Apparently I ordered incorrectly. I asked for a falafel sandwich in my broken French, which seemed…read morelike a safe bet at a middle eastern restaurant where it's one of only 6 or 7 things on the big menu on the wall. But when I asked for it (and pointed - she knew what I was saying), the waitress had to consult her peers to see if my outlandish request was possible to fulfill. It was, but she wasn't too happy about it. She said it would be 5 minutes, which is a lot in this fast paced, high-turnover deli where, I now understand, most people just point to the deli items they want in the case.
15 minutes later and after several targeted, forcefully annoyed glances back at the waitress with whom I had placed my order, I had my falafel sandwich. My expectations were pretty low at this point, but the sandwich was actually very good. Not the best falafel I've ever had, but one of the better incarnations I've had in Paris.