Ottawa Foodies

8

Had the Veggie Plate for lunch this week from the Hazeldean (Grant Crossing) location. It was everything a shawarma restaurant vegetarian plate should be: tasty, satisfying, and huge. Sesame sauce drizzled over the falafel, side containers of garlic sauce and hummus. The veggie plate is just like the shawarma plates, except the chicken or beef are replaced with 2 big falafel, 2 roasted eggplant slices, and a nice pile of roasted cauliflower.

1

Had their family platter a few times (mixed, yellow rice) as well as their trio (chicken shawarma with potatoes) and am quite satisfied. The only thing I would have liked is for them to be even closer to Main Street in Stittsville, it would be more convenient for me :)

Wait times can be long during rushes even if you call ahead but the food is quite good. Not sure if better than shawarma prince but it's much more convenient for me, especially their family platter which leaves leftovers for the next day. Their humous and garlic sauce are great.

Nice and clean inside, Shawarma Prince on Hazeldean always had a greasy floor.

Honestly, I don't understand people lining up for 5 guys next door when there's this much better alternative.

6

1

On Monday I had a large chicken shawarma.The chicken was so dry and COLD!!!

I dined with two different friends, Both of my buddies also HATED it.

I WOULD STILL RECOMMEND SHAWARMA PRINCE AT HAZELDEAN EVEN THOUGH THERE PRICES ARE A LITTLE BIT HIGHER.

2

I received the flyer for the "Grand Opening" of Mr. Shawarma in Stittsville. They're "Grand Opening" special was a sandwich, potatoes, can pop for a limited time for $3.99. Best deal I've seen all summer! My husband sends me to pick up dinner on a Saturday night, and what better chance to try the new Shawarma place down the street.
Located in the Lowes parking lot, right beside Five Guys Burgers & Fries, you're sure not to miss it. On the door, there's the sign "Grand Opening Special: $3.99 one order per person". I don't recall the flyer indicating any restrictions, so I ask the gentleman taking the order. He said "One order per person." I completely respect restrictions set out by businesses, but since I was not warned of this (seems a little bait-n-switch, if you ask me) I asked how I was able to get the second special so that my husband could eat too. He told me to bring the first order to the car, and come back for the second. I agreed. I looked at the 5 men working the counter, and 3 of them were working on 1 family platter, and 1 was talking to a friend over the counter who conveniently cut in front of me in line, and 1 was serving me. Moving along the line, I got the usual: chicken shawarma, all dressed. I waited for them to warm it up, and they handed it to me like a nicely wrapped present. As most Shawarma places went, I assumed I would get the potatoes at the front when I paid since it came with the deal.
The cashier was a young lady, and I happily handed her my rolled up sandwich, and waited...and waited. Since I didn't want to sound impatient by saying "Where are my potatoes?" I simply said "Can I get some extra sauce for my potatoes?" She pointed to the back of the line, and said "Ask them." I guess I looked a bit confused because she gave me the "Do you not speak English?" expression, and pointed again to the back "Over there." So I went to the back and asked the fellow for my potatoes. I went to my car, placed it down in my car, and went back in.
It almost seemed like everyone behind the counter left, but I saw the man who was talking to a friend before, and the cashier. After waiting under the "Place Order" sign for what seemed like a full 2 minutes, the cashier was asked by the other gentleman to serve me. She walked over and said "What are you STILL waiting for?" I looked at her as if she just punched me, and said "I'm waiting to order my $3.99 special." Of course, she said "It's one order per person". The first gentleman who served me was not there, so I told her "I was told if I wanted to order two, I had to get the first one, put it in the car, and come back for the second. I'm not going to eat it by myself, my husband's waiting at home." Without saying a word, she went back to stand behind the cash and left me standing there. I was very confused, and almost angry at this point. The other gentleman, who was busy slicing the skewered meat, turned and said "Are you waiting for the family special?" I told him "I just want a $3.99 special, and I thought she was serving me but she just walked away." He quickly stopped what he was doing, and served me right away. This time, I made sure I got the potatoes first. Right before I reached the cash, a man came out of nowhere, and cut in front of me. He started speaking to the cashier in Arabic, and she rang up his bill. He walked away, so I assumed he was done. So I placed my order in front of her and said "Can I get a bag for this too?" She said "I'm still with a customer". After 20 seconds, he came back. Finally, I got my turn, and I couldn't wait to pay for my order and get out of there.
For the record, it is a nice little diner style restaurant, in a great location. BUT even if they handed out free sandwiches next week for their "Grand Opening", I would not go back. The food was okay, but I still prefer Shawarma Prince on Hazeldean because they've never treated me like garbage. I don't care if you are unhappy with your job, DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON CUSTOMERS!

We take out the "Family Shawarma Platter" often, and love it. We get it with mixed beef & chicken, yellow rice, and ask for the salad dressing on the side. Our family of 4 gets two meals out of it - and the kids love rolling their own sandwiches, kind of a Fajita experience. It's got lots of green in it, along with a reasonable amount of rice and potatoes.

I phone in my order as I leave my Kanata office, and it's always ready just as I enter the store - about 20 minutes.

1

stopped in for lunch after delivering my laptop for fixing next door. The chicken shawarma was good, not the best, but decent. The garlic potatoes were very good, and the garlic sauce went very well with them. My coworkers will not be wanting to speak to me today.

I tried this place out based on the positive reviews- wow, what a great find!

I had a trio with beef shawarma and potatoes. All fresh and tasty. I finally found a place where the potatoes aren't wringing with grease. I didn't opt for garlic sauce on my potatoes as my boyfriend hates garlic and I'm actually kind of glad because the potatoes themselves were super garlicky. They were great, except the garlic sauce on top may have been overkill.

I would say the prices are a little on the high side- My trio (small) was $8.99 taxes inc.

Decor is about the same as every other shawarma place I have been to. The service was friendly.

As it's close to my house, I've been to Mr. Shawarma a few times.

Space: Pretty boring; there is a lot of seating but hardly anyone ever seems to sit down in the restaurant. There is a really strange packaged dessert display with Christmas decorations (creepy Santas) that, judging by the thick covering of dust, has never been cleaned. My husband dropped his debit card behind the cooler one time and they had to pull it out -- again, not the cleanest area of the restaurant.

To be fair, I don't have shockingly high expectations for a shawarma restaurant's cleanliness - all I know is that I've been there when they've just opened and the food is always well-packaged and fresh, there are different spoons for each condiment, and the grills are kept clean.

Service: I've always enjoyed my service at Mr. Shawarma, although the attentiveness is vaguely creepy at times (though it doesn't make a difference if I'm with my husband, father, sister-in-law, or alone). When I took my dad in for his very first Shawarma sandwich ever, they put extra meat on the pita for us both, which was very sweet.

Service is fast once you're served and consistent, although we did have to wait a few minutes one time for one staff member to finish making a sandwich ahead of us, even though there were four others in the restaurant just standing around.

Menu: To be fair, I don't really look at the menu - I go for the same thing, which is displayed on a little card above the food coolers.

Food: I always get the large chicken shawarma sandwich, occasionally with the garlic potatoes. I get everything (except sweet sauce) on my shawarma, including hot peppers. The meat is a teensy bit dry on it's own, but adding a lot of toppings balances this out. I find the chicken has a unique taste to it, it's spiced in such a way that I believe they've included cinnamon in the mix. Excellent garlic sauce, in my opinion.

Incredibly well-portioned each time I've had one, filled with lots of chicken (some inside, some outside pieces), lots of sauce and lots of condiments. They grill it quickly, then wrap it in two pieces of wax paper and bag it for you to take away. There is a nice selection of sodas, some you don't find elsewhere (i.e. Diet Dr. Pepper, one of my favorites).

The garlic potatoes are OK, but very greasy. By the time you throw the garlic sauce on top, it's almost too much. However, I seem to always forget that they make me feel like an oil slick and I order them anyway, so they must not be half bad.

Overall: Slightly different than other shawarma I've had in the city (i.e. Marroush, Garlic King) in terms of flavour, but it's quick and cheap and consistent...all of which get good ratings in my book. I definitely prefer Mr. Shawarma given it's close proximity to my house, but I'd say it's worth a drive to try. I've haven't had much better, but I have had much, much worse.

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The food is somewhat good...they got really greedy and tripled the prices ..like every 6 months their prices go up..I Live like 2 minutes away from them....I WOUld love to say very positive things but you can feel the sexism..like women are not important when you enter and are often served last after all male customer are done with. THEY DO NOT WASH THEIR HANDS..NOT HYGENIC!!THIS IS ALWAYS..YOU SEE THEM GO IN THE WASHROOM OR PICK THEIR NOSE AND DON'T WASH HANDS!
Every time their potions gets smaller and what's up with the beef..is it even beef or cat?

This shawarma restaurant is in the little strip mall on Baseline near Greenbank. It's clean and bright, with enthusiastic and friendly service from a team of skilled Lebanese guys. They have all the usual Lebanese items on the menu: chicken, beef, kofta, falafel, all the veggie sides, two kinds of rice, spiced potatoes, garlic sauce, hummus, etc, etc. And some interesting cookie-like dessert items in addition to the ubiquitous baklava.

Great place!

Really enjoyed the Chicken Shawarma here! It had a number of ingredients that I am not used to seeing at my regular place - including red cabbage which was extremely yummy! Very different from my regular, but very good. I work near here so will definitely be back - this was my first trip.

And at just a tad over 4 bucks for the small it is quite a bargain. The small filled my fairly hungry belly.

We shared a chicken shawarma and a beef shawarma (that's why the beef shawarma in the photo is chopped in half). The chicken was kind of dry with a slightly powdery texture, as is common in Ottawa's chicken shawarma's. The beef shawarma was very good!

While ordering, I saw another customer get hot sauce on his shawarma -- worth mentioning because I don't think all shawarma places offer it.

Enjoyed this Chicken Shawarma Salad (Large $8.99) from the Kanata location today. This is kind of an Atkins/South Beach diet version of a shawarma platter -- salad with dressing and meat but no rice, potatoes, pita, garlic sauce, or hummus. The meat is about half what you'd get on a platter, so the value isn't as good. However, if you really just want a salad this is an excellent alternative to fast food options.

Oh, and they have pickled turnips now! When they first opened they only had strips of pickled red cabbage.

The kofta were cooked on long metal skewers while I waited (15 minutes over open flames). But when I ate them I found they didn't have great flavour and had a sort of rubbery texture. The rest of the meal plate was extra delicious though, so I didn't mind. In addition to what's in the photo, it comes with a pita and a little cup of hummus.

This platter would be incredible with beef shawarma instead of kofta. Next time!