Tahini's — Restaurant in Hamilton

review date: sept 6, 2022, sept 18/22 customer service dates: ongoing since november 2021

tahinis hamilton (TH) went live on location in september 2021. i have been here 6x since november 2021 till time of review, and TH has been consistent with their quality of food.

positives: -compared to the market, TH provides a high end mediterranean food experience. the sauces especially, are fantastic and you can taste all the hard work they put into them, as they are scratch made. rice, chicken, rice bowls, vegetables and shawarma wraps have always been consistent in taste and quality.

-TH allows 3 ways to order up: in-person, online delivery or phone-in. the online pick-up option has been made unavailable at the time of this review. after speaking with store staff they plan to resume online pickup in the next few weeks.

-restaurant itself is clean, modern and spacious. has seating inside for diners. LED menu displays are organized. they also have card counter displays for the bowl/shawarma toppings to make it easier for you to order. sliding automated entry/exit doors allow for wheelchair and disabled folks to access the facility.

-plenty of parking at the side and back of the property. -outdoor seating for those who like to enjoy their meal on a nice day outside.

drawbacks: (1/2 star knocked off each for the prices and staff) -with high end quality, comes a price. this is not a budget-quality restaurant, and the prices are more higher as such.

-staff here can be hit or miss in terms of good customer service, and proficiency in english, in terms of communication. so TH should look at that as an improvement opportunity.

-portion sizes are not overly generous for the prices charged. again, TH is more about quality than quantity. best deal for the wraps is the large size imo. bowls are a bit pricey but provide a great taste experience.

-TH used to have a beef shawarma and bowl option back when they first opened. the beef was fantastic - tasted like a fine prepared steak. however for reasons unknown, they dropped it and have come back out with a beef gyro option.

-wraps have a bit of a greasy feel to the pita. as such i wouldn't suggest eating it in a vehicle. be sure to have napkins or access to soap and water to clean off your hands. that said, the wraps are an excellent food option from the menu.

-i'd recommend ordering in advance, if you can help it, during dinner and evening timeframes, as this facility can get quite busy with orders.

-my picks are the chicken bowl, and the large chicken shawarma.

sept 18/22: picked up a habibi bowl and jamaican jerk chicken and rice bowl. both are solid bowl choices. i would go with the jerk chicken bowl.

october 10, 2024: tahini's hamilton continues to shine like the stars that play at the scotiabank arena in toronto. 3 years after their opening, TH is def a heavyweight contender for best shawarma foods in the city, as a premium food experience.

prices are not cheap, and portions are not huge. however as a premium food experience, ALL of their ingredients are 100% top notch quality. the sauces are made from scratch. they have added a beef option since my last review.

what i appreciate the most is how TH makes it so easy to order online, directly on their website. your CC info and last order are saved for easy reference. as i drive from a 15 minute distance, pre-ordering and pre-paying online is a huge blessing to have, so time is efficiently spent once i get to the store. ⭐

bottom line: i would continue returning to tahinis hamilton as a restaurant within my rotation of shawarma places. i would recommend TH to others seeking a high-end mediterranean food...

I was recommended this place by multiple people so I went to try it. Taste I’ll talk about last, so skip to that if you don’t want to read.

Walking into the restaurant it smelled like burnt/old oil. Fumes were coming out in smoke that was suffocating. So bad that we sat outside being bitten by mosquitoes and didn’t think to go back inside.

This is what happens when a franchise has a take on cultural food. Starting with price and ratio, the food portions were misrepresented on the ordering screen. The boat shaped bowl is half the size of the round bowls.

The wraps are 10-12$. The shawarma bowl was 20$ with fries and a drink. With that you have 5 items you can put on it, including the sauce which doesn’t make sense. So I got the 4 items and for more than 4 you have to pay 50c each. Which if you’re charging 20$ you should not cheapen out on filler foods like rice and veggies.

The garlic sauce was minimal and 50c for extra. You can see it clumped in the corner, it was pasty so it was hard to mix with the rice and veggies, also ran out half way into the already small bowl. The placement and cut of the veggies was awkward to eat. Huge slices of tomato but butchered jarred turnips.

Rice was mid, shawarma was overcooked and dry. Pickles should be in the corner, don’t cut up the turnips, cut smaller lettuce and tomatoes so it can be eaten with every bite.

Aside from this place being a money grab, the lack of respect for the culture was off putting. Blueberry shawarma? Then you had butter chicken, curry fries, and jerk chicken? At least stick to 1 culture and make it well. Not butcher it and add as many items as you can to reel customers in only to disappoint.

I got the curry fries, and as you can see they were barely mixed. The seasoning was clumped on a few fries which made them inedible. Then you couldn’t taste the overcooked left out shawarma because all you can taste is curry seasoning. The fries were oily and I felt nasty after eating.

The picture on the screen showed packaged hummus, and garlic sauce. Which is when I started questioning the integrity and originality of this restaurant. Hummus and garlic are both really easy to make fresh in store.

My advice, correct your pricing, veggies should not be extra. The misleading images, and the quality of your food. Think of changing the oil every now and then. And cleaning your fryers, make shawarma fresh, not left in some heated container. Make garlic sauce in store with a bit of water so you can drizzle it all over the bowl rather than a clump in the corner.

Rather than grabbing all the cultures you can, focus on improving what you already have. Fix your menu, there should not be 12 different bowl types, salad should come with every bowl and be opted out if people...

Update one star review on March 30, 2025

Ramanpreet was super unprofessional. I come to this location order the Regular Habibi bowl every Sunday for the past 5 weeks, I never had a problem with this location. It was always very welcoming, fast service and friendly face. Due to dietary restrictions, I cannot have the tzatziki sauce so I always substitute the tzatziki sauce to the regular garlic sauce. A male staff helped me with the order and there was no issues at all. I even left a 5 star review on Google Maps in the past. My friend brought me to this location and I absolutely love the food here; therefore I brought another friend of mine and it was his first time trying the Habibi bowl, he loves it as well.

However, a female staff Ramanpreet provided an unpleasant, negative experience and I will consider if I am coming back in the future. Upon requesting to substitute the tzatziki sauce to a regular garlic sauce, she attempted to charge me extra. I told her the other male staff never charged me extra and there shouldn't be extra charge. I am not asking for extra sauce. I am simply have a dietary restrictions that I cannot have tzatziki. I will have regular garlic sauce and no tzatziki sauce. She kept saying, she had to charge me extra per her trainings. I asked then why nobody ever charged me extra in the past? I came every Sunday in the past 5 weeks and never had an issue. She said I only work in the morning I don't know. As a customer, I don't care and I don't need to know your working hours. I think I need to change my 5 star review on Google Maps to 1 star now.

Original 5 star review on March 16, 2025

Come on Sunday for the Habibi bowl -...