Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek—however they mix it and fry it, Falafel is a binder. At a moment when the news from the Middle East is so horrific, small reminders of our shared, borderless humanity still surround us. Something as simple as a cross-cultural dish like falafel reminds us that people have always exchanged ideas, ingredients, and traditions. Long before modern politics and dogmas divided the region, food traveled freely.
“We have Palestinian customers, Jordanian, Lebanese, Israeli of course, Egyptian—you name it,” says Cathy Noar, co-owner of Aba’s Falafel in Rhinebeck. She and husband Roy Noar left Israel for New York in 2005. “It’s a shared dish. Falafel brings us together.”
Falafel’s origins remain contested. Egyptians point to ta’ameya, their fava-bean fritter eaten for breakfast, while Levantine cuisines rely primarily on chickpeas and herbs. But wherever it began, falafel has long since outgrown any particular national identity.
“There really is no singular ‘Lebanese cuisine’ in the traditional sense,” says Julie Hamrah Fels, owner of Hamrah’s in Kinderhook. Raised in Columbia County in a Lebanese-American family, she describes a cuisine shaped by geography and migration. “There is food that is eaten throughout the geography of the Middle East with variations that have to do with location—like seafood by the coast or lamb in more mountainous regions.” Those subtle variations, she adds, are part of what makes the food so fascinating. “I love talking to people about what they grew up with and the differences.”
Here are eight restaurants across the region serving their own version of falafel, each rooted in a slightly different culinary tradition.
Hamrah’s
3 Albany Avenue, Kinderhook
Hamrah’s brings Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean cooking to Kinderhook from a small storefront near the village green. Owner Julie Hamrah Fels began selling Lebanese dishes at local farmers’ markets before opening the restaurant as a brick-and-mortar in 2024. Her menu emphasizes the bright, herb-forward flavors common across the region—pita wraps, rice bowls, salads, and savory hand pies alongside staples like hummus and shawarma. Many ingredients come from nearby farms, including meat from Kinderhook Farms and seasonal produce sourced locally.
Falafel here follows the Levantine approach: dried chickpeas are soaked overnight, then ground with parsley, garlic, onion, and spices before frying. The method produces the telltale green interior that signals a fresh herb mixture and a texture that stays light and crisp rather than dense. Served with tahini, pickled vegetables, and warm pita, the fritters fit naturally alongside hummus or baba ghanoush.
Aba’s Falafel
54 East Market Street, Rhinebeck
Aba’s Falafel may be the Hudson Valley’s most focused expression of the dish: a small lunch counter devoted almost entirely to falafel and the salads that accompany it. Cathy and Roy Noar first introduced their recipe at Hudson Valley farmers’ markets before opening their Rhinebeck storefront, where the menu remains intentionally minimal—falafel, hummus, salads, and roasted eggplant called sabich.
Noar first developed the falafel recipe with her own dietary needs in mind, eliminating flour and fillers entirely. The result is a mixture made primarily from chickpeas, herbs, and spices that happens to be naturally gluten-free and vegan. With the quality of the falafel at the core of the business it is consistently delicious and addictive, served with tahini and Israeli-style salads like cucumber-tomato, cabbage, and onion with sumac.
Opa! Gyros
333 Wall Street, Kingston
In Kingston’s Stockade District, Opa! Gyros offers a quick tour of the Greek side of the Mediterranean table. The casual restaurant focuses on street-food classics—gyros carved from the spit, souvlaki skewers, Greek salads, and pita sandwiches—alongside a range of vegetarian options that include falafel.
Falafel appears in pita sandwiches or as part of larger platters served with salad, rice, or fries. Like many Greek café interpretations of the dish, the chickpea fritters are often paired with tzatziki rather than tahini, bringing the cool tang of yogurt and cucumber into the mix.
In a place best known for lamb gyros and grilled meats, the falafel offers a reminder that Mediterranean cuisines overlap constantly—Greek tavernas, Levantine kitchens, and street-food traditions sharing ingredients, techniques, and, inevitably, the humble chickpea fritter.
Alons Uzbek Halal Grill
3650 Route 9W, Highland
Falafel appears on the menu at Alons Uzbek Halal Grill alongside dishes that trace a much longer culinary journey across Central Asia. Opened by Uzbek-American couple Sobir and Nayoba Murtazaev, the Highland restaurant brings the flavors of Uzbekistan—one of the historic crossroads of the Silk Road—to the Hudson Valley.
Uzbek cuisine draws from Persian, Turkic, Russian, and broader Middle Eastern influences, and that layered history shows up throughout the menu. Falafel arrives in several forms: as a sandwich on house-made Uzbek naan bread or in bowls with saffron basmati rice, vegetables, and hummus or tahini.
In a restaurant best known for dishes like pilov rice, lagman noodles, and manti dumplings, falafel becomes another example of how food travels across cultures—chickpea fritters from the Middle East finding a natural home within the wider culinary map of Central Asia and the Hudson Valley alike.
Masa Midtown
666 Broadway, Kingston
At Masa Midtown, falafel sits within a broader Mediterranean conversation shaped by the cooking of Turkish-born chef Özlem Oguzcan-Cranston. The Kingston restaurant grew out of her years working as a caterer and private chef in New York City before she and her husband relocated upstate and transformed a long-vacant Midtown building into a welcoming neighborhood restaurant.
The menu draws on homestyle Turkish cooking—mezze spreads, kebabs, yogurt sauces, and breads meant for sharing around the table. Falafel appears alongside those dishes as part of the wider Eastern Mediterranean pantry, often paired with hummus, tahini, and vegetables or folded into pita sandwiches. In that context, the chickpea fritter becomes one more example of how the cuisines of Turkey, the Levant, and the Mediterranean overlap—different culinary traditions meeting comfortably on the same table.
Allan’s Falafel
115 Main Street, Chester
In the Orange County village of Chester, Allan’s Falafel has built a loyal following around the kind of Mediterranean cooking that crosses borders as easily as falafel itself. The restaurant serves a broad menu of Middle Eastern staples—shawarma, kebabs, hummus, and grape leaves—alongside the chickpea fritters that give the place its name.
Falafel here follows the classic Levantine formula: chickpeas ground with herbs and spices, shaped into balls, and fried until crisp outside and tender inside. Served in pita sandwiches or as part of larger platters with salads and tahini, the fritters sit comfortably alongside dishes that reflect the wider Mediterranean table. In that way Allan’s menu mirrors the story of falafel itself—an everyday street food that traveled across the Middle East and Mediterranean before landing, happily, in the Hudson Valley.
The falafel Ziatun in Beacon. Owner Kemal Jamal is originally from Palestine.
Ziatun
244 Main Street, Beacon
Ziatun brings Palestinian cooking to Main Street. The restaurant centers its menu on Levantine staples—hummus, baba ghanoush, grilled meats, and mezze spreads designed for sharing. Falafel appears both in pita sandwiches and as part of larger mezze platters paired with olive oil, pickled vegetables, and warm bread. Palestinian falafel tends to lean heavily on parsley and cilantro along with cumin and garlic, creating a fragrant mixture that fries into deeply aromatic fritters. The bright herbal flavor contrasts nicely with creamy tahini and the sharp bite of pickled turnips.
Aegean Breeze
327 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington
Aegean Breeze has been serving Greek and Mediterranean cuisine in Great Barrington since 2002, drawing inspiration from the seaside tavernas of the Greek islands. The menu emphasizes grilled meats, seafood, and a range of small plates designed for sharing. Falafel appears among the mezze offerings served with hummus and vegetables. In this setting, the dish functions less as a sandwich filling and more as a shared appetizer, arriving alongside other plates like saganaki or stuffed grape leaves. The presentation reflects the communal style of Mediterranean dining where a table gradually fills with dishes meant to be passed around.
This article appears in April 2026.
Naji’s!! In Great Barrington