Magic Carpet Foods

34th and Walnut
Philadelphia, PA
Website


 Magic Carpet is one of the legends of the West Philly food cart scene. They have been around forever, and consistently crank out some seriously vegetarian delicious food.
 

The owner is really nice, attentive, and humorous.

I usually roll with the falafel on pita sandwich, but decided to dabble, as I was writing this trip up.

Once you place an order (they take cards!), you can wait around the side of the cart and creepily stare at people.

The "Sloppy Jason" consists of vegetarian chili, cheese, and salad on a pita. It will run you about $6, and is a damn fine portion size for the money.

The veggie chili was surprisingly complex, and had a nice flavor to it, reminiscent of a chili with extra tomato base.

They certainly don't skimp on the cheese.

I also went with my usual, the falafel with hummus, feta, and hot sauce. These special requests bumped my sandwich up to $7, which the owner kindly warned me about, but I was willing to bite the bullet for salty cheese.

As usual, the sandwich was great. Fresh ingredients, attention to detail, and delicious falafel all made for a winner.

I love giant chunks of feta.

If you are looking for a cheap, healthy, vegetarian friendly meal to go, you really can't go wrong here. Also, you can find where you are going with this sweet map.

King of Falafel Cart

16th and JFK
Philadelphia, Pa 19103
M-F 11am-2pm

The inevitable search for cheap eats around lunchtime in Philadelphia, which cure both hunger and headache and give you a chance to escape the office for about an hour each day, often lead to the variety of food carts around the city. I used to eat at King of Falafel a long while ago when the falafel cravings started, but upon discovering the Falafel Nazi, and Mama's Vegetarian (review coming soon), I never looked back. Until now. It was a beautiful day in Center City, and a perfect opportunity to sit at Love Park and people watch, all while eating one of the cheapest, best cart foods around.


I opted for the falafel sandwich with feta cheese, hummus, and hot sauce. $4. Awesome. I even splurged on a soda for $.75 bringing the grand total to under $5. Amazing. The sandwich, while not huge, fills you up quite nicely, and is relatively healthy compared to a lot of the cart food out there (I am looking at you, sausage/cheesesteak carts).


The pita is whole wheat, and they wrap it tightly in foil to prevent what could result in everyone being able to see exactly what you had for lunch on your work tie. Well played, "King".


The sandwich combines two smashed falafel balls, hummus, chopped lettuce, diced tomato, feta, and some Frank's red hot-esque hot sauce. The falafel is good, crunchy, and not overly garlicy, and I am not sure which component had the fresh zing of lemon juice, but it was appreciated. The hummus kept everything moist, and the lettuce added the crunch. All in all, I must say, it's not too shabby. My present location, plus a pool of lunchmates with the same time constraints as myself, really hinders my ability to make it to 20th and JFK for falafel; not to mention his line is excruciating, and his sandwiches are double the price. For now, this cart will do quite nicely, and it's always fun to rediscover an old friend/cart. Especially one across from the park with some of the best people watching in all of Philadelphia.