Vegan
American
Mediterranean
Fast food
Take-out
Falafel eatery offering multiple flavors of falafel along with salads, pita sandwiches, and other Mediterranean plates. One of a few branches, this one at Santa Barbara Public Market. Open Mon-Sat 11:30am-9:00pm, Sun 12:00pm-9:00pm.
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38 W Victoria St, Santa Barbara, California, USA
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- Accepts credit cards
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Last update on 19 Apr 2024 by geometric-noise
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Added by Hylton on 27 Oct 2019
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42 Reviews
First Review by 00misha
yungveg17
Points +1169
Nice all-vegan option downtown - Edit
Gotta love 100% vegan places. The portions here are quite large, but this is rather welcome as it's a tad pricey for what it is.
Read moreI like the falafel pita and their chips and guac are quite good (though again, rather expensive at $10).
Pros: All vegan
Guest
MamRams
Points +34
Very good vegan food - Edit
Good vegan food
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2022-06-15
Pros: All vegan options, Food was very good
Cons: Counter person was not very friendly and did not r
Guest
rionthelion
Points +346
Loved it. Fresh. Fun. Creative. - Edit
Great experience and great food.
Read morePros: All vegan, Price , Creativity
Guest
vickerbasket
Points +1253
A Bit Pricey - Edit
Located in Santa Barbara Public Market, with plenty of outdoor seating. The menu consists of 5 flavors of falafel: original, spicy, crunchy, sweet potato, and kale, with which they pair into burgers, salads, and plates. We got their fala plate and the avocado burger. I couldn’t tell which falafel was the original and which was the kale, but the one with black caraway seeds (I think) was better. The fala plate comes with pickled cabbage, pickled red cabbage, quinoa tabouleh, and a cucumber salad. Hummus and tahini on the side. My favorite part was the pickled cabbage, love that they put a generous amount of black pepper. The avocado burger was disappointing. I think there was a sweet potato falafel smashed in there but the whole burger was very soft and lacked texture. It also comes with this spicy sauce that we weren’t a big fan of.
Read moreAll in all, I’m glad we finally tried this place but I don’t think we’ll be coming back any time soon.
Pros: All vegan, The cabbage slaw
Cons: Pricey, Avocado burger too monotonously soft, Wish they offered more variety in dishes
Guest
CharlesDugan
Points +83
Best Quantity for Dollar in SB - Edit
This is another restaurant that I had been planning on writing a review for for some time now - but did not get to it.
Read moreWhen I first started eating at Fala Bar, I was disappointed. This was due to a personal preference. I love falafels, but I like the softer almost cake like style that I used to get at Baba's Falafels (a vegetarian falafel restaurant that was in Isla Vista in the 80's and 90's). Fala Bar serves the style of falafel that has a rather hard outer shell, with relatively large chunks of hard chickpeas. I am not sure which style is more "authentic" in a given region, as I am sure that some people have the opposite preference to mine.
However, Fala Bar is very good at allowing substitutions. One of their burgers uses a sweet potato and lentil patty, instead of a falafel. I liked that sandwich, and the very friendly staff also allowed me to substitute the lentil sweet potato patty for the falafel in their other sandwiches.
Recently, I gave their falafels another chance, and tried the "spicy" one. It was still not my preference, but it wasn't as hard as I remembered them being from my first tries. So, I have another option when I am not in the mood for sweet potatoes.
Another substitution that I like to make, is getting Baba Ghanoush instead of Hummus. Their Hummus is only okay for my taste, and their Baba Ghanoush is much better.
I am also looking forward to trying their tacos and burrito. Previously, they were only available at their LA location, but they have recently been added to the Santa Barbara location.
Other reviewers noted that Fala Bar is pricey. In general, I would agree with that. However, ALL of the vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Santa Barbara are pricey. When VeganGreenGo (the best food quantity for your money vegan option in Santa Barbara) closed - Fala Bar and Modern Times became the best value in Santa Barbara. Now that Modern Times also closed, despite being "pricey" in general, Fala Bar is now the best value in Santa Barbara. If you sign up for their email list, you can also receive coupons that increase the value of your meal.
One last critique - and this is true of ALL Santa Barbara vegan restaurants - WHITE FLOUR BREADS!
Updated from previous review on 2022-02-23
Pros: Prices for Santa Barbara, Friendly staff, Substitutions, Baba Ghanoush
Cons: Not my preferred Falafel style, White Flour
Guest
hlmitchell
Points +245
Amazing falafel burgers - Edit
I have not tried falafel patty burgers until coming here and the flavors are just wonderful! The Kale burger is fantastic and I recommend it for anyone’s first visit.
Read moreThe burgers are very large and are served a la carte. I had their sweet potato fries too which were actually not that great but oh well!
Guest
Jesca24
Points +85
Wish I had two stomachs - Edit
Stopped here after a visit to the Santa Barbara botanical gardens, wish I could’ve kept eating and eating. I had the kale burger, my husband had the falafel sandwich, and our friend had the Southwest burger, we all shared the sweet potato fries which are excellent. Love the spicy dipping sauce and of course the hummus and tahini.
Read morePros: Fresh & organic , Made to order , Larger portions
Cons: Pricey but worth it
Guest
AWanderingBadger
Points +259
Yummy hit the hit - Edit
Good falafel 🥙 will go back😄
Read moreGuest
swedash
Points +1798
Fantastic food! - Edit
The food was fantastic and we couldn’t even eat it all because the portions are so large! So even though it’s pricey, it’s really two meals for an ok price and the food is so good it’s worth it.
Read morePros: Large portions, Healthy, Many options
Cons: Expensive
Guest
AlwaysForAnimals
Points +270
Typical Mediterranean takeout - Edit
Offers salads and sandwiches, nothing out of the ordinary.
Read morePros: Vegan, Good quality, Big portions
Cons: Very expensive , Nothing I couldn’t make at home , Mediocre taste
Guest
WillSzo
Points +84
Meh - Edit
My food was just ok. Not a lot of flavor. Also, expensive for what you get. I was happy to have the vegan option in town and tried it a couple of times; but, probably will not eat here again.
Read morePros: Vegan
Cons: Expensive, Long wait , Bland food
Guest
LarryAdler
Points +169
Fantastic Falafels - Edit
The falafel sandwich’s are great. They are moist inside and crispy on the outside. They have are variety of flavors from original to spicy and sweet potato. A regular whenever I’m in Santa Barbara. They also have locations in LA too.
Read morePros: Reasonably priced, Variety of falafel flavors, Fresh ingredients
Guest
KennyChism
Points +20
so good - Edit
they have not only an amazing variety of options, but the atmosphere in the public market is also really fun.
Read morePros: awesome variety, great atmosphere
Cons: a bit pricey
Guest
Olush
Points +75
I loved it. - Edit
Had a falafel burger and it was delicious. I usually don’t have luck with falafels but this was a nice surprise. A few different sauces. I liked the fries. They are very careful with salt. Which is good for some but I like salt so needed to add it to my fries.
Read morePros: All vegan, Great sauces.
Cons: It takes a little bit of time to get the order.
Guest
00misha
Points +390
Overall good experience - Edit
Worker was polite, they have a nice-sized menu. The food did take awhile to come out, and they were out of tabouli for one of our dishes and had to substitute quinoa. I really enjoyed my falafel burger, it was a big portion and they did a good job. The sweet potato fries were just okay, they could be a bit crisper and thinner. The prices were pretty good for Santa Barbara. You can find the place inside the Santa Barbara Public Market
Read morePros: All vegan, Great falafel burgers
Guest
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