Fava Pot, web site, The Shops at West Falls Church, 7393 D Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA, 703-204-0609 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | BizJournals | Washingtonian | WaPo | TripAdvisor | zabihah | NoVA Mag | Ylp]
[Fava Pot] Must-Try LAMB FATTAH from EGYPT to the States – Falls Church, VA (Egyptian Food)
Finally, this dreadful strip mall has a good place indeed an excellent place. Might this Egyptian restaurant be the best Middle Eastern food around right now? Everything tastes fresh and vital, including the more or less standard Lebanese appetizers such as hummus. The veal kabob is a welcome change of pace, if you would like to try something new. This place attracts a real crowd: it is very well-lit, extremely comfortable to sit in, actually feels yuppie and bland, but in terms of the food it really delivers. A welcome addition to the repertoire. I should note that while it is reasonably priced for the quality you get, this does not qualify as a super-bargain restaurant.
Fava Pot does not deliver on taste or what the menu describes. We ordered a soup and four mezze, none of which were good. I’ve been to Egypt in friends’ homes as well as restaurants where I ate wonderfully. Fava Pot’s dishes were bad to adequate.
The foul was all kinds of wrong as were the pickled eggplant, roast potatoes and baba ghanoush. The squab and freekeh soup my husband ordered came to him as a bowl of broth, missing the described ingredients. When questioning their absence, he was told they were “blended” into the soup. Seriously? And this place draws a crowd? Did something change recently?
Prof. Cowen,
Thanks for a great review! Your review lured me back to try Fava Pot again after a disappointment several months ago.
I have now visited Fava Pot’s brick & mortar restaurant in Falls Church several times and I now like this restaurant. Initially I didn’t like it. I tried them a few days after their soft open and the food (at that time) really disappointed me.
Fava Pot has turned things around. Whatever initial kinks they needed to work out, have been worked out. Thus far I’ve had the breakfast eggs with fava beans (filling and tasty!) and the breakfast falafel wrap (also very tasty and with a good serving of greens inside).
In particular, I really love their Squab with Freekeh (smoked wheat berries) Soup. Ordered some last night and it knocked my socks off – – I wish I had ordered two of them! I also tried the Om Ali dessert, and enjoyed it. Kind of like a sweet, milky bread pudding with coconut and pistachios in it. I’d get it again.
Finally, the Egyptian style coffee is STRONG stuff. They don’t traditionally serve it with milk. I got it to go but it was too strong for me, so I went next door to the well-known sub chain and got some milk and some artificial sweetener since Fava Pot didn’t have any of the artificial stuff and I’m not supposed to have raw sugar for medical reasons. Yet I absolutely LOVED the various spices in the coffee. Kind of reminds me of a coffee version of an Indian Chai tea. Advice to the uninitiated: Egyptian coffee is strong with the caffeine force. One medium sized cup literally had me wired all day…and made it hard for me to sleep at night. Next time I’ll only have half the cup and save the other half in the fridge for the next day. BUT…if you need a jolt to wake up for work, it’ll do the trick. I learned that through experience!
Fava Pot until just this week was open at 7:30 am for breakfast and I was going to be a breakfast regular, but they just changed their hours and now open at 8:30 or 9:00 am depending on the day. Sadly, for me, this is too late as I need to be in downtown DC by that time for work. So I can’t get breakfast there anymore.
I will definitely return to try more items. Fava Pot is a welcome addition to the range of Falls Church Middle Eastern restaurants.
For other readers, I agree with Prof. Cowen: It’s not a cheap restaurant, but the food’s GOOD.
It was really very good I ate with my husband and kids all of us liked what we ordered