’s not to like?

I love falafel, so this takeaway and café appealed to me from the moment I saw it! Hidden away between rows of Indian restaurants, it sells a huge range of Palestinian goodies, from tasty falafel and salads to pots of refreshing mint tea, all at wonderfully cheap prices.
Now this place is all about the food. So, unlike some of the restaurants it neighbours, you won’t find any red carpets, chandeliers or elaborate decorations here. Instead, there are cheap plastic tables and booths where you can have a chat with friends as you stuff yourself with hot falafel.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, falafel.
I love falafel. I remember in first year, Tea Snob Friend kept talking about falafel, and I, being an ignorant country bumpkin, asked what it was. She described it and I, being a bumpkin who had recently fallen off the vege-​wagon and considered a meal without meat a waste of saliva, was incredulous. I insisted that I would never ever eat this gross confection of pulses.
Then, but a week later, we were drunkenly walking down Rusholme, and a smell caught hold of me. I followed the smell, pulling excitedly at TSF’s arm and dragged her into… Falafel.
Best. Takeaway. Ever.
From then on, I was in love with falafel, namely the falafel from Falafel. It’s just so tasty and cheap. For sober luncheon times, for less than a fiver you can grab a falafel roll, chips, olives (huge amount!) and a pot of mint tea. Purely lovely.
I’ve never ordered the pizzas that they sell here, because… why would I? The falafel here is great. Even for country bumpkins…

The main reason I can think of to go to this takeaway would be for the falafel, and that’s a pretty good reason, all things considered. It’s not the sort of thing that would normally be my cup of tea, as it contains no meat, but who knew chickpeas could taste so nice?
The rest of the menu caters firmly for Arabian dishes, with a few pizzas tacked on for broader market appeal. It’s a simple design option, but it does well judging by the number of people in whenever I pass it. The problem with the curry mile is picking a takeaway from the hundreds available, but with it’s reasonable prices and good food, Falafel is a weighty choice.

For some respite from the restaurants on Rusholme’s curry mile, I tend to push open Falafel’s grubby glass door and order a falafel wrap and a pot of mint tea, followed by some sickly-​sweet baklava. At a bargainous £2.50 the wrap bulges with salad, humus, falafel and chilli sauce (not for the faint hearted!) All that flavoursome, juicy goodness for the price of a Big Mac!
However, if the auditory delights of the Arabian pop music and the excellent people-​watching opportunities provided by the window seats provoke you to linger, do be prepared to ward off intrusive/​quizzical stares from the (otherwise amiable) staff and their tea-​slurping mates.
The repertoire extends to Nando’s-style chicken, mezzes and heaps of salad. If that’s all a bit too healthy then a variety of pizzas are also available. The only downside is that the restaurant is not licensed — although this could be considered to be an advantage as it means that lairy groups of students gravitate towards the nearby curry houses with BYOB policies leaving plenty of free seats.
Falafel is my favourite place to eat on the Wilmslow Road as it is possible to re-​emerge into ‘the mile’ feeling neither overstuffed nor overcharged — a true Rusholmian rarity.

I keep doing it and its getting bad, its midnight or midday or whatever and I’m wandering through the curry mile desperately fumbling in my pocket for £2.50 in change. It’s a sad situation, basking under the neon warmth of the various curry houses and passing through clouds of scented smoke from the various shisha bars I’ve got one place and one place only in mind.
Falafel is a neat little spot tucked quietly in-​between the busy restaurants full of punters in the heart of the curry mile, right opposite Natwest, so sadly I’ve got no excuse for not finding a cash point. Its gems like these I try and keep to myself, full of the locals (only a good thing) they offer a friendly and fast service. Where is my £2.50 going? On a falafel sandwich, a staple of my return from a night out in Fallowfield. If you’re looking to avoid the bustling kebab houses full of rowdy drinkers, for a healthy alternative or just for a light snack (or several in my case) I can highly recommend anything from the delicious selection on the Middle Eastern menu.
They do the best homous I’ve found anywhere served in sumptuous bowls coated in olive oil and topped with pine nuts all the way to more exotic numbers that I’ve taken a chance on and never looked back, including fatayer (a folded pizza based stuffed with lamb, chicken you name it). A word to the wise though, when they ask if you want chilli, make sure your wearing some variety of lead suit as the half life on such sandwiches is many 100s of years.
Saying that though Falafel may not suit everyone’s palate, when I presented it to my mate Andy he handed me the rest of his meal after two bites… but what does he know he lives on oven pizzas and Xbox live. So for all those looking for something a little different to the monotonous onslaught of madras and Rogan josh that the goliaths of the curry mile offer; when you next pass through the curry mile slow down, ignore the tidal wave of neon signs and loud traffic and keep your eyes peeled for a quaint little block in the heart of the madness called Falafel.

Sometimes you just need a big juicy one on its own. Sometimes you need it slathered in Tahini. Sometimes you need it in a wrap. Sometimes you need a fatyer or two on the side…
Ah.the humble falafel. A great change from the daily grind of fish and chips, pies and burgers. A dish that makes you feel healthier, that is less greasy. A dish that tastes particularly devine when you’re only paying £2.50.
This friendly little place also serves great pizza if your wrap isn’t quite stodgy enough.

Falafel is a classic case of not judging a book by its cover i.e. you might not even contemplate entering this eat in/​take out place if you’d never heard of it. It was recommended to me by a vegetarian friend, who knows I’m Jewish and assumed I’d love it.
So, inside and out its not exactly thrilling stuff in here but then again Falafel doesn’t need to be: the food totally makes up for the lack of quality elsewhere. And thats what you come for. Yummy wraps, tons of hummus, salads, falafel obviously. The service is fine and the prices are low — a couple of pounds, which is less than you’d pay for some bland supermarket copy. A great alternative to the curries and kebabs which neighbour this tasty joint.

This is my favorite haunt in manchester, awesome falafel and fatyer, great service and you can find me there once a week easily.
At £2.50 for falafel it will fill most.
£1 for teas and a chat with the guys.
AWESOME!!!

Aww I just LOVE falafels in the falafel sandwiches! Make sure you ask for lots of Tahina sauce and the spicy stuff too in the sandwich!
Can’t replace the protein when your wanting it but is a very satisfying vegetarian meal! Yum!

What do you think a place named «Falafel» would sell? If you guessed «falafel», well done, you win!
When you get bored of kebabs and indian restaurants on the curry mile you could do a lot worse than pop in here for a falafel wrap — they’re great!