Pilpel

Located on Spitalfields’ ever-gentrifying Brushfield Street, Pilpel provides a welcome shot of simple street food. You’re welcomed with truly Middle Eastern enthusiasm here, in the form of huge smiles and a free falafel to savour while you consider the menu. It won’t take long to peruse the selection of dishes printed above the open counter; this is essentially a falafel joint, with a choice of salads and meze snacks as accompaniments. Your order is then piled into pitta bread or layered into a salad bowl. Takeaway is popular among local office workers, but you can also eat-in (and people-watch) while sitting on the wooden stools at the bar next to the window. The falafel are top notch, crisp outside and grass-green on the inside, and the accompaniments – eggs, baba ganoush, red cabbage, onions and so on – are fresh and generous.