Restaurant Review: Banzo

Name: Banzo

Locations:

Sit down: 2105 Sherman Ave, Madison, WI 53704

Food cart: Library Mall (Tuesday/Thursday), Cap Square (Wednesday/Friday, on King & Main St)

Ambience: Food cart/casual restaurant

Price: $$

Best Dish: The Harvest

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Every day from April to December on Library Mall, there's a collection of food carts that park themselves to serve lunch to the hundreds of students, professors, professionals, and passerbys who want to grab a quick lunch. There's a whole variety of food - with health food, giant spring rolls, Ethiopian food, Thai food... there's pretty much a food cart for every craving you could possibly have. Sometimes, you crave crispy falafel tucked into an impossibly soft pita, surrounded by the nuttiness of tahini and crunchy cabbage. On those days, you would be well advised to head to Banzo, which has managed to distinguish itself from the many other food carts as one of the best in Madison.

They also has a sit down restaurant, if you're in the mood to drive out to the Fair Oaks neighborhood. But they started as a food cart, and they do it well. They have a short, to the point menu that makes choices easy, and offer two vegetarian options - the Banzo and the Harvest. In under ten minutes (assuming the line isn't too long), you can have a pita pocket filled to the brim with a portable lunch. Although they have platter versions of everything, which come with rice and a side of chips, Banzo shines with their pitas.

My favorite, The Harvest ($9.50), is stuffed with falafel, deep fried eggplant, tahini, cabbage, pickles, and surprisingly - a handful of kettle cooked potato chips. The potato chips really make the meal, and add a delightful punch of salty goodness in the middle of a bite. My only qualm with the Harvest is that the eggplant can get a little greasy and saturated with oil. I wish they would bread it beforehand so it would soak up some of the oiliness. However, it still remains my favorite of their options. I recommend supplementing the pita with a squirt of their yogurt sauce and chili sauce.

Banzo has streamlined and Americanized Middle Eastern food into a quick, delicious meal - so if you're looking for authentic shawarma, they're not your best bet. But they have long been one of my favorite restaurants. With their bright, lime green cart, they're well known. I recommend getting there early if you're looking to leave quickly. I still head straight to them whenever they're on Library Mall whenever I need to quickly satisfy that craving for falafel.