Falafel House Santa Cruz

Lunch in Downtown Santa Cruz is always a hard decision. So many good places! My buddy Seth from work listed a few of his favorites and one stuck me as perfect - The Falafel House. Located on Walnut Ave., across from 99 Bottles, we drove over on a beautiful summer day.

Falafel House website

There were only a few others inside when we got there at noon, but I hear at dinner it can get crowded. There's a huge menu over the counter and specials listed on the side. I like how you can see back into the kitchen area.

Not many decorations in this place besides some travel posters on the Middle East and some plants. The front windows bring in all the sunshine you will ever need. And the tip jar was clever.

We ordered our food and both elected for water to drink, which was provided for free. They give you a number and you pick it up when it's called.

Seth went with the Veggie Combo ($7.99) and requested the yogurt-free tahini sauce. It's great they offer that he was happy with the generous portions on his plate. Falafels over a salad, tabbuli and hummus with lots of vegetables.

I went with the Shawerma Combo ($9.99), which had grilled chicken shawerma over salad, hummus and babbaganough (which is fun to eat and say!). Both plates included pita bread. Babbaganough is made with cooked eggplant, tahini and spices and this version was good. Not spectacular, but good. The hummus was better than what I get from the store, so I rate it better than average. The chicken was plentiful and cooked well. No grizzle or hard parts.

We were satisfied with our lunch, so we didn't consider any dessert, but they offer Baklava. I've had better Middle Eastern food elsewhere (like Laili's also downtown), but the Falafel House offers a quick, adequate meal.

Score out of 10:
Food: 6
Service: n/a
Atmosphere: 7
Value form price: 7
Overall: 6.75

Zameen's Foodtruck UCSC

Ever get hungry on campus? You know the one. Famous for little yellow slugs and 420 celebrations. Picking are slim up there, but I got a new way to stuff your pie hole if your tummy's rumblin'.

Zameen's Foodtruck

My bro and sis-in-law met me down by the Digital Arts building on a beautiful sunny Santa Cruz day in January. Unusually high temps make you love living here and there's good eats too! This truck, which is an offshoot of their restaurant in Aptos, shows up here from 11-2:30 weekdays.

Gyros, falafels. salads, burgers, chips and fries - you can't go wrong. Everything's so tasty and spiced up so well. We all got gyros and the garlic fries. They have sodas and waters to drink and sauces to pour over everything.

The gyro had the wonderful slices of beef and lamb that melts in your mouth. Also in the wrap was lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions and Tzakziki sauce. I'm used to raw chunks of red onions in my gyro, so the grilled onions were a nice change and made the meal a little bit sweeter. The green sauce was fresh and flavorful. A little zing, but mild. Parsley and cilantro?

Mike's gryo got the red sauce treatment, which was a spicy concoction. You can see the pepper seeds in it... Zowwee!

Here's a bit of the ocean view with a side of fries. More Tzakziki dip too! They were greased up with the garlic oil and a few chunks here and there. Make sure you get a drink to wash them all down.

Glad to see the campus getting into the food truck craze with this eclectic choice. Zameen's got taco trucks beat for sure. Next time I'm getting their falafel and will report back!

Scores out of 10:
Food: 7
Service: n/a
Atmosphere: 8 (lots of benches around)
Value for price: 7
Overall: 7.5

Laili's Downtown

"Why haven't we reviewed this place before?" asked Natasha, my dining companion for the evening.
"It's one of our favorites!"

Laili's, a Mediterranean restaurant with an Afghan twist, sits in the middle of Cooper Street, downtown Santa Cruz. It's across from where the Cooper House used to be before the '89 Earthquake. You wouldn't know from the outside that this place has a big main room and kitchen with a great patio garden dining area too.

Website

We asked for a table outside, since it was a beautiful, warm evening. They had tower heaters set up all over in case it wasn't. Lots of trees and flowers everywhere. A few petals dropped on our table while we ate - extra fiber.

Since we were outside, can you think of a better drink than a Sangia ($7)? Cold and sweet with many chunks of fruit bobbing inside, Natasha took a sip and smiled.

We have both eaten here before and have our favorite dishes. Normally, I like to start with the Mantoo appetizer ($10), beef dumplings in yogurt sauce, but I wanted to try something new. Natasha suggested the Kadoo boranee ($8), chunky butternut squash in the same sauce. It comes with their flatbread and garlic oil.

It was cool, sweet and creamy and we couldn't get enough of it. The sauce is tangy and rich. We asked for another flatbread, since the first was gone and we wanted to scrape the last bits. I recommend this to all my vegetarian friends.

For her main dish, Natasha got the Chicken Kabob ($16), which comes with saffron rice. Tender and flavorful, we both agreed it's one of our favorites. I was going to order this too, but realized it would be a shorter review. So I went with the Lamb Kabob ($25).

Feast you eyes on this masterpiece! It's like a rainbow of deliciousness! Most of the lamb pieces were tender enough to cut with a fork. One or two were not, but it didn't miss by much. My rice had carrot strings and raisins on top. The three sauces were the cool yogurt (from the appetizer), a sweet apricot and a spicy cilantro. The side veggies weren't much to speak of - some okra, grape tomatoes and sliced potatoes. Watch out for squirting tomatoes!

We were very happy after our meal and agreed that this is a good place to bring out-of-town visitors. Or even in-town ones.


Scores out of 10:
Food: 8
Service: 7
Atmosphere: 9
Value for the price: 8
Overall: 8

Side note: I've gotten some feedback on how most of the reviews in SCFB are positive. This is because we like to eat at mostly good places! When some place is not good, you can believe I will post it. We just live in a great city with great eateries. Send me your suggestions if you have some.