I have very mixed feelings about Cedar Valley because there are things that I really like, but also things that I really dislike, so I guess it evens out to "ok."
My parents and brother love shawarma. They live in Orleans and I think we have now tried every single shawarma place in Orleans. We avoided Cedar Valley because for the longest time they didn't have a Family Platter, but they have one now. It's even on sale for $30.99 until December 31, 2017. After that it's $31.99.
The Family Platter contains your choice of chicken OR beef shawarma, rice, potatoes, fattouch salad, veggies, pita, garlic sauce, and hummus. Portion-wise I think it's a bit smaller than family platters at other places.
I loved the rice here. It was perfectly seasoned and had ground beef in it. It was soft and fluffy and not oily at all. The rice was the best I've had at any shawarma place in Orleans. The potatoes were really good too. They were not too oily and nicely cooked. They weren't too crispy, but still delicious. I also liked the fattouch. It came pre-dressed but wasn't too wet, oily, or sour. I also liked the generous amount of pita chips. The salad also had cucumbers, onions, and bell peppers in it.
The chicken shawarma was a bit too salty for my liking. It was also cut into pieces that were too small in my opinion. I did notice that instead of cutting the chicken off the spit by hand they have this hand-held meat shaver device. I did like that the meat was lean and not fatty.
I did not like the garlic sauce at all. I feel that it was the worst garlic sauce I've ever had at a shawarma restaurant. It was not fluffy and didn't have that whipped texture like at most places. It was dense and had the consistency and taste of mayonnaise. However, I did like the hummus. It wasn't smooth, but it tasted good. It wasn't too sour and had a rich chickpea taste.
I didn't like that the pita were already cut, as if they were going to be used to make sandwiches for customers. I prefer to get a brand new unmanhandled bag of pitas.
The decor inside is like typical shawarma joints. Staff were very nice and pleasant.
It's in a strip mall. Same strip mall as Your Independent Grocer and Pizza Pizza. Lots of free parking.
Despite the garlic sauce and pita situation, we will likely go back. read more