This is one of my favorite vegan restaurants ever!! I'm also obsessed with hummus and falafel so it's not a surprise to me that I love this place so much! I've been twice - ordered the charcoal grilled eggplant hummus plate with a side of chickpea fries and the second time the shawarma platter with a side of crispy cauliflower. Both amazing. Must try: chickpea fries and crispy cauliflower as either sides or appetizers. So good! You get large portions, its definitely good for two meals or share with a friend. Good value ! They have compostible containers for take away. They are always busy so prepare to wait unless you go at off peak times (like 3pm). They have lots of seating for parties of 2, 4 or 6! Family friendly too! read more

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FOOD/DRINK:  44/50 A vegan mediterranean restaurant? Truck yeah! (Comically enough, this biz started out as a truck vendor -- cool!) I was so excited to try this place. I've been twice now and both times were superb. It was a very smart move to make a chickpea fry. "Who says fries have to be unhealthy" their menu asks? Sign me up. And then sign me up again. I'll go to flavour town every freaking day! Yumgasm! Improvements? Their hummus is good but I honestly believe it could be better, contrary to popular belief. Let's be real here though, this place is the shit and it's going to stay busy for a long time! Wee! SERVICE/SUPPORT STAFF:  30/30 I've interacted with 5 of their staff, from the hosts, bartenders, and servers, and they were all super cool and down to earth people. I loved that. Adam was our server the second time I went and he was hilarious. It's hard for a server to pull off being funny, down to earth, efficient, AND a quality server at the same time. Adam nailed it; he was making me a my friend laugh all throughout the night while remaining respectful of our quality time. He was the icing on our (vegan) cake! ENVIRONMENT/VIBE:  18/20 Kid, granola, and slightly hippie themed. With the unisex bathrooms also making room for aliens (you'll see when you get there), and one of their slogans reading "The chickpea in me recognizes the chickpea in you. Namachickpea," this place is so unique and fun!!! The menu's are made out of old children books and apart of the restaurant looks like a kindergarten spot. So cool. Love it so much! OVERALL EXPERIENCE:  92/100 I will be back for all the reasons listed above. Cant wait to try other chickpea fry creations. NOMNOMNOM #HappyBelly !!! read more

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Incredibly filling, high quality food. The hummus & chickpea fries are definitely a favourite. Two platters and a loaded hummus fed four. They forgot our pitas, and have us a burnt one, which was annoying, but the rest of the food was so good we honestly didn't care. read more

Messed up our order and didnt bring everything we ordered. Pita was a soggy mess when it did come. After all that they have the audacity to charge a mandatory 18% gratuity. Im not going back and I would suggest you dont go either. read more

Always a fan of its food truck! Now that I have visited the restaurant, the food is as good as the food truck. Keep it that way. The shawarma & falafel are my favourite! The chickpea fries are delicious! The stools along the windows are not as comfortable, and that was my only gripe. read more

We got two plates, one with falafel and one with eggplant. They came with hummus, salad and chickpea fries. Chickpea fries tasted amazing and I would get them again. Salad was also really good because of the chutney dressing. Falafels were big and green inside. I thought they tasted really good but my boyfriend didn't like them as much, he thought they were too dry. Hummus was tasty. The eggplant that my plate came with was too dry and had no taste whatsoever. Make sure you get the right eggplant dish because I thought it came with the baked one and what I got was dry fried eggplant pieces. Service was okay, nothing special. Servers didn't look very engaged or happy to be there. Pros: -vegan and healthy options -chickpea fries, hummus, salad tasted great -falafels were okay -interesting atmosphere Cons: -server did not explain eggplant options and I ended up with the wrong dish -customer service was poor -bathroom was dirty -parking hard to find read more

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First visit as I have been trying to get my hubby to come with me to Chickpea. I love the look and feel of the restaurant. The whimsical feel of the mural at the front of restaurant and the menu covers reusing children story book covers is super cute! Service was ok, but our order was lost (printer error) which resulted it order get through to the kitchen. Waited for 30+ mins for our food. I stopped tracking the time as it was getting me in a funky mood. It didn't help that my last meal of that day was at 11am, I was needing sustenance badly. About 15 mins in, staff approached us asking what we ordered. Odd. Well, I kept seeing orders being served coming out of the pick up station, to other guests way after we were seated. When our food finally arrived I quickly had to take a bite as I was famished. Actually, after I took a picture of the pita then took a big bite Delicious! I would rate food 5 but the delay was not a good experience. We only found out when we were paying the bill we asked the server what happened to our order. We still tipped them properly Printer failure which resulted in our order not going through to the kitchen. Coming from working in full service in the past, typically would see a discount on bill or something to compensate for the long wait. Will we come back? Maybe. Probably will use SkipTheDishes instead. read more

Chickpea - kasum platter - Vegan Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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Low rating because this restaurant does not take COVID-19 seriously. The street patio was P-A-C-K-E-D with people like sardines in a tin can. Absolutely zero adherence to social distancing, as they jammed in the maximum number of tables into the temporary patio. All seats were filled. Staff also not wearing appropriate PPE. This is a spot where there would be high chance for transmission if someone was positive. Disappointed management would choose profits over public health and safety. read more

I can only see this as a lunch place and not a dinner joint. Maybe because I am not vegan/gluten free person or maybe I just don't like hummus much? Idk. But when I think of a vegan restaurant, I seriously do not think of this though. Note: I was totally loving the ambiance, the aesthetics, and the culture and style of the restaurant. I loved the decor and the art and the menus. I was totally rooting for this place to be amazing. For the price of a vegetarian restaurant though this is not worth your buck at the end of the day. I think it was more of just a hipster kinda of thing, and it was just targeting to the audience within the area. I want to say at the end of the meal I was not full, and I didn't feel satisfied at all. And I ordered a Wrap + side + an extra order of Chickpea fries. SIGH. I was totally rooting for you.... I don't seem myself returning except when I am with friends who can only eat vegetarian/gluten free. read more

I went to go check out the Veg Fest on East 4th and had planned to eat there but the lines were insane, so my friend suggested we go to the actual Chickpea restaurant rather than wait in the huge line for their food truck. We arrived and there was a line up at the restaurant as well, but not nearly as long. The waitress took quite a while to come take our orders, but given it was so busy it was understandable. My friend had a question about a certain dish and asked if the waitress could kind of describe it, and she just gave a blank stare and said ..."it's a sandwich." It was pretty odd. Anyway, I had never been there before so I decided on a platter (falafel) since you get a little bit of everything! I also added the crispy cauliflower for 3 bucks. I am not a vegan but this meal was delicious and satisfying. The portion was huge and the amount of hummus you get is like a full container you would buy in the store. I had lots of leftovers to take home which is always nice. I took away one star because of the service. The waitress didn't seem knowledgeable about the menu and I didn't get a friendly vibe... maybe because it was so busy? Not sure. Anyway, if I was in the area again I would go back to try another dish. read more

Chickpea - Vegan Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

I really like chickpea. It is an Israeli vegetarian joint that has a casual hipster feel to it. I came once during Dine Out Vancouver where my friend and I tried a whole bunch of dishes. It was a great deal, and I took some food home. Most of the dishes at Chickpea are varied in taste and pretty delicious. But my favourite is always the sabich. It is crispy fried eggplant and... well, thats it. Whats not to love about crispy fried eggplant?! Take out is great too! read more

I have to say that I am very unimpressed with the food at chickpea. The restaurant itself has a lot of hype, mainly being that it is Mediterranean inspired vegan, and supposedly healthy. Let me tell you! It is far from being healthy. As another person has already mentioned, everything is deep fried as well as greasy or soggy. The food that would otherwise be bland, is drowned in sauces or dressing. The sodium levels, again, are quite high. I ordered a falafel platter, and I was left feeling very very bloated from all the salt in my dish. I will not be returning any time soon. If any of you are going here with the assumption that this place is healthy, please rethink your decision. read more

Chickpea - Falafel platter - Vegan Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Very disappointed. I have been here before and love the French toast. I ordered it this time and not only was it burnt with a chunk of the middle missing it also seemed to be microwaved - very dried out and crunchy. Our meal took too long and people who came in after use were served first. I was excited to share this restaurant with my parents who were in town at the time and I have to say that after this experience I will not be returning. They also neglected to bring our almond milk for our coffees and did not address our concern about our two orders French toast. read more

I'm writing this review, because I sincerely want this place to do well. I've been here twice, first when they just opened and again last night. We were hoping some of the kinks would be worked out, but it's just not happening. TL;DR - lots of issues, confusing menu, mediocre taste, large portions, great staff. Will come back one more time and hope some things are fixed. Sorry, this review is long! MENU: This massive story book menu concept with confusing layout and way too many choices is overwhelming and makes me not want to return. Give me something that's one page. When you're starving and trying to navigate that menu, it's a mess. We get that you want to be different, but this is something I would improve immediately. There are tons of people here saying it's confusing. Make a change. Nuba has a similar idea and I can easily understand their menu. FOOD: The portions are massive. I ordered falafel platter and they could have taken 1-2 falafels away, half the hummus and half the chickpea fries and I would have been happy. You could seriously improve your margins, make more money and I'd still be happy. It was a bit insane! This particular dish was yummy though. Overall, the food is basic and doesn't have me craving more (simple flavor profile), but it's a good vegan option overall! Also, I always want to have the delicious sounding desserts, but I'd never have room!!! SAUCES: OK. You are not in a food truck here. You are also not "fast casual", you're a restaurant. The requirement to get up out of your seat and push your way past other tables to get through to sauces... makes no sense! The system is broken and it doesn't work. Either have a few caddys that come to your table, or charge me $0.50 for some sauce. We have a server for a reason. We are tipping for a reason. DRINKS: Please get some other, nicer wines. You have a nice beer selection. Why can't I go to a vegetarian restaurant and also have a nice glass of wine. Have a premium option or something. It tastes like grape juice and I would happily pay a bit more for something nicer. SERVICE: The server was so so sweet. Really nice and you have some great staff. You're clearly nice people to work for because the staff always seem to be smiling. DECORE: It feels a bit disjointed and agree with some others that the seating is a bit poorly planned, cramped and not that inviting. If the intention is lots of seat turnover, it feels that way. I definitely don't want to stick around in this restaurant to have more drinks or dessert. I want to eat and leave as fast as possible. Overall, I really want to love this place. I want you guys to fix the issues, remember the customer experience and focus on it a bit more. Vancouver needs you! We're rooting for you! Please make some of these changes so I can confidently bring more people and know that we're going to have a flawless experience. I'll try again in a few months with my fingers crossed. read more

45 min wait for cold food . 10 different food delivery companies showed up for orders while the customers in the restaurant waited and waited. The kitchen was flooded with take out orders with no priorities going to the main customer base. My partners dish showed up ice cold and came back warm but not hot with the explanation that once the roast cauliflower hits the hummus on the plate the dish cools down . A head server offered specialty drinks but the drink menu is pretty bleak for non drinkers . She said dessert could have been offered but she didn't want us to wait another 45 mins .. Too finish the experience our server didn't ask if we want to take home any of the food on the plates and just walked away after payment was made . Too many takeout orders and not enough attention to the customers filling your chairs . read more

Heard the hype about Chickpea from our vegetarian friends and decided to try it out. Food was good until I found a sticker in my hummus. Even with the gross discovery, the food was pretty good. However, I'm pretty turned off with the quality control. This is probably the first and last time trying their food. read more

Chickpea - Ordered via DoorDash. Food was great until I found a sticker in my food. Gross! - Vegan Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Food was decent not great. Fries were good flavour was lovely they have a mango sauce on it that I didn't love. Falafels were okay very over cooked I have found better at food stands in the street we ordered a side of hummus to go with it and it went so well together. Service was okay they weren't THAT friendly. I'm not mind blown whatsoever read more

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Love the food! They have great options and definitely recommend the humus and pita as it is delicious.

Interesting concept for a vegan restaurant. Has a nice, hipster, family friendly vibe. The portions are good, and the food is quite delicious. The shakshuka was incredible. I couldn't get enough of the chickpea fries. The entrée portions are very wholesome. But the taste is awesome, so you can easily devour a full entrée (which I just did about 5 minutes ago) and feel a little too full. Definitely coming back here, maybe with a book to read by the window seating. read more

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Love this place! I've only dined in once, but have ordered takeout many times since. The platters are all excellent, especially the kasum and noyster ones, which are my favourite. The food is definitely on the heavier side here, so eat here hungry! read more

As someone who isn't a fan of Mediterranean food (I just don't like pitas and bready stuff!), I am still giving this place 4/5, because I was still able to be impressed by Chickpea (and I'm able to give an objective review). Chickpea takes a twist to Mediterranean food & makes it fun & new, while still keeping the classy, homey feeling. And it's delicious. Although I don't like pitas, I ordered one anyway the first time I went. I was so impressed by how good each component of the dish was. You can tell they put thought and care into every one of their ingredients. You can tell by just even reading the menu. So if someone who doesn't like pitas can appreciate their pitas and be blown away, someone who really likes pitas will love this place. The second time I went, I ordered latkes & fried cauliflower, and I made the mistake of eating both appetizers for myself. They were so yum, but so fried, and my mouth started hurting within a minute. (I don't think these dishes are ones you're meant to eat yourself). I also tried bits of everyone's food, and the eggplant was something that my mouth had never experienced before. Like I said, each dish & ingredient was made with love. My only critiques are that the food takes too long to arrive, and that not ALL the food is mindblowingly amazing (I didn't like the fries). But the pros of the food outweighs the cons. Because of my pickiness of food genre, I wouldn't go to Chickpea voluntarily. However! I would not object if my friends would want to go again, because I was impressed the food was that good. read more

We had no idea what anything was on the menu. Me and my husband are both big meat eaters, but we were feeling adventurous the day we walked by this place! We ordered the sample platter with the 2 entrees. It was a ton of food! And all the salads were bottomless! Everything was so different and fresh and delicious read more

Chickpea - Sampler of all the salads. Chickpea fries. Hummus. - Vegan Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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Yum! Chickpea has some excellent gluten and dairy free options! Their brunch is out of this world, with beets and carrots on the side... did I mention they have fries made with mashed chickpeas They deliver through Skip too, for those times you want to be lazy at home. read more

Does someone want to explain the hype surrounding this place to me? My family and I came here for dinner a while back because we heard they offered vegetarian Mediterranean food. The wait was almost 30-45 minutes for a table for 4, so it's fair to say that I had my hopes up for the food to come. Even in my starving state though, they failed to deliver. Is it just me, or is their "multi-step" menu super confusing? I ordered a hummus schnitzelonim (tofu) plate, which was basically just a mound of hummus with 4 tiny pieces of tofu. At the end, I was left with a bunch of leftover hummus with nothing to eat it with. It seems like they have issues with proportioning out food appropriately. My parents went for the platter to share instead and let me tell you - that platter is not meant for sharing. I could finish that entire thing myself (you're basically just paying extra for a bit of salad and fries). Sure - maybe their hummus is tasty, but so is the roasted pine nut/red pepper hummus I buy at the grocery store for a fraction of the cost. Maybe this concept should've just stayed confined to a food truck. Doesn't really work in a restaurant where you need to charge outrageous amounts for a plate of hummus to offset the commercial rent. Safe to say that my family and I won't be returning! read more

My friend is obsessed with the Chickpea fries so we decided to pop by when we were in the area. We only got a plate of large fries and to tell you the truth, I was a bit disappointed. They were good but very bland and the sauces weren't amazing either. Maybe I was expecting them to be really good and it was too hyped up for me? Anyways, I'd come back to try their other dishes but I wouldn't get the fries again. read more

I used to love Chickpea, but the past 3 times I've been there the food was completely different and I didn't enjoy as much as I did in the past... Good things: Desserts, they are still amazing, specially the baclavas. The new french toast is really good too. Bad things: The latkes dish is really greasy and just not flavorful. The benedict tofu is good, and honestly it was the only part I ate. Still a complete vegan place which is awesome and I might come back for the french toast again. read more

I Love Chickpea Restaurant opened on Main Street and 27th street. Their menu focus is vegan dishing out mainly items made with - you guessed it - chickpeas. This is their second venture from their food truck. The restaurant is cutely themed with children's books and looks much like a nursery. I looks like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book. Hard wooden chairs, tables and high tops that are much too uncomfortable to sit on. Service although friendly is slow and unorganized. Our meals took close to an hour to arrive and our cocktails forgotten. We had to remind them and still it took another 20 minutes to arrive. The chickpea experience menu offers your choice of pita, salad, hummus plate and platter. Choose your main dish such as pashoot, falafel, sabich, etc. I recommend ordering the Platter since it comes with chickpea fries, hummus, side salad. This way you don't need to order side of fries or salad. Falafel Platter 16: their house mix of chickpeas, parsley, onions, garlic, and crunchy eggplant. I liked the side salad the most with olive oil lemon dressing. Everything else were also bland and not very interesting. After a few bits, they all taste the same. Even though the chickpea fries has a nice crunch on the outside and a soft centre. It is bland tasting. The sweet chilli sauce and amba mango sauce tastes like from a bottle you can get at Costco. I am quite disappointed with this restaurant. I was really hoping for a delicious healthy vegan cafe like Prasad and Omnivore. read more

I am going to write this as an homage to Pete Wells' famous review of Guy Fieri's restaurant (now closed). Why are the menus so gimmicky? Why did it take over 30 minutes for brunch? How do you eat off these plates that are too small for everyone's food? Why do you want our food to fall onto the table because of it? Why do you not have hot sauce? Who wants hot oil in its place? Why no vegan ketchup? Why is the eggplant that you claimed in your menu would be crispy, mushy? Who wants spring greens in their falafel? Where are the tomatoes? Cucumber? Why are your waffles dry and inedible? Why ask how our meal is and run away before we can answer? How do you make food that a even a vegetarian doesn't want to ever eat again? Why is this place so busy? And why are you still open?? read more

Still thinking vegan and there were intriguing-sounding things on the menu, so I decided to try the Chickpea sit-down restaurant (not the food cart). Interesting choice of locations as it's right next door to also-vegetarian Meet on Main. Busy starting around 6pm till maybe 8.30pm, so best bet is to squeeze in early or resign yourself to a later-night snack. Table turnaround doesn't look that bad, though, but you might be waiting outside the door as the waiting area isn't that big. Style of food is similar to that popularized by places such as Nuba and Jamjar, so nothing too weird and meat-eating friends out for Lebanese probably won't care. A good gathering place as it's vegan with gluten-free option -- this is pretty lowest-common-denominator food nowadays. [ChickTea ($3.50) mint, ginger, organic sugar, and lemon] Pass on this if you are are used to stronger-tasting pouch teas. If you do get it, let it steep for a long time or it will taste like hot water. Tasted like hot water with a hint of mint. Hopefully you will have better luck if you let it steep longer. Teacup cute but had what I hope was just tea residue in it. If the dishwasher didn't catch it the server should have as the second line of defense. Fail. [Cauliflower of Life, hummus plate option ($16), gluten-free option] The hummus plate portion is "organic hummus, medley of fresh vegetables in olive-oil-lemon dressing, with pita bread, and a pickle on the side". TIP: If you are converting your order to gluten free, check what you will get instead of pita. The sidebar says, "Make any dish gluten-free with Chickpea fries instead of a pita", but when I asked for my hummus plate to be gluten-free, I got a small salad instead of pita, and not fries. My "pickle on the side" was at the very bottom of this salad, and red from the piece of beet hiding there as well. Cauliflower advertised as "melt-in-your-mouth roasted cauliflower". But no, it wasn't. Fail. Tasted like bland steamed cauliflower with hints of lemon from the "lemon-garlic sauce and classic tahini". The hummus on the plate was tastier than this main. Pass on this and order something else. For $16 you do get a good chunk of hummus and even without any pita it can be a pretty filling portion. If you don't think you can finish, eat strategically to take most of the hummus home. [Sabich] This was my friend's order and I believe she got the Platter ($16). I was initially intrigued by this with it's promise of "flawlessly fried, crunchy eggplant", but our server waffled on whether it was crispy. Turned out the thinly sliced eggplant coated in something was nowhere close to crispy. No part of the limp slice I tried was crispy. Maybe it might have been crispy briefly out of the fryer, but when it hit the table, it just wasn't. Fail. The slice of eggplant I got to try tasted nothing special. [Chickpea Fries] TIP: If your order includes chickpea fries, make sure they come hot, not lukewarm. You risk them being oily but they taste better hot. Thin crunchy shell holding a creamy interior. Tastes like something bland with enough salt added to make the whole thing tasty, but not enough to be too salty. Strangely, didn't even taste like chickpea. But it's fun and tasty in the way deep-fried and salted things are tasty. We got a separate small order of please-be-hot chickpea fries, and it looks like those come inconsistently tossed with a sweet chili sauce which went well with them. Overall, the core food (hummus, salad, falafel) is nothing special. You would have to have a really refined palate for that kind of food to really discern whether their hummus is better than that of any other decent restaurant. The actual "special" component about the dishes (at least those we tried) were over-hyped on the menu and that lost marks from me. $16 for a plate of hummus is too much. Additional points lost for the teacup. Overall for taste and price I'd recommend JamJar's tasting plate instead. Might have to work out something with them if you need to go gluten-free though. read more

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Hummus was good but that's about it. Just absolutely terrible service. The server was not attentive and kept forgetting my drinks. Looks like I am not the only one who is feeling this way. Definitely not coming back to this place again. read more

Just noticed this place on the way to the record store the week of August 10th and decided to book mark this for future reference. I used to eat at their food truck for healthy options, therefore, I was very curious about their eatery. I came here after one of my appointments in the area. I love their food truck, however, sadly did not love this place. Firstly major high five to any eatery that has the confidence and the determination in this economy and real estate to graduate themselves from the Food truck to the full eatery. Some things are easier and better as just the Food Truck. They took a gamble which I respect. First of all the menu is overwhelming. Normally the foodie in me likes to be overwhelmed by choices, however, this wasn't the good overwhelmed. The menu was a bit confusing. Our waitress was a bit impatient with us as we took a while to order. Not too long to order, however, since it was busy with a line up that extended out the door, I can see where the pressure was coming from. I did playfully mention that I was overwhelmed by the selection and slightly confused, however, instead of offering suggestions or assisting me she just slightly sighed and said that she would be back. When we finally did decide she didn't come back for a good 15 minutes. Of course it was busy so I gave her the benefit of the doubt but I feel that we were completely ignored all together. Not once did she try to make eye contact or give body language that they would be with us. We finally ordered chick pea fries. I love chick pea fries, especially one from another eatery. I thought that the fries came even from eatery to eatery, however, this more of less had a similar structure to Storm Crow. Unlike another reviewer who complained about the temperature and the edibleness of the fries I felt that it tasted good as served. It wasn't piping hot, however, it was respectfully warm. The humus was okay, however, there were no additional spices and or method that made it stand out. It's brave of them to open an eatery close to another vegan eatery Meet on Main, however. Meet on Main hits on flavor notes that Chickpea still needs to work on, especially even the prices they charge. When the hype slows down a bit I may give them a second chance. I think I went here too soon when clearly they were still working on some kinks. Reduce and have a focus menu. With that focused menu concentrate on flavors. This is what I feel would make this place successful. read more

My first visit to Chickpea was fabulous. Lovely and safe indoor setting plus a good amount of outdoor seating. I was offered a comfortable 'window' seat inside and it was suggested that I get a falafel platter. The falafel was epic - I won't be eating falafel anywhere else again! There were many delicious flavours throughout the platter, but not overwhelmingly so; everything was well-balanced. Also, best fries ever! The hummus is described on the menu as legendary - I totally agree. A tasty ginger beer as my beverage and all was complete. All this delectable food paired with the warm, friendly staff who care about your overall experience, make Chickpea a highly recommended place to give your taste buds a happy adventure! Thank you so much for everything, Chickpea - I'll be back! read more

I can't believe I waited so long to visit Chickpea despite it being on my list for so long. The food was absolutely delicious and hearty. We ordered the large kasum fries, the falafel hummus plate and the hatzil baladi hummus plate which exceeded our expectations. The fries (OMG). We also ordered the pickled vegetables for $5 but were shocked on how small the portion was. And to top that off our server dropped a slice of carrot from it which was probably worth 50c!! Anyway at the end of our meal we said we were disappointed with the pickled veg and she didn't sound surprised and it was taken off our bill. Would have given a 4 star review if it hadn't been so always worth expressing opinions! Thank you Chickpea, cannot wait to visit again!! read more

Been craving decent falafel since moving to Vancouver a couple of years ago. The place is hopping with a good vibe, the decor is hip and the music loud. We were seated quite quickly after being told that we may have to wait 20-25 minutes so that was odd but also a nice surprise. Like many folks have experienced the service is slow but I don't mind that if the food is served hot and fresh and this was simply not the case with the falafel. Having a falafel served on your plate straight from the fryer is a magical experience. It's crispy and light on the outside and both dense and fluffy on the inside. It should be irresistible and delicious and that simply wasn't the case here. Our falafels were all slightly over done and less than luke warm meaning they had been sitting around for some time. The falafel should be cooked to order (which we expected due to the wait) and anything else is unforgivable at a restaurant like this. Everything else was good, the salads, the mint dressing, the chickpea fries but we could not get past the falafel. We did mention this to our waitress hoping it was a one off but by our nonchalant response it was clear that they simply don't care. They need to fly the cook to Israel and get a real falafel pita where they pop a fresh hot falafel in your mouth as soon as you walk in and the pita is so fresh that you almost don't know what to do with yourself. And don't get me started on the toppings - all for $4. Chickpea is an example of a restaurant getting it 75% right but missing focus on the details makes the experience one that is frustrating as it could have been great. read more

I've been to Israel and the Middle East, I've eaten Middle Eastern food for my entire life, so I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur on the matter. I am not a snob though and can appreciate that there are different takes on the cuisine. Chickpea is certainly a "take" on Middle Easter/Israeli food. It sits about average/nothing special, of course in the context of Vancouver and our non-existent Middle Eastern food scene, that is not bad(I mean come on Nuba, no mint in the fattoush?). Middle Eastern style lends it self nicely to vegan cooking, and the menu does take advantage of this offering a ton of options. We went on one of the first nights, so service was spotty, at least in front of house, the kitchen seemed to be a well oiled machine. Our table had no cutlery and it didn't come until our food did. Forgivable in the context of opening jitters. We got a pitcher of limonana, it was mostly ice, that composition does not lend itself too well to sharing among a group of three. My dad had a sabich wrap(fried eggplant). It had all the integrity of an Atlanta freeway. My mom had a cauliflower of life salad. It was passable. I had falafel and hummus. The hummus was good flavour wise but did not have the right creamy texture that it should. The falafel was crunchy and came with some of the fried eggplant, which was good. now that I've talked about the meal it is time to complain: Vegan food should NOT have to rely on meat substitutes. I don't want tofu schnitzel or tempeh schwarma. You can make fantastic vegan food out of vegetables without imitating meat. It adds nothing and cannot compare to the real thing. Sadly the owners and chefs at chickpea don't realize how much potential vegetables have and have fallen on the crutch of substitutes. Shakshouka does not need fake sausage(though I'm not sure how this being made sans egg, nor do I want to) and can be done vegetarian just fine. Middle Eastern food brings a wide variety of preparations and salads and there should be no need to try and fill out a menu with gimmicky things, Meet on Main a few doors down can do that for you. Conclusion: meh vegan Middle Eastern served in a gimmicky and family friendly environment. Will be kept alive by the nature of the neighborhood rather than any merit or quality. I hope they experiment and take risks(and make the food better). read more

Generally good enough food. I have an issue with the 15% 18% 20% options that face you when you put your credit scanner to the square card reader, for takeout. All the 'server' did was take the order (nothing out of the ordinary, straightforward order) and hand out the bag. I am told by the manager that you can opt out of this, but I didn't see the opt-out option, nor was I shown it. The 'gratuity' (by definition freely given) is calculated on the total of the food bill + the 5% PST. An extra bonus. This scam, that you now see in bakeries and takeouts where such add-ons were non-existent until the advent of card readers at checkouts, basically adds an extra cost of a minimum 16-17% to the cost of your purchase. If I ever went back to Chickpea (and I doubt I will at this point), I would pay cash and leave an amount of my choosing in cash if the interaction was pleasant. read more

Food was fine but service was chaotic and slow. Workers were just hanging out and having a party. Server didn't know anything about the menu. Overall fine but wouldn't go back. read more

Definitely not authentic and completely flavorless. The falafels were hard, dry, black on the outside and bright GREEN on the inside. It was the worst and weirdest falafel I've ever had. Even pre-made microwaved falafels from Donair Town would've been better. The eggplant was like stale thin shoe leather and the hummus was just bland. I know it's annoyingly busy with hyped hipsters who don't know any better but if you want full bodied authentic flavors hit up a traditional place somewhere else. read more

Really enjoyed the food here. Chickpea fries are a must try! The flavor is amazing! The falafel bowl was really tasty and the eggplant was just ok but the sauce made up for it. Had baklava with ice cream for dessert and loved it. Unfortunately the sweet waitress forgot our to go that we had put in and menus changed so they couldn't make it anymore. But the manager was nice and gave us a little discount for the inconvenience. Overall good experience and would definitely recommend! read more

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We had heard about this being a food truck for a while so when they finally opened up we are excited to finally give it a try. Awesome veggie friendly food and cool atmosphere inside. I love the designs and motifs on the walls and the overall mood is very chill and fun. The food we have had is all great. The cooked cauliflower head is to die for! Make sure to try their many sauces they have out to try. I tend to go for the shawarma platter as the tempeh is cooked just right and has a lot of flavor. So much hummus I was drowning in it :D read more