Shawarma Guys finds a spot on Grape Street

There’s Mediterranean food in South Park, thanks to the arrival of the Shawarma Guys food truck. For the past month or so, it’s been parked six days per week outside The Bottle House liquor store. As taco truck devotees can attest, that’s within shouting distance of the Target Express parking lot where Mariscos Nine Seas and Taqueria Vegiee successfully hold down the mobile kitchen fort.

South Park feels like the suburbs in a lot of ways, so I’m always impressed when it does something urban like support a food truck scene, especially if the truck yields street falafel.

Shawarma Guys showed up in late January, with a friendly partner or two greeting early customers with samples and follow-up questions geared towards fine-tuning the menu to suit the neighborhood. A month in, they’ve adjusted the menu to feature Australian wagyu beef shawarma, chicken two ways, and yes, falafel.

I played the skeptic card on the wagyu, and received assurances of its certified designation. I can only attest the strips of beef in my shawarma plate was crazy tender, kind of like the leather had been taken out of the chew. It came dressed in tahini and served over rice, with a side of garlic paste that I applied liberally, because really, it would have been a shame not to.

I liked it well enough for $15, and a couple chicken dishes were okay, but for the best value here I would skip ahead to the falafels, spiced with green herbs and fluffy kind of like hush-puppies, but more satisfying to gnash between your teeth. Like the beef, they can be ordered as an entrée ($12), wrapped in a pita sandwich ($8), or a la carte ($5).

The plate comes with a rotating cast of sides: some, like Iraqi chick pea salad tinted red by diced beets may not make the permanent menu, but the jalapeno hummus should; it hits just the right level of spice.

Shawarma Guys seems to be off to a good start, though I may be biased because it gives me a place to get garlic paste and falafel while out walking my dog. And what am I paying city rents for, if not that?