One of the city’s best falafel chains finally comes to Brooklyn

By Scott Lynch

It all began in 2005, when Einat Admony opened her first Taïm on Waverly Place, a miniscule shop that kept kosher and vegetarian and churned out some of the brightest, freshest, most flavorful falafel balls in town. It felt like a bit of a secret for a while–to this day there’s really not much signage–but word got out. Admony added to the menu over the years, and she kept opening new, and larger, locations around Manhattan.

Now, finally, Taïm has come to Brooklyn, taking over the Gather space on Seventh Avenue near the F and G train in Park Slope. “It’s amazing to be here,” Alex Franklin, Taïm’s head of marketing, tells Brooklyn Magazine. “We have wanted to open in Brooklyn for years, but we knew it had to be somewhere special, and Park Slope is perfect. It’s a wonderfully close-knit community, people care about the food that they eat, and they welcomed us with open arms. We had the busiest opening week.”

The menu at Taïm is a Chipotle-style build-your-own affair, though you don’t have to make too many choices. All of the “mains” are served either stuffed into a fluffy, oversized pita, or laid out atop some sort of base in a bowl. There are a bunch of toppings available, most of them free (the pickles, olives, and shifka peppers always add a welcome little hit of acid), and the sauces are delicious.

Everything’s good here, but the falafel is the soul of the place. Each order comes with about eight compact balls of fried chickpeas, served warm with a crisp outer shell. The green ones are almost neon-bright inside from the herbs, the harissa ones nice and spicy. Get a mix of the two on a bed of creamy hummus, spoon on some s’rug, and you’ve got a party on your plate.

Falafel bowl with hummus; $10.95 (Scott Lynch)

The original West Village Taïm remains strictly vegetarian, but the Park Slope shop sells a offers up roasted chicken, which they marinate in sumac, mint, and honey and hack into bite-size pieces for your pita or bowl. My base for this dish was a pearl couscous-cumin rice combo.

Roasted chicken bowl with rice and pearl couscous; $11.25 (Scott Lynch)

Another winner is the beets and Moroccan carrots pita, a gloppy and satisfying sandwich that I’m tempted to call comfort food, except all those lively flavors really keep you on your toes.

Beets and carrots Pita; $8.95 (Scott Lynch)

Bets Yameogo, who lives in Flatbush and is the general manager here, walked me through the multiple steps for making those Moroccan carrots. The process takes about 24 hours, which seems to be typical of the way they do things at Taïm. If you’re wondering why everything here tastes like it was made fresh, on-site, from scratch, especially for such a high-volume, delivery-heavy place, that’s because it is.

Even the saffron aioli that came with my “Taïm’s Famous Fries” is a ridiculously labor- and ingredient-intensive creation. Franklin told me there are something like 100 saffron blossoms in each batch, and that’s for a dipping side that probably could have just been ketchup, and no one would have complained.

Taïm is already planning on expanding in Kings County, with another location opening in Downtown Brooklyn sometime early next year. Until then, if you don’t live close enough to the Park Slope spot to pop by for a quick meal, Franklin pointed out that Taïm has its own delivery app, and is geared up to send food out all over this part of Brooklyn.

Taïm Park Slope is located at 341 Seventh Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets, and is currently open from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily (347-599-0119)