Tal's Hummus

Perhaps a bit dumb of a thing to walk away with, of all the possible places to get food in New Orleans, of the multitudes of cajun options, taco places, beignets, whatever else there is to do in NOLA, but this was my favorite place I ate at during my entire time here. We decided to walk back from the zoo to see everything in between there and the downtown area for something besides the French Quarter and this was the perfect place for a meal, especially in the heat of New Orleans (pre?)-summer. I don't know how bad the weather here gets (personal opinion here, everyone has theirs), and this was extremely refreshing in terms of both the welcoming environment that the owner sets up and the immediate calm that a humble side cafe leaves. I've never had shawarma, or whatever it is, because that looks like a wrap and I'm sure I didn't eat any gluten that I could see here, but it was all-encompassing. It might've been high heat at 2:00 pm exhaustion, I don't know. Perfect timing here is transcendental, and the owner is reserved and friendly and lets you enjoy this place however you want. I'm sure you can find tons of great places on Magazine Street, and this stuff did wonders after a couple miles and 80+ (I'm not very heat tolerant) degrees.

Food is so fresh and absolutely delicious. Gluten free wrap for sandwiches is yummy. Portions are very generous. Server is delightful.

Here’s the thing. They’ve got great ambience, very approachable staff, great ideas such as the use of real cutlery and plates. The food itself is high quality, served quickly with good presentation. However I’m only offput by, well…the taste. Chicken Schwarma. I could tell the chicken was high quality by the texture. But it didn’t really taste like much of anything to me. Same with the hummus. It tasted like chickpeas without anything else mixed in, despite seeing there was definitely some other stuff mixed in. Each dish desperately needed salt and maybe some pepper. Didn’t see any salt or pepper available (probably should have asked.) The fries were spot on, fantastic. Salad was good. The gluten free pita bread was a solid plus though. That plus the gigantic portion size redeemed the meal. They gave me some cut up jalapeños in a traditional dish which helped with the flavor problems. Everything’s there - just need to bump up the flavor palette!