ottawa foodies

OFFENDED beyond words !!! It was a lady customer who piped up to the two speaking arabic and exchanging laughs who bluntly said: Shall I tell her what you said and are laughing at?

They appeared surprised ... Fumbled around about what she thought she had understood ... They were busted and one of them started to turn red ...

So I have no idea what was said but based on their reaction it is clear their rudeness and lack of respect was exposed.

Honestly, there are enough schwarma places in Ottawa I wont be caught going there ever again!

This happened at the Minto Place "counter". It was intended as a quick stop and pick up on the way home.

March 4th - around 5:30

It appears after reading the reviews below that this is not a problem with just this location.

Your experience with lousy service at this place is certainly not unique. I went once and will never go back. The Shawarma was like bad pizza- something you'd still eat but not go out of your way for.

I have had excellent experiences with Shawarma Prince- friendly staff, good fresh food and huge portions and Shawarma de Roza- the people there are delightful and the food very fresh!

I wouldn't waste my breath on these people.

ILRF, I wanted to tell you not to bother. Attitude like that is usually directly proportional to the degree of tightness the guy is with the owners/managers. He is in no fear for his job. He is either family or a very, very close friend.

At best, a manager/owner will come back to you with a bullshit token apology along with assurances to reprimand the offending employee (while he laughs inside himself). At worst, he'll tell you to scram.

love to eat

After a brief internet search of this place, I have a feeling management isn't going to care. I have seen bad reviews of this place go as far back as 2004.

I have eaten andalos shawarma before (at the former Rideau centre location, and the one in the Marivale Mall, and I remember the shawarma to be very small, dry and totally un-inspired.

They havn't been doing things right for a long time. Why people keep patronizing this place? beats me?

I am going to try and get into contact with the management. This guy shouldn't have a job. Maybe unlimited free time may help him learn people skills. And I will reiterate, this guy was just plain rude. Everything about his behavior and body language, conveyed his lack of respect for the customer and the establishment he works at.

Ilikerealfood - I hope you consider calling and/or writing the company. Owners need to know when something like this happens.

I think of myself as a bit of a Shawarma lover. Never in my mind does Andalos come even close to the top 10 shawarma joints in Ottawa, but alas, Andalos has managed to garner the absolute worst review I can muster.

I have never felt so offended as a customer in a restaurant. Last night (at the Merivale Location), I opted to choose Andalos because it was the least processed option in the vicinity (burger king and A and W were the other options… gross, I know).

I proceeded to line up (i am the only one in line). An arrogant young man (say mid twenties) was serving at the time. He didn't finish his arabic conversation with the woman at the cash, but ignored me standing there (I was smiling too by the way, I was in a good mood), and continued chatting away. I eventually made eye contact, and yet he still ignored me. Eventually I said hi, and then he said "what?".

Mustering all the patients I have, I say: “can I order please?” At this time, a gentleman (seems like a regular) shows up in the line behind me. The server says "I don't serve tiny guys like you, only big guys like him". Ok, a lame and pathetic attempt at a joke, but I took it as such, and I said: "are you serious?” in a jovial tone. And he said: "yeah I only serve guys like him" (while the two nubties have a good laugh). When buddy said this, his veiled girlfriend or colleague looked at her feet and went "oooooooooooooo". Classy joint eh?

As you can imagine, I was getting a little fed up with the curt service and horrible jokes that a) don't make any sense since I am larger then average build and b) the fact that there is no one in the restaurant and I have been waiting for a few minutes. Yet, despite my better judgment I kept my composure, and waited to be served like a human being.

The second time 'ali douche' said: "yeah I only serve guys like him" I aptly responded in a slightly condescending tone: "I can go to burger king instead?". He looked at me, shrugged and said "I don't care, do you want to puke?". I think I was taken back by his response, and I said again, “I have no problem going to burger king if you don’t want my business”, to which he responded again: “I don’t care”.

I apologize in advance to the lady (who was involved but never the less) who saw what happened. I ended up telling the idiot exactly what he needed to hear. He pushed my patients way too far, and trust me, in my line of work I have close to unlimited amounts. He lost a customer, and I urge the Ottawa food community to boycott this excuse for a shawarma place. No paying customer deserves to be treated like that. The whole time I was there, I felt like he was doing me a favor. I'm sorry buddy, I'm doing you a favor, I'm paying my hard earned money for your mediocre food so that you can have a job.

So in principled fashion, I endured eating burger king yesterday, since I would rather starve then give that jackass, or the proprietor of Andalos a fricken dime of my money.

I love shawarma, I love kind people, and I like paying for good service. Shawarma Andalos didn't allow me to encounter any of that.

If you are down by the Merivale area, please, please please, do you self a favor and go to Shawarma De Roza! Not the best shawarma in town, but the nice Armenian Lady is so kind, friendly and just a pleasure to talk to. She gives everybody (even non customers) a free piece of Bakalava.

Also, check out the Shawarma Prince on Merivale. These guys (in my opinion) are actually in the running for best Shawarma in Ottawa (yep, that’s right, better then the palace). And they are cool dude’s who run the Prince – unlike the pathetic character that was at Andalos.

So take from my post what you will, but I urge you folks to stand with me in solidarity and boycott Andalos.

If Andalos management ever reads this, buddy who was working on Tuesday Feburary 28th around 6:00pm at the Merivale (combined burger king location) should be fired. Sounds harsh, but I have not been able to re-create what happened with my words, and I can honestly say this was the worst Ottawa food experience I have ever had. I frequent that plaza a few times a week, and he potentially lost 10 to 20 dollars a week from a paying customer. Shawarma Prince and De Roza are going to taste so much better now!

The food here shares the same qualities as almost every shawarma joint in ottawa, terrible and unoriginal.

Back in the day when it first opened, Andalos used to be fantastic but like every aging eatery, they've slipped bigtime...

The chicken is dry and the service is bad just like everywhere else, there's no pride in what these guys make, its almost like Lebanese fast food. Anyone that tells you this place is good is a white yuppie that doesn't know any better which seems to be their key demographic because white yuppies will buy anything.

Every shawarma joint in this city has no standards and none of them differentiate from each other, you get the same dry chicken, the same lame spiced rice, the same salad.. This place is nothing special you've had one bad shawarma you've had them all, BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL THE SAME.

tfeh.

This place is just horribly mediocre. I've been to the Merivale location twice (apparently I didn't learn the first time!). I recall getting a "trio" both times- I think the can of diet coke was the best thing about it.

The service is terribly slow. I watched as the server sloppily threw together someone elses pita-again, why didn't I leave???

I usually look forward to the potatoes with garlic sauce- these were old and dried out. He did have fresh ones made but chose to give me the remainder of what was left on the hot line. The potatoes the first time weren't this bad.

The sandwich was slightly better but nothing great. The chicken was reasonably moist. I've had some really nasty dried out meat before.

Given that there are Shawarma places with more lively staff and better food, I doubt I'd bother with this place again.

For the same price as any other shawarma place, they serve you maybe a third less of the quantity of food from any other shawarma place. Very dissapointed. When ordering garlic potatoes to go at the Merivale location, they give you more sauce than potatoes, so that there's all this empty space in the container.

When I tried to point this out to the guy and ask him to put a few more in, he refused and was very rude about it. Since then, I vowed never to go there again.

The only bright side is that they put out coupons every now and then in the coupon books that come in the mail. $1.99 Falafel sandwich with the coupon is not a bad deal (used to be just 99¢ with the coupon).