Zaffron

1625 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(855) 923-3766
Website

You find yourself in Center City. You don't have time to go to Mama's, but you have a hankering for falafel. You feel comfortable in food court settings, and are actually INSIDE of the strange Liberty Place mall. Where should you eat?

The obvious choice would be Chick-fil-A, err I mean Zaffron. The best way to describe this stand is to say if Qdoba sold Mediterranean food, it would be Zaffron. You step up, order along an assembly line, and pay at the end. Instead of tortillas, they have pita wraps that are very similar. You can get your protein and topping selections as a wrap, bowl or platter, much like its Mexican counterpart.

One cool extra is the hummus bar. You order a side of hummus, choose any or all of five mix-in's, and they add them to the puree and mix it up for you, right then and there. It's actually pretty cool, and the hummus was quite good.

The sandwiches are very similar to a burrito. I got the shawarma, which was good, but not the best I have had. I was happy to see that they had a gyro spit in the back, but unfortunately they were not slicing each sandwich to order. It was perfectly acceptable for the price though. The ingredients were fresh and tasty, and I liked that they don't charge you extra for any toppings you choose. I still remember eating at my favorite place Barbacoa, where I was devouring fresh, hand-held food assemblages way before these things hit the East coast, and cringing every time the sweet lady would say "waca-mo-le ez extera." Very few times did we ever splurge on that beautiful guac. It was always a point of contention.

The plate was a bed of rice, protein of choice and as many toppings as you can throw at them. As you can see below, the answer is, all of them. As it was many of the same things inside of the sandwich, all quite tasty, my main complaint is with the falafel themselves. They were like eating lead sinkers. Not good at all. That aside, I would go for the chicken on the plate next time, and likely leave quite happy.