Shawerma Plus stands out from the crowd
Loyal customers appreciate the food and easy-to-navigate takeout website
In these days of physical distancing, if a restaurant offering takeout has a negligible online presence, I fear for its survival. Such was the case for the place I was originally to review this week.
Contrast this to the savvy marketers at Shawerma Plus, the Middle Eastern restaurant in Waterloo I ordered from instead. They’ve unabashedly positioned themselves as “Kitchener Waterloo’s favourite,” the unusual spelling of ‘shawarma’ — sliced meat, stacked and roasted on a vertical spit — reflecting the Arabic pronunciation of the word.
They’d been spurred to do this partly because of intense competition, sometimes ironically smacking of a virtual conflict zone. According to Jawad Al Ghabra, Shawerma’s managing partner, they used to be one of just two shawarma joints in the area. Now there are a dozen within a five-kilometre radius, all with competing claims to greatness among adherents of different eateries. It takes significant effort to stand out.
I recall my first visit to Ghabra’s welcoming, original location on King Street in 2013. His mother — who Ghabra says taught him so much both in the kitchen and beyond — was in the back, unobtrusively preparing the traditional Syrian dishes that underpin their offerings. Shawarma was at the core, but they also served rarer specialties such as Muhammara, a walnut/hot pepper dip I love.
They expanded in 2017 to a second location in the University Plaza, tailoring their offerings to students. Because of COVID-19, Ghabra closed both restaurants for several weeks before deciding that running takeout from one was better than nothing. With business down at least 85 per cent, this meant a handful of his 30 staff — working in pairs to minimize cross-team interaction — could stay employed. Family members keep other aspects of the business going, including delivering orders themselves, and scrambling to build and troubleshoot a new, easy-to-navigate takeout website.
I felt like I was embarking on a bank heist, adjusting my hat and mask as I entered the restaurant. Establishing my name was neither Skip nor Uber, my order was quickly located, hot and cold bags separate, and paid for without contact. Once home, following a colleague’s sound advice, we transferred food from the takeout containers onto our own dishes. The customized containers went into the garbage, we sanitized the countertops, and washed our hands again before eating.
Heavily-dressed Fattoush salad was tart and crisp. It included cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and pieces of crisp fried pita drizzled with pomegranate molasses. A generous container of scratch-made Hummus — enough to enjoy for several days — glistened with olive oil. Sprinkled with fresh parsley, it came with a large round of externally sourced fresh pita.
Chicken Shawarma Saj saw densely packed halal chicken breast and thigh meat with the various fillings we had requested, including pickle and garlic-mayo sauce, all tightly wrapped in chewy pita. Accompanying fries were listless and limp and, in my opinion, unnecessary, although Ghabra says they are a long-standing and popular accompaniment from Lebanon to Dubai.
Lamb Kebab wrap was also tasty, with hints of charcoal grilling, and hot and garlic sauces playing nicely together. A yogurt drink, Laban A-ayran, appeared on the bill but was missed from our order for which they took full responsibility, offering to deliver one or to give me a couple when I next came in.
To close we shared a portion of tasty Baqlawah whose layers managed to be both light and laden with honey syrup. All told, a substantial, satisfying meal with leftovers.
I’ve observed Ghabra taking genuine pains online to proactively explain the ethos of his business while staying positive in the face of adversity and more than his fair share of trolls, some, doubtless, competitors bent on mischief. I’m also aware of the support Shawerma Plus has shown for worthy causes, including the Waterloo Food Bank.
They’ve made their own luck: that well of positivity is being paid back by loyal customers and I sense they can make it through the crisis, eventually realizing their dream of becoming one of the first true halal Middle Eastern chains in Canada.
Assessing food, atmosphere, service and prices. Dining Out restaurant reviews are based on unannounced visits to the establishments. Restaurants do not pay for any portion of the reviewer’s meal. Alex Bielak can be reached at Facebook.com/Food4ThoughtArchives or Twitter (@alexbielak)