Osmow's Shawarma — Restaurant in Calgary

By far one of the worst Shawarma paces I've ever had the unfortunate experience of visiting.

When I walked in the door, the girl making food immediately told me they were out of chicken. That should've been my first clue to leave. There's a grocery store in the same shopping area, no reason to be out of chicken.

Instead of getting chicken like I planned, I had the lamb platter. This platter consists of 3 things: rice, salad, lamb, and sauce.

The rice was actually good.

The lamb was terrible. It was chewy and tough and looked as though it was ground lamb instead of being Shawarma lamb. From what I can tell, the lamb appeared to be pre-cooked and the process of grilling it again resulted in the worst lamb I've ever had.

The Greek salad was just as much of a disaster. Lettuce, raw onions, and green olives soaking in dressing with a light dusting of the bottom of a container of feta.

The sauces, oh boy the sauces. I have no idea what sauces they put on my meal, I had no input on that process. Any other restaurant will ask or at least tell you what is on their food. Their "spice level" isn't actually a level. Instead, its an amount of their hot sauce they will slather on top of your entire meal. Completely up to the person making it what they think mild/medium/hot means. What I got when I asked for medium was a good thick coating of hot sauce over the entire meal.

When my order came up, they packed it to go with no offer to use the indoor seating. So I went out to my car to eat.

In the end, I think I ate half of what I got. It was way too spicy for Medium and the lamb was impossible to eat. I will never come...

I'm a big fan of shawarma, so I was excited to try a new place.

We stopped by around noon. None of the menu boards were turned on... I wasn't even sure if they were really open.

I was greeted by a friendly lady and she took my order: regular veggie sharwarma for my wife, large lamb shawarma for myself. Both to go. I wasn't asked what sauce I wanted, but I chalked that up to it being a set menu wrap.

I made one a combo to try the fries.

After a short wait, I received my order and drove home (5 minutes). We ate the fries on the way home. They were tasty.

My wife enjoyed the veggie sharwarma. It was a nice change from falafel. However, she found the wrap very soggy.

I found my lamb shawarma was also soggy. Upon inspection, it appeared to be the lettuce was not dried prior to serving.

I also found my lamb to be cold. Seasoning was great, but I expected it to be a lot warmer. And the medium hot sauce was not well spread as the first bite was pure fire! Or they gave me a hotter version.

They were very generous with the veggies which was a plus (minus the lettuce).

Overall, Osmows is ok at best. And with so many good or great shawarma places to around Calgary, a place needs to be...

I won’t go back a third time. The first time my chicken on the rocks, mild, was anything but mild. There was a spice mix shaken over it that was not offered and was too hot. The second time it was a chicken wrap, mild with osmows sauce that I was told was a garlic sauce. Again it was too hot like the chicken on the rocks but this time halfway through it got worse with a red hot sauce of some sort. I was unable to finish my meal. The other person with me had a plate with cold fries and a hummus and tzatziki that had no flavour and while the plat was ordered mild there was also added hot sauce. Too spicy, too cold. Also they lied on the menu when it says kalamata olives in the Greek salad. They were just sliced salted black olives. I know it is possible to get olives from kalamata that are not brined in wine but that would not be normal or what one expects on a Greek salad. Overall I’m really not sure who they are trying to cater to with mild bland food with extra hot spice added even when asking for mild. I don’t think many would be happy. As others have said in reviews here, you don’t need to look fare to find better...