324 Harvard St, Brookline; (617) 738-3577
Tip-free
There is no shortage of falafel in Coolidge Comer. Rami’s is the newer kid on the block, looking like a Middle Eastern fast-food shop. The basic falafel sandwich ($3.95), gives you eight of these babies packed into a pita bread pocket with tahini sauce and your choice of vegetables (lettuce, purple cabbage, tomato, cucumber, pickles, etc.). For 500 more, you may add a dollop of hummus or baba ganoush. There is also a homemade sizzling hot sauce available, but be sure to ask for it
Other dinners include grilled chicken ($4.95), cooked in spices and topped with minced onions and tahini sauce, with salad. Shawarma, usually made with lamb, is here a turkey-based meat dish in which thin shavings are sliced from a rotating block of seasoned, slowly-cooked meat. Another specialty here is the boreka a hand-sized puffed pastry pie filled with chopped meat, spinach, or potato. The dough is crisp and flaky, topped with sesame seeds, making for a light snack item (it takes a couple to fill you up). These are all about $2 each. There is even an apple boreka, topped with powdered sugar, which can be a dessert
A special tip from Mine: This is a kosher restaurant, which also means they close around 2 on Friday afternoon and stay closed on Saturday. Sometimes this results in special deals on fresh items they can’t keep. It’s worth checking out if you’re in the area on a Friday afternoon.
