All about... falafel

Since I've became vegan I started to love falafel sandwiches and a lot of other foods of the Midle East (just read that the origin of the falafel is not clear, but it's believed that the first falafel was made in Egypt. What I really know is that falafel is one of the best fast food options to vegetarian or vegan people - being naturally vegan in most of the places - and it's easy to find places that sell it all around the world.

I'm really said that there is no Maoz Vegetarian in Dublin cause they made the best combination of quantity + price when the issue is falafel sandwiches. Maoz had saved me in a lot of places with a great (and cheap) option of food, mainly in the late night.

But recently I went to a very good place here in Dublin, with my good friend and awesome blogger Aoife from Adventures in Veg..., called Rotana Cafe. It's a restaurant specialized on Lebanese cuisine and, as usual, have a lot of vegetarian - and some vegan - options. I had lunch with Aoife there a few weeks ago, before she went to Edinburgh, and it was amazing. We shared three portions: falafel balls, hommus and potato harah (spicy potato). It was delicious but I didn't take any pictures that day.

But last Saturday I came back there with Matteo and took some pictures this time. In Brazil, when someone says that you have the eyes bigger than your stomach it means that you think you can eat more than you really are able to eat. Sometimes it happens to me and last Saturday was one of these occasions. Me and Matteo were so excited about the place and the vegan options that we asked (a way) more than we could eat (or, at least, that I could eat). So we had: one portion of the potato harah + 2 falafel sandwiches with extra hommus + one manakessh satar (a Lebanese Pizza topped with thyme, sesame seed and olive oil that we absolutely love!).


Everything was delicious. The falafel sandwich costs €5.40 (+ €1.00 for the extra filling) and it was worth it. It's really huge and I could stop eating after my first half of it. The portions - called "light bites" are a little bit expensive for my point of view (between €3.90 and €7.50), but not different for the usual prices in Dublin. They also have a take-away service. The opening hours are good too, being a great option to some nights out in the city.


Rotana Cafe
31 South Richmond Street
Portobello
Monday closed
Tuesday 4pm - 11h30pm
Wednesday - Sunday 11h30am - midnight