Donair Star — Restaurant in British Columbia

Okay so, I had a craving for a real Donair. A real Halifax Donair. The Donair, or the Donner as the Lebanese call them, was introduced to Canada in 1971 by a restaurant in Bedford Nova Scotia. The owner then came up with the "sweet sauce" to differentiate it from the Shwarma and the Gyro. It quickly became a hit and then King of Donair in Halifax bought the rights to it and the Halifax Donair was born. Later it has been moving across the country but seems to have stalled in Alberta since so many Maritimers stayed there and couldn't figure out how to scale mountains.

So... I research where I can get a Halifax Donair. This place comes up on 12th Street in New West called Donair Star. They advertise a Halifax Donair.

This is what happened: -I order. -He gets out a full dry pita and opens it up to make a pouch. WRONG -He puts in large wedges of tomatoes. WRONG -He puts in diced onions. RIGHT -He then turns around and shovels out of a hot bowl the sliced anemic beef and stuffs it into the pocket of the pita. WRONG -Pulls out a white squeeze bottle and squeezed something into the pocket. WRONG -Then he folds it all up into a tightly packed ball and hands it to me. WRONG -All of this took about 25 seconds.

I left cringing.

This is how you make a real Halifax Donair:

-Slice the properly flavourful and spiced pressed beef from the spit. -Place the pile of sliced meat on the hot flat oven plate. -Spray the meat with water and or oil. -Mix the meat. This will cook the meat further and provide the golden brown colour of the meat and seal in the flavours. -Place a pita that is sized to the order (small, medium, large), whole, on top of the meat on the grill. -Spray the pita and meat again with water/oil. Not too much. -Place a flat tray or pan over the meat and the pita to trap the juices and flavour. -Remove the pita and mix up the meat. The pita should be warm and slightly moist. -Move to another station and lay the pita down and place the meat on it then layer the diced onions and diced tomatoes on it. -Ask the client how much sauce they want. -Ladle the appropriate amount of the signature Halifax Donair sauce over the meat and vegetables. -Wrap up the pita with a fold at the bottom and then in a round so that the top is open. -Wrap the whole thing tightly in tinfoil. -Give to customer . It should take about three or four minutes.

If you don't do these steps above. Don't ever call it a Halifax Donair.

What Donair Star created was a bland and flavourless ball of grey meat, dry pita and chunky...

Decided to pick up the rice plate for dinner, it was a weekend evening, the place was manned by 2 ladies. One of the female person was particularly chatty. I placed my order & requested no onion on all 3 rice plate order… she proceeded to as “why”. I told her that I do not like onions. Then she proceeded to harp on me on why I don’t like onions. I just told her I don’t like it… the dinner plate comes with a pop, I told her that we would like 3 Coke Zero to go with the meal. She decided to be funny & told me that she doesn’t have any. I pointed out to her that the Coke Zero is on the top shelf, I can see it clearly. The next thing she did was ask me which plate is mine. Then she pretends to put a heart of onions on it (thinking it was really funny). By this time, I felt belittle & harass for not liking onion. I just kept quiet, didn’t want her to spit on my food. The food was ok, it was not outstanding that I need to go back & be belittled for not liking onions. I will take my business elsewhere. I tried calling the place to speak with the owner several times but was...

Was extremely disappointed in the falafel. It was so dry and stale, it was inedible. Huge waste of money. My partner saw her warm up a few old falafel in the microwave for our side of falafel. Extremely disappointed in the waste of money paying for inedible food. It also came with zero sauce. Making dry and stale falafel even more inedible!

A lady in front of us was waiting a very long time for her chicken donair and the server told us they were out of chicken because it was taking too long and sticking to the grill. (We could see the other lady struggling to get the chicken off the grill so we knew that wouldn't be good to eat. I feel bad for the lady who didn't change from chicken to meat!)

So I opted for lamb and my boyfriend double lamb and beef.

The meat donairs had plenty of toppings and filling, lots of meat! Which was great. However, like the falafel, the meat was dry and lukewarm. As if it had been sitting there for a couple hours.

Overall, very disappointed in the quality of the falafel and meat and wish it...