Falafel Stop

Came in on a 30 mins lunch. Took me under 10 mins to order and pick up the food. Order the veggie falafel. Didn’t leave me much time to eat when I got back to work but boy, was it DELISH! I couldn’t finish it all in one go (due to time) but it was good to keep nibbling on throughout the day.
I can see this place getting very busy but I went around 1:25 pm on a weekday. I’ll come back again but next time I’ll see if I can call in my order maybe.

Food is good, not necessarily great, but lacks management severely. This place has about the most messed up system I have ever encountered, and this is not kidding. Figure out where to order, and then deal with the separation of vegetarian and meat lines. The lines have different processes in serving the tickets, beware. If you want an item from the meat line and an item from the vegetarian line, good luck!!! I was there for Sunday lunch, and just about everyone in line was complaining. To be fair, they have a little poster explaining the system to new customers. But seriously!!! This is a freaking falafel stand, not the airport.

Super yummy falafel with warm pita. This is next to where dairy bell used to be across from fremont high school. I’ve passed by this place many times and read so many great words. Outside looks busy, but the line moves pretty fast. Walk into this tent like thing and you can see the far left is grill side and right side closer to the parking is veggie. Order inside next to the veggie area and then walk to the left or right depending on what you order with receipt! You need to give your receipt to the cooks since it’s made to order.
I ordered falafel pita for only $ 6 with tax. Asked for extra veggies and hot sauce. Filling and cheap, but you can always get a plate or salad if you don’t want a sandwich. Falafel itself was a little dry without the sauce. If you’re not that hungry, you can buy falafel alone… 6 pcs I think for 60 cents.

Salty food, bitter hummus, confusing ordering system, and yet the most delicious pita bread ever.
I really wanted to like this place. It was hopping even at 3 on a Saturday.
I ordered the chicken shawarma on a plate (comes with hummus, salad, fries and pita bread on the side) and a half falafel pita.
First food, the falafel looked beautiful, but it tasted too salty. The same with the chicken shawarma. Looked good, but sodium dense. Ironically, the fries had no salt/​flavor at all.
The hummus drove me to review. It was inedibly bitter, like they used rancid tahini. I love hummus, but I couldn’t believe how disgusting this was. It made everything it touched stomach-​turning.
The one redeeming factor: the pita bread. This was pillowy, bread-​y, heavenly goodness. I would come back to just ask for that fluffy pita bread (if the other foods and incidentals weren’t factors.)
Incidentals: Parking lot is atrociously designed. If you park in some spots, there isn’t room to turn around and drive forward.
Ordering is confusing and tedious. When you first walk in, there are tables and benches to your left and openings (windows and doorways) to your right. Read the signs to figure out where to go. (It’s never good if you have to read signs to figure out where to order.) After ordering from the middle opening, you have to figure out where to go to pick up your food. Since I ordered two different things, I had to wait in two different lines to get my full order (one line for falafel and one line for shawarma) plus the line to order. That’s 3 lines!
The only thing worth coming here for is the pita bread. If you want anything other than that, don’t stop here.

I’ve been coming here for years without knowing that it was a Unilocal hotspot! This place is good, but not mindblowingly good like some Unilocalers mention. I usually get the Shawarma or falafel in a pita. The ordering system is kind of complex, but they’ve put up signs now that really help you figure out which line to get into!
The shawarma is cooked on one of those rotating poles, and I think it’s beautifully seasoned. If you’re looking to get some meat at this place, I definitely recommend it. The falafel pita usually has around 6 – 8 falafel balls in it, a bunch of veges, all topped with hummus. One pita pocket of this is enough to fill me up for lunch without being too full.
If you’re looking for a larger meal, the falafel plate comes with a lot more food and a lot more falafels for just a little bit more cost. And these falafels taste best when they’re hot, so don’t let your food get cold!
There’s plenty of picnic table seating right outside. Parking is definitely a struggle though at lunchtime. You can park across the street at the parking lot, since the one outside Falafel Stop is usually jam packed and hard to get in or out of.

If you are driving by this place and you dont know its here. you will miss it… My wife found this on Unilocal and wanted to give it a try since it had very good reviews…
We stopped by and saw that it is small building which is «expanded» to have a dining area using a tent over some open space…
The place was packed. people were standing in line for getting their orders… others waiting to order.
This being our first time we didnt know how to order or where to order since it is confusing…
Now.I will help you out:)
You first go in. go to the cash register and tell them what you want from the menu on the wall… then if it is vegetarian… he will give you a small ticket and ask to go out of the building and go to the window and give them the «small ticket»…if you wanted meat. you can just walk into the adjoining area where they serve meat… Now. that should make it simple…
We ordered the falafel plate and the hummus plate.
The falafel pâté comes with several varieties of salads in the middle surrounded by many freshly made hot… crunchy…melt in your mouth falafels… you might have eaten falafel that are hard and get tough to swallow 5 mins after they arrive at your table… no these are AWESOME…
The hummus plate looked similar except for it had less falafel. The food tasted delicious and for what we paid… we got a ton of food… If I were you… I would definitely stop by this place to at least try it.

Best meditteranean food in south bay. The other place *cough* drive-​in *cough* may have more reviews by number but Falafel Stop beats it!
Good for vegetarians as well, they have full on menu. My favorite item is falafel plate, comes with a lot more than just Falafel’s. My mouth is watering just by writing this review.

Falafel Stop is a wonderful, Israeli, restaurant with food as good as I got in Israel. While it’s not Kosher, it’s kosher style and keep the paerve (non-​meat, non-​dairy) and meat foods apart.
The falafel and pita here is out of this world. It’s amazingly fluffy, light, and just plain delicious. The schnitzel is delicious as well, but not quite as good as the falafel.
What takes it down a star is set-​up; they have the register in the middle of the property, the meat section to the left, and the falafel/​paerve area to the right — near the door. There is so much inefficiency in this set-​up; you need to push through that area to pay, and then stand in front of where other people are trying to pay while waiting in line.
If they could set up the restaurant a bit better, I’d put this at 5 star.

3 – 3.5 STAR.
I’ve had some really good falafels and Middle Eastern food before, and so I would say that the food at Falafel Spot is slightly above average for me. It’s not bad… it’s just not mind-​blowing like everyone who reviews this place claims it to be.
I have driven by Falafel Spot many times during the week around lunchtime, and you will always see a huge line out the door, with the entire outdoor seating area completely packed. It drove my curiosity, so my coworker and I grabbed some food from there after work one day before we watched Monday Night Football.
I ordered the chicken shuwarma (young spring boneless chicken — Pargieyot) on a plate, which came with fries, Israeli salad tahina, and pita for $ 10.12 and I ordered a regular chicken shuwarma in a pita for my friend for $ 7.36. From a pure volume standpoint, I highly recommend getting the plate option for an additional $ 2.80 over the pita option. It comes with a lot more food, and they give you hummus, pita on the side, fries, and salad, which were all pretty great. They prepare the food right in front of you (takes a little while to be honest), and they ask if you want everything in your dish, and if you want hot sauce in there as well. There were different types of hot sauces, and since I didn’t know what any of them where, I told him to add all of them. :P
I took the food back to my buddy’s place for us to eat. Here’s my assessment: the meat itself wasn’t earth-​shattering. It was tender for sure, but parts of it were really dry. I really liked the hot sauce on top of it. I wish I had more. I took the pieces of pita and grabbed meat, with Israeli salad, and the hummus underneath. It was pretty decent, and I liked the mix of different flavors. There was definitely a lot of food to consume, which was great, but the quality definitely could have been a little better.
I will probably go back and try some of the other meat options — you can choose grilled kebab (100% USDA Angus beef), grilled chicken breast, or Israeli schnitzel. There are different ways they can serve it. As I mentioned, I got mine on a plate, but you can also get it in a pita like my friend, or on top of salad, or on top of hummus (all with sides of pita). I also heard that the individual falafels were pretty good, so I am looking forward to those in my next visit. In any case, I hope my next experience is slightly better, so I can bump this up to a 4 star, but as for right now, this place is a 3 – 3.5 star in my book.

Pretty damn good! Definitely worth returning for.
I have had both the Falafel and Sabich sandwiches and both were very tasty. I have to admit that I am a «bread guy» and the freshly baked pita bread (which is much fluffier that most store-​bought stuff) was pretty awesome with their hummus.
I want to come back and try other stuff.

Easy 5.
Before I got here, I imagined a Zankou Chicken sort of situation. That’s my no-​brainer shuwarma place in Los Angeles. But up here my nose no sé. We were driving around in Mountain View thinking of Mediterranean places to go to. I was scrolling through the Unilocal results when Boyfriend caught a glimpse of Falafel Stop’s name. «Oooh let’s go there! That’s actually a place I’d want to take you to for their food.» Sold!
The two of us shared a hummus plate w/​shuwarma and an Israeli salad w/​grilled chicken breast. Perfection. Add the fluffy fat pita bread that smelled so freaking delicious when they first handed it to me… drooling. The hummus was not a very overpowering flavor, which was good because there was plenty flavor coming from the meat, veggies, and hot sauce. The shuwarma was very well seasoned. The tahini wasn’t bitter at all, unlike other places. One interesting thing about the grilled chicken breast is it pretty much tasted like teriyaki chicken. Not complaining! Just didn’t know that flavor was Mediterranean.
And don’t worry about the cold weather, they’ve got you covered with heat lamps.
If I could, I would cuddle inside the pita bread. That’s how fluffy and warm it was. Dammit now I have to go downstairs and finish off the leftovers. Talking about it makes me hungry.

My god… I don’t even like falafel or shawarma and this was some of the best food I’ve had in weeks.
The falafel are just really, really, really good. Everything is done right from the crispy exterior to the well spiced mixed interior without any excessive oiliness.
I had to go to town with my experience, so I ordered the shawarma on the plate. The meat alone is so tender and well seasoned it’s a contender against many of my favorite gyros in the Bay — and it’s not even the same meat! The Israeli salad is super nice — great having a salad that just isn’t lettuce/​tomato/​cucumber, and that fine dice makes it something great as a pita stuffing and a standalone slaw-​type dish. The hummus was well done, and the fries were okay but I don’t care about them too much — although stuffing them in pitas looked cool.
Honestly from the pictures I was dreading the pita, but it is actually spectacular. Served warm, it’s very fluffy, tears well, and has a nice give to the soft bite. Definitely my favorite surprise of the night.
I think the plate’s such a good deal — you get so much food! Plus 5 or 6 of their awesome falafel as a snack while waiting at the grill makes this a must-​come-​back for me!

Try to go during non peak hours to get parking in this packed lot or park across the street at 24 hours and walk over because this place makes some amazing Shawarma and Kebabs in a pita.
If you are hungry get your entrée on a plate because their colorful salad that they make for you is mouthwatering

This is the best Israeli food in the Bay Area! The salads are excellent and the most similar to the salads in Israel. I love the chicken shwarma plate — a mix of salads, hummus, fries, and chicken shwarma topped with tahini. I’ve also had the pita sandwich and hummus plate, which are also both good. I prefer the plate to get more of the salads. The hummus is excellent — very smooth and flavorful.
Meals are affordable, all right around $ 7 – 10. You have to wait in two lines — first to pay and then to get your food. Every time I’ve been the wait hasn’t been too long to get food, maybe 5 minutes, but I have driven by on a weekend lunch when the lines were very long. The seating area is outside, although they have some tent walls that they put up on winter evenings. Parking lot is quite small and tight, but we’ve always managed to find something.

I seriously want to cry tears of joy when I think of this place. It is SOOO good!!! I always get the falafel pita with a side of fries. Everything is super fresh and the workers are so nice. They hella stuff your pita bread so you get your money’s worth. The system here is kind of funky (one line to buy and a long, separate line to pick up your food) but it’s okay. Oh man. If I could, I would eat here everyday.

Excellent food at a very reasonable price slightly confusing order process. Ordered the shwarma over hummus plate to go, comes with 1 fresh made amazing pita bread. I will order one or two extra pitas next time i come here because i coudlnt’ fit all the goodness on just one pita. The pitas here are almost identical to Oren’s hummus shop, which are the best I’ve ever had, actually if you put them next to each other i don’t know if i could tell the difference. Their shwarma over hummus plate comes with all the goodies, like pickled veg, onion, tomato, cilantro chutney?. Will def be back to try their beef kabobs as well.

This is probably going to be a shocker.
I came here on Sunday for a quick bite and gravitated towards the hummus plate, and the kebab pita. It sounded delicious and I could not wait to dig in because I was starving. He got the shuawarma pita (basically chicken) and it came first. The ordering system is random, but it is what it is.
The hummus plate was great, except it only comes with one pita, and you pay $ 1.10 for each additional pita. For the amount of hummus on the plate you should be getting 3 pitas, or at least 2 … so it was weird to just get one. They really want to get your money here because its already like a $ 8+ hummus plate … I mean com’on, it’s bread.
Then it was the mix up on the orders, they also wrote the same order number as mine on someone else’s receipt so as a result I ended up getting the «everything» in my pita that the other person ordered. It wasn’t bad, but it clearly wasn’t what I actually ordered.
Finally, the nail in the coffin … the kebab they make here is supposedly 100% angus beef so when I bit into mine, it wasn’t just «medium rare» as the owner claimed, it was actually … raw. I work with raw beef /​ground beef frequently and BBQ often, I know what marinated ground raw beef looks like. You *cannot*, simply CANNOT, tell me that the raw seasoned beef I am pointing to is actually «medium rare» and that’s how you INTENDED for it to be. He actually said they cook *all* of their kebabs medium rare without telling any of the customers because it tastes better that way.
I hope you all know you’ve been eating raw, undercooked meat. This being ground beef, whether it’s 100% angus, all natural, organic or whatnot, is still not the safest thing and you as a consumer should get a choice in the matter without having it to default to something people are usually not comfortable with.
And while we’re at it, let me just say I’m all for rare. I ordered rare steaks in France and medium rare on the rare side (cold center) when I’m at steakhouses. I heart the taste of finely prepared beef not cooked to death. I love burgers and usually get them medium rare when I can. But this was a load of crap to me.
The owner chased us down after and offered three pieces of medium well meat which he said I would have to request if I wanted to get that next time. I’m still just in shock that a restaurant owner would default to an actual unsafe standard for ground beef as a choice for the consumers, and then trying to get out of it by saying it was medium rare. I know what medium rare looks like, and that was a load of potential food poisoning /​bad stomach to me.
I will probably go back, and never order the kebabs again. Check your meatballs folks!

Food: 5 stars
Service: 3 stars (not really existent)
Ambience: 3 stars
This place is really all about the food. I had their schnitzel which was quite delicious with their hummus plate, everything was succulent. The falafel looked amazing, too, which my roommate got and loved.
Service was quick and efficient. Parking was ok earlier on at 7ish pm on a Saturday.
In terms of the space, seating is basically outdoor plastic picnic tables and benches, so don’t come here to impress on a first date, unless you’re dating someone who’s only about the food. Like me. :)

After a long two weeks of craving this, I finally made my way here! My bff and I split two plates and were pretty darn full afterwards!
The Falafel plate — comes with 10 falafels and hummus on a plate of salad which includes a variety of vegetables — cabbage, purple cabbage, pickled veggies, beets, a tiny bit of spinach etc. It’s not like your typical salad as it’s much more pickled in terms of the taste but I enjoyed it. Falafels were quite small though had a good crisp on the outside. Not much flavor on the inside though.
The Grilled Kebob hummus plate — Similar to the falafel plate in terms of ingredients of the salad and as the name implies, the plate included more hummus and comes with 4 medium pieces of angus beef kebobs which were tasty! Loved their hummus too — super creamy and flavorful!
Pita bread comes with each plate and was one of my favorite parts of the meal, excluding the fact that I innately love carbs. It’s also one of the better pita breads I’ve had around the south bay. So fluffy and soft!
Tip: If ordering from both the veggie and the grill, send one person to wait at the grill and the other person to wait at the veggie area after you place the order. It’s unfortunate that both can’t come out at the same time but that’s really the only annoying part here.
Falafel Stop is super worth the trip and I’m sure I’ll be by again soon!

Outside eating area /​food pick-​up window (s) similar to Falafel Drive-​in, but here it’s «tented» off so a little respite from wind.
I got the Chicken Shawarma in pita and a couple of Falafel balls ($ 0.60 /​ea)
As others have said, it’s a pretty confusing system where you order in one spot, but there’s two different cooking /​serving areas for the meats vs. veggie (falafel /​hummus) items so I waited in the veggie line and then was redirected to the proper area for my chicken pita.
The Falafel were golden and crisp (
), but not crunchy. Not very seasoned and actually pretty bland on their own (
). I was disappointed by their name-​sake offering
The Shawarma Pita was a filling and satisfying sandwich. Chicken has a light curry-​ish sauce. Lot’s of fillings along with the chicken, but all you can see at first are the french fries (
)
As you dig deeper you find hummus, tahini, green salsa, pickled and fresh veggies (tomato, cucumber, red cabbage, celery, onions, more?
).
The pita was excellent. Fluffy, stretchy, chewy. .. it held up great to the last bite (
) and was a great pocket for the sandwich.
Falafel — 2 stars
Chicken Shawarma Pita — 4.5 stars