Chickpea

I’m leaning towards 3.5 Stars for this review. Chickpea is a fairly decent option in the Newark Penn station (which really is a dungeon), but nothing that will stop you in the tracks.
I got the falafal pocket and you get 5 good sized falafals in a pita pocket. You can choose your type of hummus — I opted for the red pepper hummus, which was really the best part of the pocket. Next, you also get to choose your toppings… pepppers, chickpeas, corn, lettuce et al, and round it off with a sauce. I chose tahini. The portions are very generous and I wasn’t able to finish mine.
Since the falafals are baked (not fried) they are soft/​mildly soggy and not crispy (Mamouns has spoilt me for life). So it would be great if they would give the option of warming up the falafal — that would make this meal taste fresher and definitely bring me back in the winter (when I don’t want to eat cold sandwiches).

While in between trains at Newark’s train station I wondered if there would be any place to get some fresh food. Chickpea makes everything to order– I had an excellent mozzarella and tomato sandwich. They also make salads and middle eastern dishes. This is really your best option at this train station.

Price is low, food quality is good, chipotle hummus is spicy. What else do you need.
Ive never been to a chickpea before so i didnt know what to expect but overall i was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. I got the Shawafel. which is a mix of shawarma and falafel. It was really quite tasty.
That was layed over a layer of rice with little addins on the side. The hummus i got was spicier than i thought it would be.
However, i wouldve liked more than one piece of pita with my side of hummus.
Overall will probably make this a regular lunch spot.

I ordered a chicken shawarma and falafel pita pocket to-​go for my walk towards the Prudential center for a Devil’s game.
This is a healthier alternative to the other restaurants in Penn Station. The concept is very similar to Chipotle but I don’t think its as popular, I got my pocket loaded with corn, peppers and olives. And I had tahini sauce as well. The sauce collected all the way to the bottom so I had to throw out ¹⁄₈ of the pocket. Oh well.
I like that the card board to-​go box with a little bit of effort makes a easy carry vessel for you to eat your pocket on the go.
I would order from here again if I was hungry and had time before my train departs.

Fast and friendly, the gal who helped me with a falafel (felafel?) wrap late on Saturday night. She loaded it up for me with lots of falafels, lots of spicy hummus and the right amount of chopped cucumbers and Tabbouleh. You can’t go wrong with lots of tzatziki sauce either, even if it tried to drip everywhere.
Very delish. Very tasty. Very filling. And at $ 6.37 with tax, very inexpensive.