Preamble: My previous review was for Laheeb Shawarma…read more Crispy Bites Shawarma took over the space that was Laheeb Shawarma and seems to have taken over its Yelp listing and Google Maps listing as well. I thought maybe it was just a rebrand, but I asked the man there when I went to pick up my food and he said it's new ownership. The handover happened sometime in 2025. Anyway, I feel the food is similar and my rating of 4 stars still stands. The Short Version: Syrian restaurant selling shawarma and broasted chicken. They also sell grilled meats but the grill was not working at the time of my visit. Food was good. The Long Version: My family and I were celebrating Family Day and Lunar New Year at the same time since they were only a day apart. I agreed to pick up food for the gang. We are a multicultural family and love cuisines of all cultures so I decided to get the Mega Family Meal at Crispy Bites Shawarma. This meal would have had skewers and charcoal grilled chicken along with a bunch of sides, but when I called to place my order for pickup, they said their charcoal grill was not operational. So I settled on the Shawarma Family Meal and the Broasted Chicken Family Meal. I got the Arabic Mixed Shawarma Family Meal ($67.80). This was chicken and beef shawarma sandwiches in Saj bread, cut into pieces. It came with pickled vegetables, fries, and garlic sauce. The sandwiches were good. I liked the thin Saj bread. There was a good amount of meat in the sandwiches. Fries were just from frozen and nothing special, other than a sprinkling of seasoning salt on them. My dad didn't like the garlic sauce here as he thought it was too sweet. I also got the 16 pieces Broasted Chicken Family Meal ($56.45). This came with pita bread, fries, coleslaw and garlic sauce. Broasted chicken is pressure-fried chicken, so it's less oily than traditional fried chicken and the outside is crispier and the meat is more juicy and tender. I liked the broasted chicken, although it was a bit too salty for me. The coleslaw had a creamy base, so I wasn't a huge fan since I prefer vinegar-based coleslaw. I also got 8 drinks with my order. I was thrilled to see they had Oasis Exotic Mango juice blend, so this is what I got for all my drinks. They also had Oasis Orange juice, bottled water and a variety of soft drinks, like Pepsi, Canada Dry and Fanta. Overall, I thought the food was good and it was a hit with the family. The wait was a bit long for the food. I called in my order at 11am when they opened and they said it would be an hour. However, when I arrived at noon, it was another 15-20 minutes before it was ready. The man there, who I think was the owner, apologized and said he was short-staffed as staff called in sick. He was nice though and helped me carry the food to my car. There are tables to dine-in. Ambiance is casual. They have a limited amount of parking at the side of their restaurant and there's street parking with spaces out front. Review #38 (2026)

Just finished eating my two sandwiches of shish touk- and let me tell you, it was absolutely…read moredelicious! This store is quite far away from where I live, but it was so good that the trip is entirely worth it. I definitely recommend eating here!

This is a little dive just down from my hotel. They have indoor seating but a lot of take out…read more Chef had a special and loaded the takeout with extra meat and a large salad. Service was fast and the food was excellent.

Near the Canadian War Museum (6 minutes away) I found Sham House (Syrian food). Living in Toronto…read moreI'm used to excellent Mediterranean food and this is one of the best I've had. We enjoyed it so much we came back during our trip. The owner cooks with fresh ingredients, and he is very friendly. The restaurant is diner style and clean. We had two Sham specials: shawarma chicken and the beef, salad and garlic potatoes..every morsel delicious.

We found this place while wandering the area in Ottawa, and had a great dinner! I had the…read morecombination dinner which included stuffed grape leaves, kibbeh, spinach pies, hummus and salad. Everything was fresh, flavorful, and delicious. The kibbeh was seasoned beautifully as were the spinach pies. Even the salad was really good. The pita was fresh and perfect as well. I had the rose water iced tea to drink which was quite good and the rose water was not overpowering. One person was serving and cooking. I am assuming this was Omar the owner. I have no idea how he was managing all of that! He also did the art around the restaurant which was beautiful. Definitely a great option in this part of Ottawa!

Food and service are wonderful in a beautiful restaurant! You won't be disappointed if you love…read moreLebanese Cuisine. If you're visiting Ottawa, this is a must dine! Thank you Mr. Omar!

This review is exclusively for their meat pies (Pide) that they sell on UberEats under the name…read more"Manqousheh." It's the exact same store though. They sell Pide under the name Ottawa Kabab too, but bigger and more expensive, the ones I got are smaller. I got the meat one ($4.99 BOGO ) and the cheese and sausage one (also $4.99 BOGO). Both were delicious. The meat Pide was filled with ground meat. It was flavourful and smelled so good. The cheese and sausage Pide had lots of cheese and little cubes of sausage. It was tasty, but I preferred the meat one. Although my husband liked the cheese and sausage better, so I guess it depends on your tastes. At any rate, we both agreed that they were delicious. I ordered on UberEats for pickup. Staff were friendly and efficient. They even wrote "Thank you" with a smiley face on my takeout box, lol. The restaurant itself has some seating inside as well as a patio. The parking situation is the only downfall. There is free parking in front of the restaurant, but there are not too many spaces and it's very tight. Difficult to maneuver around. Street parking is available but not the easiest to find nor convenient. Glad this place popped up on my UberEats deals :)

This is a decent find especially at this price point. I…read moretried the 3 kebab mix and added the hummus and toum option. They don't hold back the spice so a pleasant thing IMO as one gets to enjoy the food it is supposed to be. Priced very well so impressed was I that I ended up making a delivery order the following day. With a dearth of decent food for this cuisine in this city I would even give it a half star bump. Give them a try if you like this type of food.

What happened? I…read morewas here last year and had a shawarma and it was the best I'd ever had. I was so impressed! Being back in town, I couldn't wait to go back. I had one today and sadly, it was average at best. I also tried the falafel sandwich and didn't care for it at all. Have they changed owners? Are my tastebuds disappearing? I don't know but I sure was disappointed. Anyhoo! The guys behind the counter were very nice and friendly and the price is right. Twenty dollars for a donair, a shawarma and a falafel sandwich and two drinks. Can't beat that. I think the donair was the best of the three sandwiches.

This is a great place; I'm glad they are in our neighbourhood…read more - Everything is made from scratch (even the pickled turnip!) - Everything is FRESH - The owners/employees are super nice - The potatoes are seriously amazing

The Short Version: Quick and inexpensive eats in the Byward…read moreMarket. Tasty donairs. The Long Version: Ottawa is flush with shawarma restaurants so at first a new shawarma restaurant in the Byward Market did not excite me. However, I love deals so when I saw they had a special for 2 small beef donairs for $10 I had to check it out, lol. To my delight, the donairs were delicious. And $10 for 2 wraps is a great deal, especially for these days and in the touristy Byward Market nonetheless! They were not stingy with the filling. I got lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and pickled turnips. The donair meat was well-seasoned and there was a generous amount of it. I got the spicy garlic sauce and these guys do not joke around with the spiciness. It was legit spicy, which I loved. The spicy garlic sauce at many places is only mildly spicy, so I was pleasantly surprised. Food handlers wore gloves and they replaced their gloves after doing other things. Bonus points for good hand hygiene. Staff were courteous and efficient. There's only one tiny table with 2 high stools for dining in, but they do have lots of seats outside on their patio. They just opened up in 2025. What a great addition to the Byward Market! Paid street parking or paid parkade parking only, as with practically all businesses in the area. Review #188 (2025)

So Mr. Fez opened up where Honey's Shawarma used to be. I popped in and got a Mr. Fez Platter…read more($14.50) for my husband and I to share. It comes with a chicken pita, a beef pita, and a cheesy chicken pita, as well as a side (garlic potatoes, fries or a salad) and a drink. I got garlic potatoes as our side and a bottle of water as our drink. The beef was really rare, I think it's because it was earlier in the day. I imagine that as the day went on it would get cooked more on the spit (?) Anyway, my husband ate most of it because I like my beef cooked more. It had pickles, tomatoes and garlic sauce in it. The flavour was good. Their spices are different than the usual shawarma joints here in Ottawa. The chicken pita and cheesy chicken pitas tasted similar with the regular chicken one having pickles in it and the cheesy one having cheese in it. Again the spices were different than at other places. I really enjoyed the different spices. It makes Mr. Fez unique. The pitas were a good size and I like how the put it on the grill to crisp it up. I would have liked some lettuce in the pitas. I'll ask next time. The garlic potatoes were good. The cubes were small, which I prefer, I don't like big pieces. They weren't mealy or starchy. They had good garlic flavour and I enjoyed the spicy garlic sauce. They also put this brown glaze sauce on the potatoes. Not sure what it was, but it tasted good. I like how staff wear fezzes. It's their thing which is kind of cool. Service was friendly and efficient. I like that they wear nitrile gloves when preparing food. There are some seats to eat in, but we got takeout and ate in the car (call me weird, but I've been eating in my car for decades and I love it. For fast food I prefer to eat in my car than at the restaurant, lol). On a subsequent visit we got the mixed shawarma sandwich (was $7.99 BOGO on UberEats) and it was fantastic! Same delicious unique spices. Thankfully, the beef was less rare this time. I love how they really grill the sandwich. I also asked for lettuce instead of onions and they accommodated :) After this second visit, I can safely say Mr. Fez is my favourite place to get shawarma in Ottawa! Street parking only.

Lemon infused lettuce, pomegranate molasses, a thin and thick wrap combined, two dips in shawarma…read morejuice - this place is pretty good

Came to Shawarma Palace after shawarma came highly recommended by a friend and generally this meal…read moredid not disappoint! The portion sizes are RIDICULOUS. For us modest appetites, this is easily 3 meals - easily! We ordered 2 plates and a sandwich for 4 people and still had enough leftovers for a small breakfast the morning after. My personal favorite was the mixed shawarma plate. I love how it comes with pita made specifically for Shawarma Palace, rice, potatoes, salad, pickled veg, and the meat. We also got the mixed kabob plate which featured tender beef but the chicken kabob was just a hair bit dry. The falafel sandwich was actually very dry and I would not recommend this. We also picked up some baklava for dessert after and I liked how it was just sweet enough! You can taste the pistachios and I thought the kiss of rose water was just enough to make the bite memorable!

Happened upon this restaurant one evening. I saw a shawarma place on the north side of the street,…read moreso I prepared to turn off and go back, but here was another shawarma place. Quickly looked at Yelp and saw a fantastic number of reviews. So this place looked to be the real thing. I stepped up to the counter and ordered the beef shawarma platter to eat in. The guys just kept piling more and more on the platter. It was absolutely ridiculously huge by the time they were done. It was stacked with beef on top. As I paid, I asked for a take-out container. There was no hesitation. So obviously, this is the way they do it. I sat in the super clean dining area and started in on this massive dish. Then I saw a young family carry their plates to a table adjacent to me. And they all had these massive plates too. So after stuffing myself and hardly putting a dent in this pile of food I had to load up the take out clamshell. It would hardly close and weighed 2-3lbs (after filling myself). So if you want to buy one dish and eat a tasty healthy meal for a week. This is your place. It seemed very clean in the restaurant (signs say leave your dishes on the table - so they are obviously bussing the tables regularly). The washroom was also exceptionally clean. The staff that built my meat mountain were super friendly. I would certainly recommend this place!

I noticed a sign for another new restaurant when I checked out Fragrant Noodles but it wasn't open…read moreat the time. After a run early last week, I noticed people were inside so I decided to check it out later in the night. It's really bright in here from the outside. When I popped in, I thought it'd be a bit bigger. There's 3 or 4 tables max so there's not a lot of seating. I had a look at the menu and placed an order for a chicken sandwich. The person working the cash asked if I wanted anything else and I decided to ask about combos. I don't think it was obvious to me but after getting some help, I ended up getting fries,coleslaw and a drink as my side. They also asked if I wanted to try their hot sauce and I was in! A few minutes later, they showed me how they cut their sandwiches into multiple pieces and put it in the container and it gets topped off with more chicken, similar to how Five Guys tops up their take out bags with more fries if you get fries. They topped it off with some of their house sauce and packed up my order. It looked awesome and the staff were really friendly and helpful. I got my order and headed home as the tables were all full. I popped open my meal and tried the chicken. It was pretty nice. Wasn't overcooked and had some nice flavours. I few more forkfuls and I grabbed one of small sandwiches they cut from my sandwich. That was also good. I got into the coleslaw, they let me try a few. I enjoyed it. It was pretty creamy. I then tried a few fries which were nicely seasoned and didn't get soggy from my transit home. All in all a solid meal. It's a bit more expensive than the other places and I came back a few days later for a fattoush salad which was really good. I think that's become one of my favourite salad options in the last year. I'll definitely come back, as there are a bunch of different bread options. They have this wild potato meal as well and I may try that at some point. Come check it out and get some better pictures than I did to share!

Le Casablanca is a hidden gem of the byward market! The food was beyond delicious, the service was…read morekind and helpful and the restaurant offers a fun and cozy ambiance.

The Short Version: Casual Moroccan restaurant in the Byward…read moreMarket Square building. Food is pre-made and on warming trays so service is quite quick. The Long Version: I believe I have eaten at La Casablanca before but it was many years ago before I was on Yelp. Most recently I got food from here through the Too Good to Go app. (It's an app to reduce food wastage. Restaurants sell leftover/day-old food at a discounted price on the app. The catch is it's a surprise bag so you don't know what you're going to get.) I was on my way home and was walking by the restaurant and noticed they had a surprise bag for sale on the Too Good to Go app for $9.99 and I decided to buy it. The man prepared my meal by scooping various items in the warming trays into a takeout box. I got some chicken skewers, rice, roasted potatoes, cabbage, and a vegetable stew (which consisted of carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, and broccoli). I seemed to get a few rogue chickpeas too, lol. The food was flavorful and I liked the seasonings on it. I also liked the variety and that I got to try a little bit of different items. I felt it was a satisfactory deal for $9.99. However on the app it did list that the value of the surprise bag was $29.99, which I don't feel is true, lol. For the $10 I paid, I'll rate it as 4 stars. I'd give it half that rating though had I paid $30 for a takeout box of food (mostly vegetables and rice) from warming trays, lol. The restaurant is inside the Byward Market Square building so it's kind of food court-like but each restaurant has its own seating. The vibe is very casual. The man serving me was courteous. A good place for quick casual Moroccan food. Review #233 (2025)