I have never been to Somalia and don't think I will ever go, but I believe that the food at Xawaash was as authentic as you could get near an airport in Toronto. It appeared to be staffed by Somalis and all of the food seemed to be prepare in house. They did have some odd menu items like cheesecake and french fries, but maybe they serve those in Somalia, too. My had a beef kofta wrap that was stuffed inside a pita and then rolled. Although the pita is baked in house, their attempt to stuff it resulted in an extremely slow speed of service. I think they would be better off just folding over the pita like most places do. The kofta was deliciously spicy and generously portioned. We opted to choose our own condiments which is a little awkward because they needed to call us back up to do so, but the pickled radishes were delicious. My table mate us sort of a self described falafel freak and he said that the falafel here was excellent. I have not had falafel very often, but also thought it was very good. Unfortunately, our sides came out well after we were done with our sandwiches. The food at Xawaash is easily five stars - house made, fresh, and delicious. Unfortunately, the service was confused and extremely slow. The pace of the meal was disjointed. I initially thought that Xawaash had just opened, but see that is not the case. If you know what you plan to order and have extra time, then Xawaash is worth the trip. read more

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I am not Somalian, but maaan! The food was crazy good. Amazing portions and trust me, I eat more than anyone I know! We had lamb shank, goat with rice, chicken cutlet, shawarma plate. All of us (are different ethnicities some like spice, some don't) were seriously impressed with the food. Dessert. Oh my god! They have something called grafe (which we called giraffe jokingly) - basically a awesome tasing bun filled with your choice of topping ( NUTELLLA!, cream pastry, jam) The service was great, the owner gave us complimentary somalian tea - which was great!! Look, I don't ever write a review. This is my first. But the food amd service was enough to get me to soend 5 mins :) read more

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Tasty cuisine, modern and elegant atmosphere. Came here the other day after playing basketball, and boy did it hit the spot. Ordered the goat meat on race and it was delicious. A little pricey, but the generous portions certainly made up for it. Afterwards, I treated myself to a delectable tiramisu. Also seems to be family run, and has a great friendly atmosphere. I would come here again. Whether you're looking to expand your tastebuds into Somali / Meditteranean food or just looking for good eats, this place has got you covered! read more

We went here expecting more of a Mediterranean menu but found that they had some really awesome Somalian food - their eggplant stew and pita were fantastic! The menus a bit confusing but they have full menus at the register that you can take a look at. The beef samosa was also really really good, spiced wonderfully. read more

BEST - don't think twice. We visited this place just because it was next to our hotel. It's a cafe like seating arrangement. I ordered the Xawaash bowl with falafel and my husband got the chicken kababs and were they juicy or what! The portions were good enough. If we hadn't skipped the previous meal we would definitely have leftovers. My xawaash bowl had sautéed spinach, rice, salad, beans and falafel, it was a hearty meal and everything was flavorful. Falafel were soft and even though fried there was no oil remaining. Reasonable price and friendly service. A must visit!! read more

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Can't go wrong with goat meat and basto. Yes, basto. The mango shake is very refreshing and the date cake is a banger. Casual atmosphere and the employees are pleasant. The owners of the restaurant started a YouTube years ago. The channel is called "Xawaash Foodblog." Glad to see that their restaurant is doing well. read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Great food, not salty. Accidentally ordered a chicken shawarma wrap but meant to be a platter, gentleman provided me with a complimentary salad. Great service, would go again. read more

The service very slow and food tasteless plus my chicken wasn't cooked good . Rice has too much spices . Salad dressing not good read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Well lets get started, my time at this eating establishment was very neutral I didn't hate it, but it didn't like it. The food is grate when it wants to be and not so grate when it doesn't. Depending on who's in the kitchen or if they have the passion for cooking on a good day you'll get delicious food but on a bad day. well lets just say you'll not want to eat there again, sometimes the rice is too watery. Sometimes it's too dry, and sometimes it has no taste whatsoever, your chicken, shish kebab same thing sometimes to tough sometimes to dry but when you're there on a good day, it's quite delicious I'll give you that but the wait time is up and down. Sometimes you get your food fast sometimes takes a very long time. Once I waited 30 minutes just to get water. I understand Covid has impacted many restaurants but that doesn't mean that we should not at least try to keep in top notch and always strive for above and beyond performance. My advice I would give is to hire people with passion for food. You're in the food business you picked this for a reason to serve people and to pour your heart out into your art. I can only give you three stars. Once I see things change I will change my review. This is Ghøst signing off. read more

Came across this place looking for something different and found a great meal!! Xawaash (pronounced Hawaash) was very welcoming, clean and had a very warm decor. I had the beef kofta and salad which was spot on. The hot sauce on the side gives a great heat and washed it all down with a Barbican (pomegranate soda). Very close the Toronto Pearson and neighboring hotels. They have booth, table and bar seating where you could watch 1 of 3 TVs. They don't have alcohol and take cards. Check it out! read more

Xawaash - Beef Kofta with salad and a Barbican - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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Delicious food. I always get the shwarma dinner with samosas. They serve meat samosas - which are delicious. I prefer the beef over the chicken. Price is high compared to other Sharma restaurants; however, the food is great, so I have made this my go to spot. Service is a little slow, but sometimes it's justified. read more

Very delicious restaurant. I especially love chicken mandi with jewelled rice no salad. I love rice the most and always ask for extra which they do without extra charge. The prices are great too anf affordable for such portions which I have to finish in 2 sittings even tho I love to eat a lot. read more

They were a lot better about a year ago... I don't know if the owners have changed or the cook, but the food has gone down in quality. They used to have THE BEST samosas and mahamri. read more

Different from the usual Mediterranean place Has a little Somali touch to it. Makes it different in a good way. Flavorful food, good ambience Wouldnt mind going there again for a casual meal read more

Chicken Kofta, hummus dips fresh pita bread, beef samosa & roasted goat. Another amazing find in Toronto! Hidden gem off the beaten track. Delicious food, clean restaurant and friendly service. read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

I'll keep this short and sweet. Xawaash lives up to all the five star reviews. Everything is amazing from the samosas, breads, main courses, desserts, you name it. Very beautiful and friendly staff as well. read more

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Such slow service. All I wanted was a beef kofta over salad only instead of rice. Simple right? The cashier (seems to be the manager too maybe) said 10 mins bc it has to be grilled. Ok, no problem. 30 mins later it still wasn't out. Seriously, how does it take to cook a thin beef sausage? It's the fastest cooking meat! When it finally came it was on rice so they had to redo it. Another 5 mins. The portion was small, one sausage and the salad made of iceberg, diced carrots and tomatoes was incredibly paltry. The white sauce was way too sweet. Other than that, they got the second star for polite (but again, incredibly slow) service and okay taste for the meat itself. Their delay made me miss important errands so I'm pretty irritated. Won't be back. read more

Checked it out because of the 4.5 review from 70 people. They were right! This Middle Eastern - Somali restaurant is north of Toronto's Pearson Airport on ON 27 North. Hummus was wonderful with just baked, puffy, warm pita bread. Beef samosa was tasty. Thin lamb chops were grilled nicely and not tough. Plate came with a bit of tasty lettuce salad and an option to purchase rice for $2 more. Rice was tender and flavorful with a bit of cumin. Somali team was efficient but very shy or simply tough to engage. Beautiful pineapple upside down cake. No filled donuts today. Just baked pita and hummus should not be missed. read more

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I hated the rice and chicken. I ended up getting some jewelled lamb rice it wasn't good.

We decided to try some local ethnic fare by Pearson Airport. We were visiting from Detroit and staying at one of the nearby hotels. This is a small unassuming corner restaurant. If there is a clear sign that a restaurant is good, look for an indigenous crowd. In this case: Somalian patronage. And there were a lot of Somali families here! You order and pay up front at the counter. It can be for take out or dine it. If you dine in, like we did, they bring your food out in unassuming but huge portions! Everything comes on trays, ala cafeteria. Simple but effective! The Muufo, a soft triangular bread, was super delicious! So were the samosas. Rich, full flavor that is shockingly good. We tried the chicken kofta, chicken shawarma and braised goat. The flavors were rich and delicious! In fact, almost everything was universally tasty. We would recommend this place to anyone who is a fan of middle-eastern type food because this Somali restaurant serves a lot of that type of fare plus others all their own. We were very satisfied! read more

Recsntly came across this place amd in it is superb. Food is well prepared and seasoned. Staff is pretty awesome. I go all the way from Brampton and will continue going ISA. 100% recommended. read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Worth coming here as it is delicious, clean, friendly staff and food is on point! We had the chicken shawarma and chicken kebob plates as they were recommended. DELICIOUS! We also were able to sample the fresh from the oven pita. So yummy. I was told their date cake is also tasty but I will have to save that for another time. Their desserts are all freshly made in house and look tasty. Again, they were all so friendly!! read more

This place was really special. We found it on Yelp, and thought it would be an appropriate place to host a business meeting with people who had just arrived from Vancouver. I called a day in advance to tell them we were coming, and to make sure they had appropriate vegetarian options. When we arrived, I was so pleased to find a personalized reserved sign on our table. Every staff person was friendly and welcoming. We aren't terribly familiar with Somalian food (although I had looked at their wonderful, well-established food blog beforehand), so we asked them to select food for us. What a feast! Kabobs (salmon and beef), small pizzas with grilled cheese, and one with beef and spices. Seasoned rice, samosas, hummus, eggplant dip, fresh breads, green salad, the food just kept coming. We stuffed ourselves, and washed it down with yoghurt drinks and iced tea. Everything was delicious, and if you feel adventurous, try the green chile sauce. It had a bite, but the yoghurt and bread cooled the fire. We saved a tiny little bit of room for dessert, which we shared amongst us. We had an upside-down pineapple cake which was surprisingly good, some baklava, and stuffed doughnuts which were still warm. Seriously. With Nutella. Above all that, however, was the graciousness of the owner, who came over to visit with us. What a warm, well-spoken and intelligent man. He had so many thoughtful things to say about Somalia, his community, and the world. I learned so much. I'm not in that neighbourhood often, but if I get the chance, I will most certainly go back - with friends! read more

I was in Toronto visiting a client whose office is near by this restaurant. When it was time for lunch, he asked me what I wanted to eat. I did a quick yelp search and found this jewel! My shawarma sandwich was perfect. Done in fresh Mande pita. A little spicy, but not hot. Just awesome. I also ordered a mango lasi, it was tangy and refreshing. I'll be back. read more

This is a great example of an awesome place I would never have known about if I didn't have Yelp. I live in Etobicoke and don't often venture up this way for food but it's really easy to get here. Right beside Woodbine and not far from the airport. The place is very modern, clean and inviting inside with Ipads in the booths which you can watch the news or sports on. We ordered the chicken kebob with rice and salad and OMG it was delicious. The chicken was very juicy and not dried out like half of the greek/mediterranean/Turkish places in Toronto. The rice had a distinct spice to it which is different from anything I had previously tried and the salad was fresh. We also ordered Somalian teas which were different than anything I had tried before and very delicious. Like everyone else is saying here, you need to try the donuts...I had the nutella filled one and it was warm and packed with nutella. All in all it was one of the most satisfying meals I've had in awhile and I can't wait to come back and try different menu items. The owner came up to us while we were eating and asked how everything was and if we needed anymore sauce and was very friendly. You can tell he cares very much about his business. If you didn't know, Xawaash also has a food blog/ youtube channel were you can find countless recipes of Somalian dishes as well as Italian recipes and desserts, etc. Can't wait to come back, such a great Yelp find. read more

Simply put, The food here overall is incredible. We stayed next door for 3 nights and we are here everyday; it didn't feel right to eat elsewhere after we tried it here (it seemed like we'd be wasting a meal eating elsewhere) We had the following; Beef kofta sandwich combo 5 stars (addictive) Lamb chops over rice 4 stars (only since the chops were too thin/small & I personally needed more meat) Shawarma 5 stars Beef samosas 5+++ stars :))) must have read more

Darling (foodie) teenage son found this place on BlogTo and since we were in the area, we decided to try it for lunch. Some lunch specials at $5.99 are a great deal and oh-so delicious too. We ordered the Beef Kofta with rice and salad and the Chicken Kebabs with rice and salad. We could have chosen pasta too. Everything was delicious and well-seasoned. We've got Somali friends so we were not too surprised by the Italian-style items on the menu. What DID surprise us was the high quality of the coffees and desserts! We tried their in-house Graffes (donuts filled with cream, Nutella or strawberry jam) and Pineapple Upside Down Cake. So much flavour but not overly sweet. Winners! Looking forward to our next visit. I want to try the lamb shank... read more

I wanted to have Pizza with my friends tonight and found Xawaash here on Yelp when I searched Pizza with highest ratings. Although it's far from my place I wanted to get a Pizza from a restaurant with best ratings. I called them to confirm the Pizza I want to order and the business hours to make sure I'll be on time. After confirming the hours, I drove all the way to the Xawaash to order the pizzas but the employee behind the counter said they don't have pizza. What a disappointment. read more

This was my first taste of Somalian food and now I feel sad that they don't have a location in Los Angeles. Judging by the crowd I can't help but think that everything was quite authentic, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I loved the yogurt drinks and homemade pita and moutabel and grilled lamb. The restaurant was perfectly clean and the staff was friendly and inviting. It could be awhile before I am in Toronto again but I will hopefully be returning to Xawaash someday. I definitely recommend it to anyone that loves middle eastern food as long as they don't mind driving a bit off the beaten path in Toronto. read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Amazing the food was fresh and prepared for us.The owner explained the dishes. And the desserts were Awesome. Staff very cordial we will revisit. read more

Awesome food, I have the beef kofta and chicken kabob with rice and salad. Good was very fresh and the staff was friendly and helpful in describing the the different dishes. Will definitely be back soon read more

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I think Middle Eastern have lost its trail, and now apart from a few afghan items, they seem to be colluded in the cuisines, that all such restaurants are offering. The place is nice, clean, and the service was good. I expected a differentiation from others alike, being back by Somali heritage .. food tasted well, but then again alike all the other ME restaurants. Not worth driving to otherwise, unless it is next doors. Pasta with Kefta Kabab, lamb chops, beef steak, chicken stew, were the orders .. disappointed that I am unable to find authentic cuisines .. 4 stars for overall performance as a food joint, but then again branding vs direction are the main issues .. hope they add authentic Somali cuisine for a worthy experience.. read more

Was looking for a place for lunch with Friends. Came across this place via yelp. The restaurant is easy to spot from the outside. Inside its clean and has all kinds of seating. Amazing food varity from middle eastern plates to fresh made over pizza even ice scream Sunday ! ( unusual for a restaurant of this style to have pizza but it was awesome). Portions were great size too. Prices very fair too. Being the first time we asked about the menu and they spend 10 min explaining and showing everything to us ! Food came out within 10 to 15 min . I would recommend this place to anyone who is traveling in the area. Will come back for sure ! read more

Xawaash - 2 different pizzas and meat with rice . great size portions ! - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

First time at this restaurant. Service was VERY slow, considering all the food tasted like it had been sitting out for quite a while. The rice was overseasoned and cold, the chicken kabob was bone dry. Most of the tables nearby were dirty, and it was overall a very disappointing dining experience. I love middle eastern food, but this is probably the worst I've ever had. Would not return. read more

So tasty! Had the chicken kafta with rice and hummus. So full of flavor with a little bit of spice to make the meat truly tasty. Better than the shawarma, which my friend had. read more

Nice atmosphere and excellent food! Try anything on the menu, can't go wrong....I'm from Florida, but I'll be back on my next trip! read more

Xawaash - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

We had gone t loo Aawash when they 1st I owned and today we are happy to day that the food is still delish. The owner is so pleasant and the desserts ate awesome. We enjoyed it thoroughly. read more

11/10 lovely service, delicious food, affordable prices, beautiful restaurant, and magnificent culture! Definitely recommend!

The food is very flavourful! Had the chicken kofta with rice and salad- the chicken was slightly spicy, but so juicy and flavourful! The rice was done well, and the salad and tomatoes gave it a refreshing kick. Also shared the beef kofta and pasta with my mom, which was just as juicy and delicious. It's a little pricy, but if you come for the lunch specials it's really affordable. Definitely the best Somali food I've had in the city. Highly recommend the beef sambusas (samosas) and mahamri, they are made fresh and are so amazing. Will be back to try more of the menu (or just get the same thing as it was so good). read more

Xawaash - Chicken kofta with rice and salad, and beef kofta with pasta and salad. - Middle Eastern Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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Came from Vancouver to visit my family for Christmas and decided to try something new -- a different cuisine. It was my dads birthday and we wanted to enjoy a good restaurant and came across this wonderful place! I worked as a server and absolutely have never been to a place so good in their service as they are. We ordered very nice dishes with the help of the cashier who was very well informed of the menu and also was so sweet as well as all the other employees at Xawaash. We ate our lovely meal and boy it was worth more than the price they ask! The manager and owner came to our table and made sure everything was going well for us and even served us tea and this magnificent date cake on the house! I absolutely recommend this place to anyone who is looking for hearty food and a warm, friendly environment. If I didn't live in Vancouver, I would come here again and again! read more