sklarithy Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I'm always on the hunt for good falafel/shawarma in the DC area. Not a huge Amsterdam Falafel fan; prefer Pita Hut in Rockville. I went with a buddy for lunch today to the month old Shawafel in the Atlas District. The address is 1322 H St NE. I had the falafel/shawarma sandwich, which came with lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, pickled turnips, mint, and tahini. Everything is made in house. The sandwich was absolutely incredible and blew all competition out of the water. The space is really well laid out, extremely clean, and Alberto the owner couldn't have been nicer. All meats are spit roasted and the sandwiches are more "laffa" style then in a pita. We also shared an order of labneh, which tasted super fresh, and an order of fries, which are hand cut. Great new addition for DC's fast casual scene! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty L. Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I'm always on the hunt for good falafel/shawarma in the DC area. Not a huge Amsterdam Falafel fan; prefer Pita Hut in Rockville. I went with a buddy for lunch today to the month old Shawafel in the Atlas District. The address is 1322 H St NE. I had the falafel/shawarma sandwich, which came with lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, pickled turnips, mint, and tahini. Everything is made in house. The sandwich was absolutely incredible and blew all competition out of the water. The space is really well laid out, extremely clean, and Alberto the owner couldn't have been nicer. All meats are spit roasted and the sandwiches are more "laffa" style then in a pita. We also shared an order of labneh, which tasted super fresh, and an order of fries, which are hand cut. Great new addition for DC's fast casual scene! Just tried it (other than the labneh -- next time) and concur in all particulars. Terrific addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tujague Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Ditto to the previous two posts. Bob and I stopped by for carryout this evening--a lamb sandwich, the "shawafel" sandwich (shawarma and falafel), plus the tabouleh salad. All was excellent; the tabouleh a bit different in that it was mostly parsley and mint and very little bulgar--quite intense. Plus, they sent along an extra pita, chicken, lamb, hummus and more tabouleh in a separate container. A huge amount of food for a pittance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty L. Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Just tried it (other than the labneh -- next time) and concur in all particulars. Terrific addition. Just had the chicken sandwich (with a few fries and a great garlic sauce inside), and the labneh. Both fantastic. Chicken might even be better than the lamb/beef. This place will definitely make it if Alberto Sissi can keep up the quality. He said he sold over 1000 sandwiches at the H Street festival yesterday -- which means the word will be out. Only room for improvement: They could use a tastier, less generic pita, and more interesting, even homemade, drinks. But those are quibbles . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Shortly after I saw the original post on this thread, I was talking to a friend whose brother lives a couple of blocks from here. They had been passing by the day it opened (or the day after--something of that sort) and the owner lured them in with food. She thought it was quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 The plan was to eat our take-out at the ballpark, but the boy wasn't cooperating, so we ended up eating them at the dining table. (And given the piss-poor performance by Los Nacionales, I'm glad we didn't head down there.) We departed from our usual duo of meat and chicken shawarma, and split shawafel and shish taouk sandwiches. The falafel was pretty soggy, and really took away from the generally awesome spit-roasted meat. The shish taouk was a bit unbalanced today, with too much garlic toum and not enough tangy pickles for my taste. I still devoured it in less than 3 minutes, mind you...I'm just in a nit-picky mood. I think sticking with the spit-roasted varieties of sandwich are still your best bet here, as I don't think the falafel they put out is worth writing home about. And it may be worth your while to ask for extra pickles on your shish taouk if you have a sour/salty tooth as I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezepowder Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 ArlNow mentions that Shawafel is opening a location in Courthouse. And this was mentioned as far back as December 2013 by the DC Internationalist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezepowder Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 ArlNow mentions that Shawafel is opening a location in Courthouse. And this was mentioned as far back as December 2013 by the DC Internationalist. Opening on Sept. 7, 2015, in Courthouse at 1910 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaRiv18 Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 I understand they plan to franchise nationally, using the same team as Five Guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezepowder Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 The Courthouse location closed this fall (ArlNow). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArlFred Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 I had gone there for lunch a couple times, and even on a Friday it was deserted. Which is a shame, because I thought it was quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 I've heard (but have no secondary confirmation) that the owner of Shawafel will be opening a new restaurant (in addition to H St.) in the Hine complex at Eastern Market, probably in January. It will be similar to the original but have a different name--possibly something with "shawarma" in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 I couldn't figure out what to do for dinner so I ordered Doordash from here last night. It seems like it's just cheaper and easier to go to the actual restaurant, so I hadn't ordered from them before. The food arrived in about half an hour. It traveled well and arrived hot. I ate about half each of a meat shawarma and a shawafel sandwich and put the rest away for today. I also ate probably half of the fries I ordered (and ditto), but I always forget that I just don't care for the za'atar on them. It's not like they're bad. It just seems like there's an excessive amount of the dried spices and it just doesn't go together for me. Their food is generally solid (as was this order), and I miss their stand at Nats Park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezepowder Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 Frozen Tropics reported that the H St location is closing on Dec. 23, and a location at 818 18th St will open in the spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaRiv18 Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Closed as I walked by. Also, Micho's on 5th (similar concept, I understand Micho used to be part of the Shawfel team) has been closed since Thanksgiving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 4 hours ago, DaRiv18 said: Closed as I walked by. Also, Micho's on 5th (similar concept, I understand Micho used to be part of the Shawfel team) has been closed since Thanksgiving. A couple weeks ago, I went to Sally's Middle Name (still really good, but service desperately needs training - DaRiv18, I had those fried oysters, and also the potato gnocchi, although I went with the Vegetarian Bolognese), and I could swear Shawafel was open then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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