Disappointed in the quality of falafel around town, Ottawa Morning listener Mary Hayes wrote to us excitedly this spring when she discovered an east-end spot that serves excellent falafel.

“The falafel really stands out above the usual disappointment of falafel in Ottawa,” wrote Mary, who recommended we make a trip to Ottawa Falafel House located just off Saint Laurent Boulevard.

This wasn’t the first the time I’ve heard big praise about Ottawa Falafel House. Their average rating of 4.7 out of five from hundreds of Google reviews is a testament to just how quickly they’ve established themselves as a go-to falafel spot restaurant since opening their doors just less than two years ago.

I visited over lunch hour Monday to see if their reputation holds up.

The unpretentious restaurant is located on the corner of Cyrville Road and Ogilvie Road, next to a hookah bar and a Syrian takeout spot specializing in Syrian manakeesh served on saj bread. (Both were added to our database of places to visit in the future.)

Inside, I was greeted by co-owner Ali, who was busy preparing a construction worker a falafel sandwich. Ali’s wife and fellow co-owner was busy stuffing grape leaves with spice minced meat and rice for a catering event.

I ordered a meat fatteh, original falafel and a single spicy falafel. I sat down at one of the four tables and got chatting with Ali, originally from Bethlehem, about my love-affair with falafel. He claimed that people from all over Ontario visit to try their falafel. Naturally, this made me even more excited to try the food.

Soon after, my fatteh arrived. The popular Levantine dish of toasted bread and warm chickpeas is served with a cool, tangy yogurt sauce. The variety served by Ottawa Falafel House comes topped with ground beef and sliced almonds and is served in a clay bowl. (They serve a vegetarian variety with hummus too.)

I dug in. The bread was perfectly crisp; the almonds added a nice texture contrast to the warm chickpeas; and the sauce—generously prepared with olive oil, lemon and garlic—was refreshing.

I loved that they used real Arabic bread instead of the store-bought pita and copious amounts of garlic.

The fatteh was so good, I almost forgot about the spicy falafel I ordered, so imagine my surprise when I took a bite and realized it was even better than I had imagined. I found the exterior to be perfectly crunchy and sprinkled in sesame seeds. The interior was green and fluffy and, as Mary had mentioned in her email, not in the least bit bitter, as some falafel can be due to baking powder.

“It's the least salty falafel I’ve ever had, which is amazing,” Danielle said, when I brought her home some leftovers to sample. She was even more surprised when I told her that my bill came to a total of $25.

I left the restaurant full, but not sickeningly so. That’s one of the charms of Levantine food—it will fill you up, but not in a bellyaching way. The fresh ingredients, the warmth of the couple who run the place and the astoundingly good falafel will make sure I’ll be back.