Restaurant Review # 3
Welcome back to another Edward's Restaurant Review Where the Kitchen turns outward to take a bite out of the Big Apple.
I ate at this restaurant, Chickpea, for the first time the other day. Chickpea is a popular haunt in NYC well known for their Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. The aroma greeted me the second I walked in the door. After perusing the menu, I stepped in line and prepared myself for what they had to offer.
Wow. The choices were everywhere. Chickpea has been heralded for its variety of food and its ability to accomodate the dietary customs that vary from patron to patron. Chickpea boasts gluten free fare, as well as 'vegan' (an abbreviation for vegetarian) cuisine. They also bring to the gauntlet different flavored hummuses, including sun- dried tomato and chive infused versions. Someone in the restaurant told me to try the chipotle flavored hummus.
I perused their menu. Two of their most popular dishes are the falafel and the shawarma sandwiches. Falafel is well known by this point so no point in getting in to all that but "Shawarma" may be a new one to some of our readers. It originates in the Mid East and is commonly a shaved meat of chicken or lamb. It is carved, (or "shaved") from a vertical spit and is cooked with sauces and spices. I wanted to try both. I was in luck! Chickpea boasts the "Shawafel", a made up word and combination dish of the falafel and shawarma all in one sandwich. This one's for the sampler at heart folks.
You get to choose between a wrap, pocket pita bread, or a black plastic tray. I went with the wrap. Let's Eat!
Then you only get to choose 4 additives to your wrap (which honestly looks more like a burrito than anything else) and they charged extra ($0.75!) for feta cheese which should be a shoe-in for this sort of thing in my opinion. I chose that, the diced cucumber and tomato mixture, succulent roasted red peppers, and red onion. Luckily the craisins were free. (If I'm being honest, I felt quite rushed in line. The wait staff seemed less interested in the quality of the meals they were churning out on that long plastic industrial cutting board, and more interested in the number of customers they could serve.)
The shawafel is terrible ! Extremely messy. The less said about presentation: the better. This wrap is too spicy. Spicy for the sake of being spicy - NOT flavored. Aggressive, yet bland. I dont know if its the hummus of the shawarma or what. When I drank my Coke to put out the burning flavor, my mouth was already so raw, the usually subtle soda taste felt like a madhouse on my tongue. Completely inappropriate.
Everything, from presentation to price to the courtesy of people in line ahead of me was poor at best. I barely had time to wolf down the wrap before my lunch break was over and I had to return to work building this wall.
OVERALL SCORE: 1 / 10
Chickpea, 42-09 28th St, New York, NY 11101
See you next time on Edward's Restaurant Review!