Middle Eastern – Michael Eats

Shawarma/Calzone Fusion at Keko Shawarma

Published on November 16, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3128 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://kekoshawarmaon.com/

As soon as I found out that Keko Shawarma sells a shawarma calzone, I was sold. I had zero follow-up questions. Shawarma calzone? Yes please.

It’s actually pretty basic. It’s filled with beef or chicken shawarma, a whole bunch of gooey cheese, and… that’s it. It comes with a salad on the side, along with a couple of little cups of hot sauce and garlic sauce.

I went with the chicken shawarma, which is definitely above average. It’s a tiny bit on the dry side, but it’s got a bunch of the crispy bits you’re looking for and is nicely spiced. It’s quite tasty.

The calzone was made to order and was hot and fresh, with a generous amount of chicken shawarma and melty cheese, and a thin crust that was mostly just a vehicle for the chicken and cheese.

The hot sauce could have been hotter (it was barely spicy at all), but the creamy garlic sauce was seriously tasty and quite addictive.

I’m glad I tried it, but I think I’d get the normal shawarma wrap if I found myself back here. Shawarma + calzone is a fun combo, but I think there’s a reason it’s not really a thing. The calzone wasn’t really better than the bread you’d normally get in a shawarma wrap, and the abundant cheese — while tasty — makes this taste more like a novelty than something you’d want to eat on the regular.

Unusual (but Satisfying) Shawarma at Shawarnado

Published on November 9, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4870 Tomken Road, Mississauga
Website: https://shawarnado.com/

The chicken shawarma wrap from Shawarnado is… odd. Tasty, but odd.

I guess when you think about it, the tastiness is all that matters. Is it checking the boxes I expect from shawarma? No, not really. But it does taste good, so sure, I’ll allow it.

I ordered the chicken shawarma wrap with everything (except onions, because raw onions are for jerks), which comes with garlic sauce, spicy garlic sauce, tahini sauce, and hummus, along with a whole bunch of veggies — including some unorthodox choices like green peppers (?), shredded carrots (??), and corn (???).

No, not exactly shawarma standbys, but with the deluge of tasty sauces, they mostly just add texture.

I asked for it extra spicy, and yeah, it definitely had a nice kick to it. Between that and the generous amount of zippy and rich sauces, it pretty much can’t help but be a tasty wrap. Those sauces didn’t quite taste like what you’ll normally find in a shawarma wrap, but whatever they were, they were good.

The chicken came out of a warming tray instead of being freshly shaved — never what you want to see — but it wasn’t dry at all, even if it had absolutely none of the crispy bits that typify great shawarma. It actually had a texture that was closer to pulled chicken than traditional shawarma, but again, with all that tasty sauce, it was fine.

The whole thing was so unusual that it reminded me more of a burrito than traditional shawarma, but hey, it tasted good, so I can’t exactly be upset about it.

Tasty Kuwaiti Food at Walima

Published on August 4, 2025August 4, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1185 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/walimarestaurants/

I’ll sometimes browse Google Maps when I’m looking for new restaurants to check out; generally speaking, the ratings tend to hover between 4 and 4.5 out of 5. Walima, on the other hand, is sitting at a cool 4.7 with over 1800 reviews as I write this. I’m assuming the restaurant has encouraged their customers to submit 5-star reviews, but still, I felt like I had to check the place out.

They serve Kuwaiti cuisine, and the majority of the menu consists of lamb, fish, or chicken served on rice. I went with the maqlooba, which comes with your choice of lamb or chicken (I went with lamb). It seems a bit pricey at 27 bucks — until you realize that this is a shareable platter rather than a dish for one (it can easily feed two or three).

Yeah, okay — I get the rating. It’s a tasty dish. It’s maybe a bit on the oily side (I think the rice is cooked with the fatty lamb, and it’s absolutely suffused with grease), but it tastes quite good, and the pieces of lamb are melt-in-your-mouth tender.

The dish also features fried onions and creamy chunks of eggplant, which both complement the lamb quite well. It comes with a couple of hot sauces on the side — a red chili oil, and a green chili sauce. They both do a nice job of kicking up the rice and meat.

There’s also a little bowl of tomato soup on the side. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be eaten separately or with the rice; I ate it with the rice, and I’m still not sure if that was the intended way to eat this, but it was tasty regardless.

A Great Wrap at Shawarma Alzaeem

Published on December 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1018 Eglinton Avenue East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.alzaeem.ca/

How many shawarma restaurants do you think there are in the GTA? A thousand? Two thousand? More?? There’s no shortage of shawarma, that’s for sure.

(This would be a great place for me to be like, well the actual number is [insert actual number here], but no, I haven’t done that research. What do I look like, Edward R. Murrow? I would be very curious to know the actual number, though.)

This means if you’re going to go out of your way for shawarma, it had better be pretty damn good, because there’s probably one or two (or more) shawarma joints within walking distance of basically any home in the GTA (well, outside of the hardcore suburbs where there’s basically nothing within walking distance).

So, is Shawarma Alzaeem worth going out of your way for? Yeah, kinda. I got the chicken shawarma saj wrap, and it was thoroughly tasty. Most notably, it’s absolutely doused in a particularly delicious garlic sauce that would make pretty much anything taste great. It’s also nicely toasted, giving the saj a light crispiness on the outside (while maintaining its interior chewiness).

My only real complaint is that the chicken is a bit on the dry side (I’m pretty sure it’s all white meat, which doesn’t help). But then there’s so much of that aforementioned sauce that this barely even matters.

Unique Sandwiches at Fattoush Sandwich Club

Published on July 9, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 253 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fattoushtoronto/

Fattoush Sandwich Club serves a bunch of Middle Eastern-inspired sandwiches (though, oddly enough, fattoush is a salad and not a sandwich, and does not feature in any of their sandwich offerings).

I tried a couple of sandwiches, and they were both quite tasty.

The first was the Smashed Beef: “Beef Mix, Pomegranate Molasses, Tahini.” This is sort of burger-esque, though the meat tastes more like kofta than like a burger patty (this is not a bad thing). The pomegranate molasses adds some sweet zippiness, and the tahini adds richness. It’s a solid sandwich.

I think I liked the Crispy Eggplant even better: “Eggplant, Siracha Toum, Tomato Confit.” As you can see from the photo, this is a substantially sloppier sandwich, with a whole bunch of lettuce and tasty sauces. But the real star of the show is the eggplant itself; when they say it’s crispy, it’s crispy. It’s breaded and fried, and it has a very pronounced crunchiness that holds up even to the very saucy sandwich. The contrast between the crunchy exterior and the creamy interior is thoroughly delicious.