SoomSoom
“You get unlimited salad bar additions which is pretty awesome and the salad bar has tons of great stuff including those grape leaf rice roll-up things…”
“Their falafels are so much better than Maoz, but they're still not very well known.”
“I was on the way to get a salad but the free falafel sample made me go inside.”
SoomSoom
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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Food here is good. I've tried the falafel sandwiches and the bureka sabich, which is a bureka filled with eggplant, hard boiled egg, and tahina. I'm getting hungry just thinking of it.
The falafel is pretty good, the only problem is that I know I can get better tasting falafel at half the cost a few blocks away. But, I will come here for the bureka sabich because I haven't seen this combination anywhere else. I will warn you that its a heavy meal and pretty messy, but I think it is tasty.
Oh and they also have limonana, the Israeli style lemonade with mint. Sooo good and refreshing.
Solid falafel and tons of toppings to choose from. Comparing two similar concept restaurants, I personally would choose Maoz each time but I didn't have one in walking distance during my last NYC trip and this place was.
Delicious crispy falafel!
I love getting the pita with falafel and then stuffing it with a bunch of fun stuff from the veggie bar…. You can stuff quite a bit of stuff in there if you're patient!!!
Not too much space to sit down – but great for lunch or for a quick dinner before running to the gym or to another place. If I actually get a lunch hour I will go out of my way to walk over there! NUM!
This place reminds me of Maoz.
I would've have given this place 4 stars except for the weird customer service. It was close to 6pm when I made my way over here. I had been walking around all day at Bastille Day sponsored by FIAF and felt pangs of hunger. I look on my phone and find this place, cool, I am in the mood for falafel.
They have a nice salad fixings bar here similar to Maoz. I order a falafel sandwich and then I put tahini sauce in it and then stuffed the sandwich with all the different pickled sides.
Just when I was about finished stuffing my sandwich, the counter help comes to my side and asks if I want it wrapped up to go. Actually, I wanted to eat my sandwich there, but she insisted on wrapping up my sandwich and then promptly shooed me out of the place.
Honestly, if that was the rushed service I was going to get, I might as well have gone somewhere else for food. I don't like to be rushed and definitely didn't like being chased out of the store. Honestly, get some business skills.
Decent falafels!
They were giving out free falafels last night in the cold but these falafels so happened to stay warm and crispy. Now that is what I call a good falafel! I concluded she was standing out there for a while since there were only 2 pieces left after I took one and my boyfriend took the other. She gave us the last two and I was very impressed by the texture of it. It was far from dry with the perfect crisp. The flavor I was hoping for was missing though so I wasn't that hype about coming here again.
I recently started a job in midtown and am always looking for healthy lunch spots. So I came across this place, at first glance it looks like a Chickpea or a Maoz. But when you see the menu and start ordering, you realize how expensive this place really is. They do not have very many options if you are gluten free. Their falafels are not gluten free and they do not carry gluten free wrap.
I decided to order the salad which ended up being close to $10. The worst part is not do they over charge but to even get falafels on your salad is an extra $3 – ridiculous!Plus, they do not even have half as many toppings as Maoz does. Personally, I thought the quality of food was mediocre at best and this place was certainly overpriced! Not to mention this place caters to be a healthy vegetarian joint and yet their falafels are fried..
I love my fellow Yelpers and I rely on their opinions when it comes to trying new food and places. However, SoomSoom is one place where I wholeheartedly disagree with the majority of opinions which gave it such a stellar composite rating. As my rule of thumb, if I know that I am going to be a victim of terrible operations management, the food really has to be good to justify that particular visit. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for me to have any conviction in recommending a spot to anyone. SoomSoom made it impossible.
Perhaps SoomSoom will get their act together once the DOH gives them their grade (still pending), but upon first glance, I have my doubts already. Allow me to elaborate:
1) The salad bar is place in the open where there is no queue management. Patrons waiting to order are basically placed onto the same line with people adding toppings onto their salads. With all this confusion, I would be surprised if SoomSoom were able to maintain a fresh and bacteria/germ-free salad bar.
2) My hummus plate required a 20 minute wait, which also allowed me to notice patrons trying to weave in between each other to add toppings, grab small sauce-containers and blocking the salad bar, dirty and unattended table counters, etc.
3) In addition to a lot of the topping containers being closed to depletion, I do not recall a fresh batch for any topping replenished. The artichoke was hard and not close to edible.
If none of this turns you off, then by all means you might love SoomSoom. The hummus was very adequate, but it is a bit too creamy for my taste. I liken it to the quality of hummus as Chickpea. The falafel was excellent with just the right amount of crispiness on the outside and softness on the inside.
If SoomSoom can improve on their operations management, that would be a big plus. They can really learn a thing or two from Maoz. Even as a casual observer, I witnessed customers walk out without ordering while mumbling to themselves about the chaos inside. That, in and of itself, is never a good thing.
A delicious, warm package of fluffy pita, creamy hummus, super flavorful falafel, an unlimited toppings from a smorgasboard of choices await you at this efficient lunch spot. Much better than Maoz, in my opinion. Great place for lunch in the neigborhood!