Cedar Falafel & Shawarma — Restaurant in Hamilton

review date: december 24, 2024 customer purchase date: december 24, 2024

in my neverending pursuit of discovering the amazing shawarma stores in the city, my travels led me to the cedar falafel & shawarma (CFS) on upper ottawa near stonechurch. CFS is one of 3 shawarma stores competing for your wallet, within less than 2km of each other in the area.

first off, a shout out to store worker fariba who provided a warm and welcoming environment. she explained quite a bit of what CFS is about. ⭐

what i liked about the menu layout is it's really easy to follow. 3 TV screens - appetizers, wraps, and dinner plates.

parking: it's free and there's plenty of it around the plaza.

inside the store: it's clean, very spacious, and can accommodate large crowds. CFS recommends phoning in your orders if you don't want to wait when it's busy.

hours: fantastic hours. fri and sat are extended late night hours till 1am. mon-thur are 11pm closing times. sun closed at 10pm.

doors open everyday at 11am except sun at noon.

food itself: portions are fair relative to price. portions are not as generous as other outfits. that said, the quality and taste at CFS are excellent. be aware if you are super hungry, a shawarma pita on its own won't be enough. either grab a 2nd pita wrap or get a diner plate on its own instead.

i grabbed a beef (kebab) shawarma on a pita. ($11.15; $12.59 all-in) very delicious - almost felt like a steak shawarma. be aware that all shawarma pitas comes standard with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, turnip, plus your sauces. extra toppings range from 25c - $1.

i also grabbed a chicken dinner plate ($16.25; $18.36 all-in). that comes with a small side of salad (veggies were fresh), hummus, a pita bread, and then the chicken with rice, red/white and tahini sauce. portion is not overly huge. food content was excellent, especially the rice which has a flavorful personality.

they don't lather on the sauces too much on the dinner plate. they don't need to, because the rice, potato and chicken are all delicious on their own.

lastly i picked up a chicken shawarma pita. ($10.99; $12.43 all-in) they agreed to swap out the tomato for cucumber at no extra cost. very tasty, delicious when you combine all the ingredients with their sauces.

bottom line: CFS serves up great tasting food. i would return to CFS if i was in the area, as it is a 20-22 minute drive away from where i live. i def want to try out some of their other items.

i would also recommend CFS to others...

One of the worst places to ever do business with...

Edit 1: If you see the comment below, this is how they treat the customers. In fact their people were apologizing for what they did. But after our negative review, they changed the story. Anyway we have witnesses who were present there.

The person (probably the owner) who treated us with racist attitude because we weren't speaking in Hindi. He wasn't ready to speak in English after a point.

Again, this place is one of the worst places to do business.

Edit 2: I am happy that the owner took the courage to lie on the public platform. As they have all the CCTV footage it is easy to prove them lying. (FYI, I TOOK SCREENSHOT OF EVERYTHING).

We called 40 minutes before reaching there and confirmed the order. They asked us to wait 40 minutes again after reaching there as they had other priorities. Phone call history and CCTV footage time are good to prove this. Then you started the conversation.

Please share the link to CCTV footage to show the public. I challenge you. You miserably...

I've been to many high end, expensive restaurants and had some of the best foods I've ever tasted but have never been inspired enough to write a review until now. I was never a big fan of shawarma. For me, it's the kind of food you eat after a night of partying and it's one of those things that are available late. It's just something to fill the stomach and never been something I'd choose to eat any other time. That is until my family tried this place. The food is amazing. Everything I've tried so far has been delicious. Not the best food I've ever eaten but surely the best shawarma place I've been to, hands down. It's the first and only place of its kind that I would eat daily. The restaurant is clean and spacious with good seating. Their price is great along with their portion size. The staff are just genuinely nice people. It's the only place that I've felt passionate enough about to leave a review so that their business will...