BALADE Your Way-Fast Casual Eatery in the Fashion District

Editor's Note: Balade Your Way is ideal for picnicking, beach outings, and entertaining in the busy times ahead when you crave delicious Middle Eastern inspired food.

Concept: A fresh and healthy fast-casual eatery exuding the allure of Middle Eastern markets, Balade Your Way was created in 2015 by restaurateur Roland Semaan who studied hotel and restaurant management in Switzerland at Cesar Ritz College and earned a master's degree in the culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University. Semaan, also the owner of Balade in the East Village, has carried many of its menu offerings to Balade Your Way's new grab-and-go concept in the Fashion District.

Cuisine: Semaan brings high-quality, wholesome Mediterranean flavors to delicious rice bowls, salads, and pita bread made on premises fresh daily. Customers can customize their selections of classic dishes with a variety of palatable options.

Select from a base of pita wrap, rice bowl or salad. Add proteins like beef or chicken shawarma cooked daily on large, rotating skewers and seasoned to perfection with Balade's secret spice blend. Other protein choices include sauteed house-made beef sausages and tender lamb kebabs. New to the menu is the impossible kebab, which, despite its meaty texture and flavor, is completely vegan.

After choosing your proteins, top it off with fresh greens, house-made baba ghanouj, pickles, pickled turnips, jalapeno, olives, and feta. Customers can choose all, or a combination of their favorite toppings for the same price. Sauces include tahini, garlic whip, yoghurt cucumber, spicy red pepper and spicy green. Pita wraps are then assembled and placed into our beautiful custom- built wood-fire oven, made from brick and mosaic, for light toasting.

Cold and hot appetizers and dips are also available from Balade Your Way grab-and-go counter. Cold dips include classic Hummus made from pureed chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon; Mouhamara, a sweet and spicy blend of red pepper, molasses, walnuts and pomegranate; Labne, a kind of yogurt that is strained to remove whey yielding a thicker consistency.

Hot appetizers include kebbe, a finely minced cracked wheat shell stuffed with lamb, beef, and almonds; fatayer, a Lebanese phyllo pie made with spinach, feta cheese, and almonds; rakakat, a Lebanese pastry made of blended cheese; and falafel, a chickpea, gluten-free fritter.

Desserts include mouhalabie, a milk pudding topped with pistachio crumbs, rose syrup, and baklava fingers.

Design: Balade Your Way is an industrial space with high ceilings designed to feel like a modernized middle eastern market; a narrow walkway lined with beautiful wooden hewn tables for dining in, as well as a live wall with cascading plants and Mediterranean spice jars line the walls.

Takeout and Delivery: Takeout and delivery are offered in addition to catering for private parties. Orders can be placed on the website. Delivery platforms include Grubhub, Delivery.com, DoorDash and Uber Eats. Click here to view the delivery menu.

LOCATION: 144 West 37th Street (Fashion District) New York, NY 10018. WEBSITE: www.baladeyourway.com, a??PHONE: 212.695.6969 a??INSTAGRAM: @baladeyourway

HOURS: Monday - Friday 11am - 8pm

Photo Credit: Balade Your Way

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