When Josh’s coworkers suggested picking up lunch from Crisp I was excited. Not having fulfilled my falafel craving on Sunday, I was eager to try Crisp’s version after reading some good reviews on the Midtown Lunch blog. Midtown Lunch is one of my favorite sites and has steered me towards many great meals. I love the blog’s philosophy of finding cheap, delicious and satisfying lunches in the giant tourist trap that is midtown. Zach enjoyed Crisp’s Mexican falafel so of course I had to follow suit. Boy was I disappointed.
The falafel ball itself was standard, a fact that I was already warned about. It was comparable to the falafel balls from Moshe’s truck – good, not great. The Mexican is also supposed to contain cilantro pesto, avocado, corn, salsa and nachos with jalapeno dressing. My first impression was that the sandwich was extremely dry; the tiny container of salsa did nothing to rectify that issue. The cilantro pesto was not spread evenly throughout the sandwich so some bites would be surprisingly overwhelming in cilantro flavor. I tasted no avocado at all. And what the heck is “nachos with jalapeno dressing?” I found two slices pickled jalapenos on top, the kind that come from a jar and are standard on any plate of nachos, but there were no tortilla chips or cheese or anything resembling “nachos.” Am I missing something here? But the worst offender for me was the corn, which tasted like it was dumped straight from a can and had that chewy, tough quality to it. I guess for a place that touts how “fresh” its ingredients are, I was expecting fresh corn bursting with sweet goodness. I should have known better, especially since corn is such a seasonal ingredient and fresh corn isn’t available year round. I eventually tried to pick out as many of the kernals as I could but there were a lot of them and the tinny flavor of the canned corn had already permeated throughout the sandwich.
The Mexican
I did like the packaging of the sandwich though, as it was contained in a cardboard sleeve that prevented the sandwich from falling apart. Messiness is something I usually can’t avoid when eating falafel, and I was able to keep from spilling on myself this time. I kept the cardboard sleeve on the whole time and just pushed the sandwich up from the bottom, like one does with an apple pie from McDonalds.
Overall I was disappointed with the Mexican, but I did have a bite of Josh’s Parisian sandwich that I thought was much tastier. You really have to like goat cheese to enjoy that sandwich though, as it was completely smothered with it.
The Parisian
His coworkers tried the Athenian and the African, and both of them enjoyed theirs as well. I guess mine was a fluke? I’m not going to write this place off based on one bad sandwich experience, as I can see the potential in their different flavor combinations. And while the corn was bad, the whole wheat pita was soft and fluffy and the other ingredients were nicely seasoned. It is pretty pricey for a falafel sandwich, though the Mexican is one of the cheapest at $7.75; the Parisian is $9.75. It was a very filling lunch, however, so I think it could be worth the price. I’ll have to sample some of the other sandwiches before I pass final judgment on this place.
Crisp (multiple locations)
110 West 40th St. between 6th Ave. and Broadway
New York, NY