Osmow's Shawarma — Restaurant in Burlington

Lets make this as short as possible and to the point as the whole process wasn't

-ordered $60 worth of food (Osmow's mixed grills) for guests at my residence yesterday evening

-began eating and noticed the chicken shwarma was very hard, overcooked and it tasted awful (dog food like according to my Daughter).. It also had an "off" smell to it, especially the odd piece that wasn't overcooked. It was definitely borderline bad.

-contacted the store and advised to come in to show them

-owner was present + a male worker. Owner looked at it and I asked him to smell it. He undermined the situation immediately. He asked if any of it was in my mouth as one piece looked like a grey, blobby piece of I don't know what (of course it wasn't in anyone's mouth).... He picked up a very small burned piece and began chewing it, said he thought it was fine, but stated that he would take care of it any way and asked if I wanted more fresh chicken shwarma to which I stated, "no thanks, a refund is fine." He asked if I could wait a minute as the lineup was building, so I did. I can't help but note this, but moments later (he was still trying to eat that small piece of chicken), he picked up his bottle of water to help wash the shwarma down. Any way, the other male worker came over and began speaking to me. He asked what I needed and I asked for a refund again (bare in mind that the other meals were in tact; only one had been touched). He then stated that the kebobs were missing and what not to which I responded, "really? You think I have cheated you out of a little bit of chicken? Smell this." He did and then stated I would have to continue with the Owner.

The last couple in line had the same issue as me! They stated exactly what I had just stated to which I intervened and stated I too was waiting for a refund...

He ultimately gave me the refund, with an apology, but I waited a long time for it and question if it would have come that easy without the help of the 2nd complaint. You need to own things in this business. Reputation is a combination of many things....The best tasting food doesn't always constitute the best reputation and vice versa....

Osmow's Appleby! Once upon a time your food was good. You are slipping. Is it ego? Is it the sudden increase in business? Is it quality control? What is it? YOU need to solve that riddle. I do know this, serving bad chicken can certainly make people sick and ruin YOUR reputation & business... I don't want to ruin your livelihood, however people need to be made aware of this so that it doesn't happen to them, hence forcing YOU to fix this! I'm not going to post my pics, but pls work hard to be what you used to be. Maybe one day, when I see your reviews get better, I...

I echo most of the reviews below including some of the positive ones talking about how the food here taste good (some times they do fluke it right) - but if you are a regular here (as I used to be) then all the negative reviews are spot on in addressing the general lack of consideration of this specific establishment which is unfortunate for the Osmow's brand name. Specifically, poor general cleanliness, consistency in quality of food, consistency in freshness of ingredients - on average poor, which you would know as a regular customer.

My input is specific to the staff who are less than qualified to be in the service industry let alone any job that requires basic counting, preparation and organization skills. The owner (perhaps rightfully) aggressively defends his staff but alas this includes when they make blatant errors. I have on more than one occasion received my order (which is always take-out for my entire family) with items missing, after being charged for them. The staff are courteous enough to pack the order up nicely but 70-80% of the time miss at least one order in the packaging. Most of the time I would let it go but the one time I bothered to complain - my oh my did I hear about it! The value of the item on the menu was under $3 (which is another reason I don't bother to complain most times when I notice something missing after I get home). The staff were claiming pure ignorance and the owner/manager (not sure who he was as I was given his number to call) was arrogant, rude and yelled at me - a "customer".... when I had just presented the facts to him and had barely finished speaking. I was not rude or disrespectful in presenting my problem but more so shocked and speechless as a result of the way this man was speaking to me!

Needless to say this specific location will never get my business again and I travel further and out of my way to go to another Osmow's location and in doing so have discovered other great Mediterranean options in the Oakville/Burlington area equal or better than the regular Osmow's quality that I have been used to in the past. I encourage others to do the same rather than support such a poorly run establishment, which again is unfortunate since the Osmow's brand is...

Ordered through skip the dishes Ordered 3 platters and a wrap combo for the family and they couldn't have screwed up more if they tried. Platter is supposed to be meat rice and salad. They only sent 2 meals and neither of them had a salad. There was so much sauce that I couldn't even tell what the food was. I called the store and asked to speak to a Manager and was told to call back because he has gone out for a coffee. AT 5:30 PM! The driver told me the place was very busy and the Manager is out for a coffee. OMG. Will never order or go there again. Part 2 Manager called me because of bad review and preceded to yell at me and ask me to take down my pictures of the food and my review. He offer no apologies nor did he offer any means to rectify the situation. He just want to argue with me. He blamed the skip driver saying he forgot a bag but the fact is they did nothing to rectify it once noticed. They would have my number and could have called. Also the have the drivers number and could have called him to come back. His main concern seemed to be me stating that his employee told me he went out for a coffee and blaming everyone else for the mistakes and then wanted to argue with me about the problems with the food that was clearly their mistake. No sauce means no sauce. I told him that as a customer I did not appreciated him calling me (then put me on hold) just to yell at me for leaving a bad review. Look buddy. Many other people have left bad reviews and most seem to be about the management and missing items. Take some constructive criticism and lighten up and focus on putting out a good product and good customer service instead of calling customers at home and yell at them. I will be reaching out to skip the dishes and Osmows head office because this is completely unprofessional to use private information (my phone number) to call vent and offer no apologies nor try to rectify...