"Falafel Hut"'s been at its Fourth Street, San Rafael location for going on three-and-a-half years now--a near epoch compared to that address's rotating lineup of chain-restaurant predecessors. In that time, the Middle Eastern cuisine neighborhood favorite had, for whatever reason, escaped the wary taste buds of the "Pac Sun" restaurant-review pages. We try to hit restaurants within months of their opening; after a while, Falafel Hut was no longer a hot new spot we desperately needed to write up--it was merely the place a bunch of us from the office go to for takeout. Go to "pretty regularly" for takeout. Which is no faint praise given downtown San Rafael's plethora of sidewalk bistros, sandwich shops, greasy spoons and formal dining destinations.
A kind way to describe the Hut's tiny yellow-walled interior is perhaps "urban minimalist." A photo of Robin Williams arm-in-arm with proprietor Salem Shaw is the most notable design element in a "dining room" that features about three tables and an uninterrupted view into the steamy kitchen. A handful of seats on the sidewalk tend to be the first choice of the dine-in crowd, but Falafel Hut's bread and butter--or pita and hummus, as it were--is the busy takeout counter.
A good place to start is the house combo plate ($8.50), which is basically a collection of sides--all of them Mediterranean staples--including tabbouleh, baba gannoush, dolma, falafel, pita and hummus. The dinner plates ($12.95) offer a choice of meats roasted kabab-style on a bed of rice pilaf with hummus on the side--definitely for carnivores. (The well-cooked feature item on our lamb plate benefited from the spicy red dipping sauce that accompanied.) Just as good, for slightly less, is the shawerma plate ($9.95), which features a variety of meats flavored with tahini (a sesame seed paste), plus the pilaf, small salad and pita.
While the sandwich-menu shawermas ($7.95) have been hit and miss--one was teeming with tahini, tomato and red onion in a soft pita wrap, another overly packed with meat in an overcooked pita--our newest favorite is the combo gyro ($9.95). With its trio of lamb, chicken and beef pieces jumbled into a dilly tzatziki sauce, this spicy pita wrap is what we'll get the next time we grab lunch from Falafel Hut--which will no doubt be pretty darn soon.
