Mass of meze makes falafel filling fare

When people ask chefs and food critics about where they eat on their off-time, it’s usually to glean tips about the best restaurants and dishes in town, but for me it’s increasingly about finding food that won’t lead to a premature demise.

For every rich, fatty, unctuous meal, there has to be a balancing factor, and during days off I’ve taken to making all manner of soups from scratch, starting with nothing but water so I can control the fat and sodium content. And I’m always looking for places like Da Falafel King, with Middle Eastern fare that evolved to incorporate plenty of vegetables.

I was a fan of its falafel sandwiches when the business started as a cart at the Waikiki Trade Center. It was always a favorite takeout spot on my way home from business in the area. I’m glad they’ve now found a permanent spot on King Street, next to Old Stadium Park.

Before Da Falafel King it was hard to find good falafel, or chickpea fritters, on Oahu. The first ones I had were such a turn-off — hard, flavorless and dry as a cracker — that I swore off the stuff. The only place I would eat them was in New York, where they are fresh, green with a touch of parsley, and fluffy. So I was elated when I bit into Da Falafel King’s sandwich ($8) and found this same quality, the garbanzo beans ground with parsley, garlic and cilantro and shaped into meatball-size rounds before hitting the hot oil and enrobed in warm pita bread lined with hummus.

The falafel sandwich is still one of the best things on the restaurant’s menu, a short list of about four kosher sandwiches, hummus and a handful of daily special entrees.

The restaurant seats only 16, so a lot of the business still involves takeout traffic. If you are doing takeout, be warned that it’s a little slow in the kitchen. At the kiosk I never minded waiting around because you could watch the falafels being shaped and dropped into the deep fryer. Here, without the visuals, it’s easy to get impatient, but the staff has been nice enough to offer water and a small snack of pita chips and hummus to appease the hungry.

You don’t get the full experience unless you decide to sit down for a meal, which begins with meze, a selection of small dishes similar to the Korean practice of offering banchan. Da Falafel King even has its own kim chee of sorts, pieces of pickled cauliflower, carrots and garlic with the yellow tinge of curry.

We received about nine of these small plates, which featured a vinegared potato salad spiked with green onions and celery, cous cous, canned corn stirred with dill and sweet-sour pickles, cucumbers with onions and dill, cabbage-and-carrot slaw, hummus with pita chips, sweet carrots marinated in curry spices and roasted eggplant tossed with olive oil, garlic and red bell pepper. The array of vegetable dishes seemed a complete meal in itself.

Owners Yanir and Aviv Yosef make all the food from scratch, using a mix of fresh local produce, and specialty items such as sweet pickles from Israel and deep red paprika from Morocco that’s just as flavorful as paprika from Hungary, which gave us the name for the spice that dominates its cuisine.

A look at the board might deliver a case of sticker shock for those who patronize Da Falafel King’s cart. The chalkboard menu lists sandwich prices of $13 to $16, reflecting the dine-in costs that includes the meze, which is well worth the price.

If you want a sandwich alone, it’s still $8 for the falafel, $11 for shawarma (described as a combination of grilled curry chicken and lamb, though my sandwich only contained chicken) and $11 for kebabs of herb-infused ground beef and lamb. For $3 more for takeout, you get french fries and a soft drink to accompany your sandwich.

The falafel remains my favorite. The shawarma was dry when I had it, and so were the kebabs, though both receive a powerful assist from accompanying tahini sauce of ground sesame, lemon and garlic. At the cart I always ask for a helping of green sauce made with a fiery blend of jalapeños, cilantro, garlic and olive oil. The owners have finally caught on to its value because now the sauce is 50 cents as a sandwich extra.

The most exciting aspect of the new endeavor is the promise of hot daily specials. Recent $18 offerings were entrees of stuffed peppers, stuffed eggplant and Moroccan fish.

The latter was a choice of tilapia or salmon, the fish layered with a spicy and delicious combination of peppers, garlic, onions and spices, with dabs of Moroccan paprika at the edges of the plate for an extra boost of flavor.

The eggplant was stuffed with a mild blend of rice, eggplant and beef and topped with a chunky tomato sauce. This dish represents something of a compromise, using the thickest Japa­nese eggplant instead of the customary round ones, according to Aviv, who said the cost of the latter would drive prices higher. The thinner eggplant lends the exterior a papery, meatless quality, though the stuffing itself makes a nice comfort meal.

For dessert there’s baklava that’s different from any other available on Oahu. The most obvious difference was the inclusion of whole almonds along with a crushed mix of almonds, peanuts and walnuts. I could also taste the floral essence of rose water, and in place of honey used elsewhere, this version incorporates sugar water.

I also detected in the baklava a touch of cardamom, a word Aviv said she just learned because she knows the fragrant spice as "hel" in Hebrew.

I look forward to seeing more Israeli specialties emerge from the kitchen.