Osmow's Shawarma — Restaurant in Hamilton

Taken aback by the exceptionally poor customer service and the poor quality of food served yesterday. We will not return after a very negative experience and instead will go to Phoenicia at Garth and Mohawk. We ordered a Chicken Shawarma sandwich and salad yesterday. In the past, our orders were made satisfactorily although in our experience, other Osmow's locations were superior in terms of quality and portion sizes. On this occasion, very little chicken was given and it was exceptionally dry and hard to chew. We phoned to share our experience and were offered a free sandwich and salad upon our next visit.

When we went back to Osmows today that offer was rescinded. Instead, we were offered 50% off the order. We indicated that was not what was promised to us and not a fair compromise given the poorly served items we were served. Here are the owner's exact comments, which clearly indicate a total disregard for customer experience:

No other customers complained about their shawarmas.

OUR RESPONSE: Does that mean that everyone was satisfied or that simply we were the only ones to complain? Because we were the only ones complaining, does that make our claim false? We have been here numerous times, why would you not value our opinion and negative experience considering we are good paying customers?

If you were dissatisfied with your order, you should have returned it.

OUR RESPONSE: We were working and on our lunch hour. We are located 15 minutes away. We could not return the items given a limited lunch hour.

What would the owners think if we gave you a free Shawarma sandwich and salad?

OUR RESPONSE: It is not free. You are replacing items that were of poor quality. I am sure they would think that you would like to ensure that all customers are satisfied that have a reasonable claim - especially regular customers.

The chicken salad is best served with the salad dressing and garlic sauce on it.

OUR RESPONSE: Another ridiculous comment. The quality of chicken should not be influenced by the dressing and garlic sauce. We ordered on the side to control the amount of extra calories on the salad.

There are plenty of other Shawarma alternatives in Hamilton. So, we walked out promising never to return and instead went to Phoenicia at Garth and Mohawk. Superior Shawarma and exceptional customer service. No affiliation with the restaurant - simply my experience factually written. Consider if you would like to support this type of restaurant that treats its...

Entered the store at 9:32pm, saw the unwelcome expression of the lady on the counter and asked to confirm if they were still open, she nodded and mumbled a yes, but only half heartedly. We were only visiting Hamilton and are from Milton, where Osmows is our all time favorite place to get our food, and it’s never disappointed us, not in the least. We were hungry and decided to get Osmows, thinking we could count on them to deliver some heartfelt meal, but not, where we disappointed. We’ve never been disappointed with any Osmows, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. We’d already felt unwelcome and to top it off, our 2 year old decided to get sick right when we were placing our order. To say we were embarrassed, would be the understatement of the year. My husband apologized profusely, and the miss taking our order, who’d already made us feel bad about entering the store, quit talking to us completely and started pretending to ignore us. I hurriedly placed my order, asked for a Chicken poutine, light to medium spice, my all time favorite, and rushed my daughter to the bathroom to clean her up. Husband placed the rest of the order, we came out of the bathroom, and husband was being helped by two other guys who were in a way better mood than the miss. We collected our food and hurriedly left. We didn’t even get our receipt. Sat in the parking lot outside to eat, as it was 15 minutes to 10pm, and their closing time. Found out my poutine was the spiciest level ever. Two lines of spice, in a cross. My eardrums caught fire! Husbands shawarma turned out to be a medium when he’d ordered a large, but since we didn’t have the receipt, there was no point going in to argue. Kids didn’t eat the half n half we got them, they didn’t like the taste of something that they bed for almost every night, so I tasted them, and I honestly never thought Osmows rice could get that bad, they were extremely weird tasting, very soft, clumpy, bad all over! I’m not sure what’s going on with this branch, but someone’s need to do some serious fixing. We’re never coming back to say the least, but thought it best to...

As a long-time customer, I've been coming to this place for the past 2 years and have been disappointed as of late. I've ordered takeout twice this past week, and both times I had to wait 15-20 minutes longer then expected and would just sit there and watch walkins come in, order, and get their food before mine. When asked, the lady at the front would say, "2 mins" and would continue taking walkin orders. This happened 2 more times before she got on the grill. I can't blame the young lady as she was the only one working the storefront ( I'm assuming there is a staffing issue at this location). Because of her sense of urgency, she rushed our meals and the results was a small portion of mixed dried, overcooked chicken with no flavor and little to no sauce. The rice was bland, and the salad had way too much dressing. A few days before that, I ordered a chicken shawarma wrap and it was pretty much the same outcome but the only difference was they were actually staffed that day. The moral of the story is that if you're going to order anything from this location, don't order takeout because you'll be waiting. You best just walkin and order get it at a timely manner, but based on the quality of the food as of late, you'll be disappointed either way. It's shame this place was actually one of my favorite places to hit after work for something quick and delicious. They must of come into new management recently because it just feels like they have no idea how to run the business, very disorganized, no time management, understaffed, and the quality of the food is just not there anymore. Hopefully, they can turn the place around and get back to where it was before, in the meantime I'll be going to the barton location...