Middle Eastern – Michael Eats

Lamb Overload at Bareh Sefid

Published on June 7, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 9325 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill
Website: https://barehsefid.net/

I was pretty excited to check out Bareh Sefid after seeing it on Suresh Doss’ great show, Locals Welcome. They specialize in big platters of various braised lamb parts. I feel like lamb is seriously underappreciated, so yeah, I’m all over that.

Their menu consists entirely of lamb, and if you want to try it all, you’ve gotta go with the Darbari plate: “2 Sides Lamb Head Meat, 1 Tongue, 2 Eyes, 3 Lamb Trotters, 1 Brain, 2 Bowls Of Lamb Broth, With Full Service: Pickled, Home Made Bread, Lime.”

The lamb is all seriously well prepared and unctuously tender. The head and tongue are probably the most straightforward — you’d never know that they’re off cuts just by tasting them. The eyes and trotter both have a similarly squishy texture, and are also quite tasty, if a bit one-note soft. The brain is the most interesting of the bunch, with a firm texture and a slightly liver-esque mineraly flavour.

It’s all nicely spiced, but mostly, the preparation ensures that the lamb flavour is front and centre. The meal comes with a side of lime wedges and zippy pickle relish, with the relish, in particular, doing a great job of cutting through the richness of the lamb.

It’s so much lamb. The platter consists entirely of fatty/collagen-rich lamb along with a couple of types of flatbread to eat it with, and while I was in lamb heaven for the first few bites, eventually, I kinda wanted some other flavours? I like lamb a whole lot, but — for me, at least — this might have been too much of a good thing.

Tasty Saj Wraps at Shawarma Anas

Published on May 26, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 488 Eglinton Avenue West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/shawarmaanascanada/

Most of the time when I pass by a restaurant that looks interesting, I’ll pull it up on Google Maps to see what people are saying about it. I kinda do it by reflex at this point. If people seem to like it, I’ll add it to a running list of restaurants I want to check out. And if people really I like it, it goes to the top of that list.

Shawarma Anas, as I write this, has over 5000 reviews and 4.9 out of 5 stars. Shenanigans? Probably! But it’s still a high enough ranking that I felt compelled to check it out.

They have the usual assortment of shawarma and falafel that you can get on a plate or in a wrap (with pita bread or saj). I went with the chicken shawarma saj wrap, and got it with the “original” toppings, which is just garlic sauce and pickles.

Yeah, that’s a tasty wrap. It’s quite possible there are shenanigans afoot with their inflated Google ranking, but clearly, they’re doing something right. The shawarma is pretty solid; it’s nicely spiced with a decent amount of crispy bits. But it was also a bit dry, which was unfortunate — it tastes like it’s all white meat, and it was slightly overcooked. But there was enough of that tasty garlic sauce that this mostly didn’t matter.

And the saj was quite nice, with a decent chewiness and a nice crispy exterior from the griddle. If the chicken had been a bit juicier this would have been one of the better shawarma wraps I’ve had in Mississauga, but even as it was, it was very tasty.

A Gigantic (and Delicious) Shawarma Wrap at Flaming Stove

Published on February 21, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 21 Davisville Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://flamingstove.com/

Flaming Stove is one of those places that seems to perennially come up in conversations about the best shawarma in Toronto, and having just tried it, yeah. Yeah, that’s accurate.

I got the chicken shawarma wrap, and basically everything about it was spot-on. The house-made saj bread they wrap it in is nice and fresh, with just the right amount of substance and chewiness to hold up to the very generously-stuffed wrap. And it’s nicely toasted on its exterior — a must.

The wrap features a healthy amount of meat that’s well-balanced by the various pickles/veggies; I know it looks overstuffed, but the chicken remains the star.

My only real complaint is that the meat has been shaved in advance and is slightly dryer than it should be, and has lost the delightful crispiness that makes top-tier shawarma so great. But everything else here is so good that this never seems like a huge deal.

In particular, they add several sauces to the wrap — tahini, garlic, amba, and hot sauce — and it’s an absolute taste explosion. The combination of those sauces is magic; it’s tangy, garlicky, savoury, and thoroughly delicious. You could put those sauces on basically anything, and it would be amazing.

Also: this might have been the biggest shawarma wrap I’ve ever had? It comes cut in half, with each half wrapped separately, presumably because it would be too unwieldy if they tried to wrap them together. Each half is about the size and heft of a large burrito. It’s insane.

It costs 15 bucks, which seems a bit pricey until you take a look at it and realize that it can (and should!) be shared among two people.

Decent Wraps at Shawarma Kingdom

Published on January 23, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 377 Burnhamthorpe Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.shawarmakingdom.ca/

Shawarma Kingdom is totally fine. It’s fine! It’s shawarma. It’s good. You don’t need to go out of your way for it, but it’s acceptably tasty.

I mostly wanted to check this place out because they have beef and lamb on the menu. I’m of the opinion that lamb shawarma is the best shawarma — and yet it’s almost impossible to find in the GTA. When you do see it, it’s mixed with beef like it is here (and in most cases, the mix leans much more towards beef than lamb). It’s a shame.

You can get the wrap either in a pita or saj (for a few bucks more). I went with saj and stuck with the default toppings, which are tahini sauce, tomato, onion, parsley and pickles (okay fine, I lied — I skipped the onion, as I tend to do).

They definitely don’t skimp on the meat; the wrap is absolutely crammed. They don’t skimp on the sauce, either, making this a bit of a mess. The saj was over-toasted, which meant that the wrap was very brittle, with its structural integrity being extremely questionable; it basically exploded, and I had to eat most of it with a fork and knife.

It’s a satisfying enough wrap, with the meat being fairly tender and flavourful, and with the generous amount of parsley giving it an interesting herby kick. I wish the tahini sauce were a bit zippier, and I wish the meat had more of the crispy bits you’re looking from shawarma, but it’s a solid wrap (figuratively, not literally — again, it fell apart basically instantly).

Tasty Shawarma at Shelby’s

Published on January 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1289 Marlborough Court, Oakville
Website: https://www.shelbys.ca/

I could have sworn I had already written about Shelby’s for this blog, but when I went to look for the post, I couldn’t find it. It turns out I actually blogged about Tahini’s, not Shelby’s.

In my defense, the two chains are quite similar: both are chains with a similar name and logo, and both serve a similar menu of saj-wrapped shawarma topped with a pomegranate-infused sauce.

Also: both are surprisingly tasty. Shelby’s, despite being a chain with a couple dozen locations, probably outclasses a decent amount of the independent shawarma joints in the GTA.

I ordered the Shelby’s Wrap: “freshly baked saj bread stuffed with lettuce mix, fries, pickles, turnips, tomatoes, sumac onions, tahini, hummus, and regular or spicy garlic.” I got it with beef and lamb shawarma, spicy garlic, and skipped the onions.

It’s a great wrap, with the slightly chewy and nicely toasted saj wrap being a nice vehicle for the generous amount of tasty meat and veggies/sauces. It’s mildly spicy, zippy and garlicky (my wrap didn’t say it came with pomegranate molasses, but I’m pretty sure I tasted its slightly tart flavour, which worked well), and the shawarma is tender, with a decent amount of crispy bits. I didn’t get much lamb flavour, but the whole thing was tasty enough that this didn’t really matter.