Why We Have The BEST Falafel in Boston. Actually…

Fresh homemade falafel inside a classic Falafel Wrap fried to order at ANI Catering and Cafe in Belmont Massachusetts

Let's be honest — that's a bold claim.

Boston has no shortage of Middle Eastern restaurants, and plenty of them serve falafel. So when we say ours is the best, we're not just posturing. We're inviting you to understand why — because once you learn what separates great falafel from mediocre falafel, you'll never settle again.

This is a post about craft. About the decisions that happen before the first ball ever hits the oil. About why the falafel you get at ANI Catering & Cafe in Belmont tastes the way it does — and why it probably tastes different from anything you've had before.

🤔 What Most People Don't Know About Falafel

Falafel looks simple. A few ingredients, shaped into a ball, dropped in a fryer.

How complicated can it be?

Very.

The difference between extraordinary falafel and forgettable falafel lives almost entirely in the preparation — specifically, in choices that most restaurants skip because they're time-consuming, labor-intensive, and frankly, unnecessary if your only goal is to get product out the door fast.

Here's what we actually do — and why it matters.

1️⃣ We Soak Our Chickpeas & Fava Beans Fresh. Every. Single. Day.

The most important decision in falafel-making happens a full day before the falafel is ever shaped.

Authentic falafel is made with raw, soaked chickpeas — not cooked ones, and absolutely not canned ones. This is a non-negotiable rule in traditional Middle Eastern cooking, and one that a shocking number of shortcuts have quietly erased.

Here's the science:

When dried chickpeas soak, they rehydrate and soften just enough to be ground — but crucially, they remain uncooked. That raw, starchy composition is what binds the falafel mixture together. When this mixture hits hot oil, the starches gelatinize and expand, creating a light, fluffy interior while the outside becomes incredibly crisp.

Canned chickpeas — or pre-made falafel pouches — can't do this. They're already cooked, already waterlogged. The result?

❌ Dense, mushy falafel that falls apart ❌ Rescued with fillers like flour or eggs ❌ Flavor that's flat and generic

We also use a blend of chickpeas AND fava beans — the traditional Egyptian combination that predates the all-chickpea versions most people know today. That blend adds a nutty depth you simply can't get from chickpeas alone.

We soak fresh every day. No batch soaked four days ago. No frozen pre-portioned mix pulled from a bag. Every morning, the process starts from scratch — because that's the only way to control what ends up on your plate.

2️⃣ Our Spice Blend Is 100% House-Made 🌿

Walk into most fast-casual Middle Eastern spots in Greater Boston and you'll find the same falafel. Same texture. Same color. Same generic spice profile.

That's because they're all working from the same commercial falafel mix — a premeasured pouch designed for consistency and speed, not for flavor or character.

We don't do that.

Our spice blend is house-made — refined over more than 30 years of cooking for the Greater Boston community. It draws on the same culinary heritage that built this family business: Armenian and Middle Eastern cooking that treats spice as an art form, not an afterthought.

What a pouch gives youWhat we give youSame flavor, every restaurantA recipe built over 30 yearsDesigned for speedDesigned for flavorMade in a factoryMade in our kitchenPreservatives & fillersFresh herbs & whole spices

When a restaurant uses a premade mix, every flavor decision has already been made for them — by a food manufacturer somewhere else. We make those decisions ourselves, in our kitchen, every day.

3️⃣ Every Falafel Is Fried Fresh to Order 🔥

This one is about respect.

Falafel that's been sitting in a warming tray — or worse, pre-fried in bulk and reheated — is not falafel. It's a falafel-adjacent product.

Here's what happens to it:

• 😞 The crust goes soggy

• 😞 The structural integrity is gone

• 😞 The interior turns dense instead of light

• 😞 You eat it and forget it within the hour

We fry every falafel to order. You place your order, we form and fry. That's it.

Fresh-fried falafel arrives at its structural peak — the moment when the crust is at maximum crunch and the interior is still airy and steaming. That window is short. A falafel that sat for 15 minutes has already missed it.

⏱️ This means a slightly longer wait than you'd get at a place running a heat lamp. We think that's a reasonable trade.

4️⃣ It's Gluten-Free — And Still Ridiculously Crunchy ✅

This one surprises people.

Gluten-free and crunchy don't usually go together. Here's why ours is different:

Many commercial falafel preparations include wheat flour as a binder. It's an easy fix for the moisture problem that comes with using canned or improperly prepared chickpeas. Flour holds things together — but it also:

• Adds gluten (obviously)

• Changes the texture

• Is a sign that something earlier in the process wasn't done right

Because we start with properly soaked, raw chickpeas and fava beans, we don't need flour as a crutch. The natural starch in soaked, uncooked chickpeas binds everything together — the way it's been done for centuries.

The result? Falafel that is:

✅ Naturally gluten-free ✅ Free of fillers and binders ✅ Still achieves that deep, satisfying crunch ✅ Safe for celiac and gluten-sensitive diets

No compromises. No trade-offs. Just falafel the way it's supposed to be made.

🏆 What This All Adds Up To

We've been feeding the Greater Boston area for over 30 years from our kitchen at 687 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA.

The falafel on our menu isn't a product engineered for convenience. It's a dish built — ingredient by ingredient, decision by decision — to be as good as it can possibly be.

Here's the short version:

🫘 Fresh-soaked chickpeas & fava beans — soaked daily, never canned 🌿 House-made spice blend — 30 years in the making 🔥 Fried to order — every single time ✅ Naturally gluten-free — no flour, no fillers

That's not a marketing checklist. That's just what it takes to make falafel worth eating.

📦 Ready to Try It?

Our falafel is available for:

• 🥡 Takeout — stop by 687 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA

• 🍽️ Catering platters — perfect for gatherings and events

• 🏢 Corporate catering — office lunches across Greater Boston

Order FALAFEL FOR PICKUP & DELIVERY →

We'd love to show you what 30 years of doing this right actually tastes like.

ANI Catering & Cafe is a family-owned Armenian and Middle Eastern restaurant located at 687 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA. We've been proudly serving the Greater Boston area for over 30 years.