Ottawa Foodies

Probably has something to do with your post being barely coherent.... Take a minute, look at how other people are posting reviews (using sentences, expressing ideas, rather that listing random words...), do the same, and your posts wont get tag.

not very good
I explained why, but I've been flagged :(
Am I allowed to say that?

Carling location

I am a huge shawarma lover and this is my favourite joint. How anyone can complain about the amount of garlic sauce astounds me. All I can recommend is: Watch them make your food. If you don't get enough [item], perhaps politely ask for more.

Have to agree with butwhoami on the subjectivity of shawarmas. I am saddened that this place doesn't hold up in this court of public opinion; it makes me question my own palate for the stuff, actually.

To summarize, nine out of ten times, this place delivers cheap, delicious shawarma. Then again, nine out of ten times I eat shawarma, things are a little extra hazy and delicious!

Among the shawarma kings, queens, and other royalty, I can only feed the hype by saying this place holds up to its reputation for being the best and busiest shawarma place in the city (I've only found one other shawarma place in town that I make return visits to). The servings are generous and the seasonings are just right. Just be prepared to wait in line during dinnertime.

I have yet to try the falafel, but only because the shawarma is so consistently good. The sides are also excellent.. great potatoes and garlic sauce, hummus, etc etc.

Reading other reviews, I see not everyone disagrees.. but why has every non-complimentary review been marked questionable? Shawarma seems totally subjective, probably more so than some other food categories. Good and bad experiences alike happen at most places, shawarma palace included. Just sayin..

Okay, I must revise my previous post about shawarma palace. After having two horrible shawarma experiences (namely garlic corner and maroush on dalousie), I hit up shawarma palace on friday night for a beef/chicken platter. I have been there a few times in the past, thus I knew the food was at least decent.

I have to apologize for my negative remarks about this place - I must have consistently been going to Shawarma Palace at the wrong time or on "off days". The platter I had last night was phenomenal. The garlic was so strong that it burnt on the way down. I was lucky to receive chicken off of the freshest spit (which was super moist and tasty), and the brown rice was delicious. The salad was fresh, the tabouli was lemony and the beef was juicy and had a strong yet palatable taste of all spice. The turnips were perfect. Period. They were nice and sour, yet flavorful and very crunchy.

The line up was huge, and I ended up waiting 30 mins to get served. Thus I found the service not very fast, and my previous comments stand about lack of friendly-ness are still valid.

I guess the point of this is that, my last post was very harsh, and looking back, my previous experience was probably not that bad if I compare it to some seriously disappointing shawarmas I have had recently : (maroush on dalousie, Shawagon and garlic corner).

Shawarma Palace will be my new shawarma go to place in downtown. Lets hope the food stays consistent.

10 000th comment!

Great Food but they are rude!

I'm going to be honest. Shawarma Palace isn't even that good. I love Shawarma, and I have been eating it at every possible restaurant I can find all over the world. Every time I talk to someone about shawarma, they say "Shawarma Palace is the best - no contest".

Look, they give you tonns of food! thats about it. They are overspriced compared to other places and they are rude to non-arab types. I was behind a lady with a Hijab in line. They were so nice to her, she asked for tabouli they quickly put it on her plate very kindly. They smiled and practically worshiped this women. When it came my turn to order, I was rushed, they were unfriendly and when I asked for Tabouli, they said it would be 2 dollars extra. Common, its on the bloody menu picture - so there is no way it should be extra.

The food isn't that good. It's completely acceptable, and decent. But there are far better shawarma places out there. Dry Chicken, Mayonesse(like) garlic sauce, and wilted tabouli (which i had to fork out extra for). I always hear "oh but ask anyone lebanese, and they'll tell you it's the best". I havn't been to lebanon, but I have been to Israel, Greece and eaten at Turkish/Lebanese places in Germany, France Belguim etc etc, and this is not that good.

So, if you want to feed a lot of people with mediocre food, get their platter. If you are not Arabic of some sort, you won't get served equally. And the platters are damn expensive clocking in at over 14 bucks.

You make the call. Be objective and don't believe the bandwagon nonsense being spurted out by this city.

Notible Shawarma Joints: The Orient House (Laurier), Shawarma La Joie on Place du Portage, Maroush in Gatineau. There are quite a few more, but I guarantee these are much much better than Shawarma Palace!

We went last night to the Rideau location - it was good. The portions are generous, the staff friendly, and the price was great ! I had enough left over from the plate for lunch today :)
The garlic sauce was excellent - seemed very fresh... If I would have known it was so good I would have asked for a second scoop !
I ate on the spot, but in a take-out container because I knew I was going to be going home with it anyways, but like NoCheese states on August 17th, if you eat there with a plate, you seem to get more food :)
Enjoy !

The wraps are convenient, cheap, and not too bad tasting.
Everything is great except the fact that they keep the meat on that cooking rack for who knows how long, and when i had a sandwich later one afternoon, they were just finishing a rack of chicken, and the meat had a really sour smell, and weird taste. ANd later that night i felt sick to the stomach.
I'll stick to fresh meat from now on.

The Shawarma Platter from the Carling location was not that great. In fact, I can't understand why they're so busy all the time when Mr Pie and BBQ is just up the street. The beef had a lot of fat and gristle and the chicken was dry. The rice and potatoes were good. The pink pickled turnip sticks tasted more like cucumber pickles and lacked the crunch I like so much. One big plus: they offered two pitas without me having to ask. Most places seem to give you one, which just isn't enough with a huge platter. The food prep guy told me there'd be a surcharge to get half beef and half chicken, but the cashier charged me the regular price.

I just had Hummus from Shawarma Palace Carling location too, and it was wonderful! I've never been found of Hummus, but this was not offending to my taste senses. As fresh foodie said, it was a perfect balance. I think I will come here for a Hummus fix. I was also fortunate that my chicken was from the new cone and was juicy!

The hummus here is particularly top notch! Creamy and rich, with a perfect balance of lemon and garlic. I had an order for a light supper before a movie. They offer you 1 or 2 pitas with it -- 2 is barely enough even if you scoop big. I can't imagine someone eating all that hummus with only one pita. You'd need a spoon!