Baghdad Iraqi Restaurant & Catering — Restaurant in Mississauga

Very stingy with their portions and offerings. They will often conveniently ‘neglect’ to give you any free condiments and side sauces–that are basically staples of many Iraqi street dishes, unless you explicitly ask for such things. This fact is shocking when you consider how expensive the menu is. A menu that expensive does not feel like it is an expensive menu; their menu often comes across as a hollow, gold-plated egg shell with barely anything of substance or value inside it.

They do not have chicken shawarma, which is silly for a shawarma shop in 2024. Their only shawarma option is meat or beef shawarma, which comes with some important caveats depending on how you order it: caveat one is that ordering it in a dish instead of in a sandwich means that you have to get bread on the side–which you also have to pay for, of course; and caveat two is they will not bother to give you any kind of BBQ sauce or sliced tomatoes with the shawarma dish unless you very specifically ask for it–which is shocking considering the price of the shawarma dish and how essential the sauces and sliced tomatoes are for the Iraqi beef shawarma. If you order their shawarma sandwich by itself, then you should expect to receive some semblance of quality and generosity with their portions and servings–albeit you will be paying far more by ordering shawarma sandwiches in isolation as opposed to saving quite a bit of money through ordering a shawarma dish with its not-implied free sliced tomatoes and BBQ sauce sides (which you bizarrely have to ask for with the dish to get in the first place). As such, this is the format that I recommend going with if you really have to experience Iraqi shawarma–which is really overrated, in my opinion as an Iraqi myself.

The BBQ kebab dish is terrible. I cannot say anything good about it. The kebab is bland, dry, and overcooked. The serving of the kebab dish is pathetic for the price that it costs: there are no grilled onions or tomatoes, no other vegetables, and no accompanying sauces. I have to give credit to this restaurant because they showed me what a terrible kebab dish really is like in practice, but it is still admirable how it is possible to mess up a staple of Iraqi street food so badly in the first place. Basically, the dish is just the barebones–as in, just the poorly prepared and grilled kebabs with a piece of bread, of which you can get more of by asking, and some weak seasoning.

The cheese flatbread is okay albeit very expensive for what it is worth. I sort of like it despite its often dry and bland presentation. I feel like it is a guilty pleasure of mine to have their cheese flatbread, despite its numerous shortcomings with its quality. As for the portion size, it is fine and there is nothing to critique about.

I will say that after having dined and been served by this restaurant for a while, I would still rate it poorly for the issues mentioned. In truth, this restaurant has a long way to go and needs to improve in the quality of its food and its portions. I gave it one star out of five because the food is often disappointing, outside of the beef shawarma, their menu is lackluster, and their stinginess with portions...

I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone and if I could give it ZERO stars I would. I went there with my family earlier today, and the food was terrible. Once we ordered, we were served complimentary lentil soup, which was bland and watery, nothing like real Iraqi lentil soup should be. My mother got the shawarma platter, which came with rice and two spoonfuls of diced tomatoes and onions without any sauce. My father and I ordered the kebab platter, which also came with rice, a quarter of an onion, and a quarter of a tomato. The kebab itself was overcooked and bland.

I have eaten in Iraqi restaurants in many places in Canada and even in Baghdad, and I have never seen such stinginess. Wherever I have been, whether in Montreal or Baghdad, we were always served with turshi (pickled vegetables), hummus, garlic sauce, and on the table itself, there would be salt, sumac, and HP sauce. When my father asked for sumac, he only received a bowl with a few teaspoons of it. The only things on the table were a salt shaker and a few napkins.

We also ordered a shish taouk plate to-go for my sister, who wasn't with us (lucky her). When she opened the container and turned the shish taouk pieces, they were all burnt. The kitchen staff deliberately hid the burnt pieces to try and hide them from the customer. This can be seen in the pictures I uploaded. The piece of onion, which was also a quarter, was burnt. It went from being an onion to a piece of charcoal and was accompanied by a lukewarm hot pepper.

All this poorly cooked food cost us $100. They have an expensive menu, so one would expect amazing food and atmosphere which was nonexistent. I would ask this restaurant to change its name; nothing I saw reflected the hospitality, generosity, and kindheartedness that the people of Baghdad are known for, and indeed the entire Iraqi population. As an Iraqi myself, I am extremely disappointed with this restaurant. It failed in cooking Iraqi staples such as kebab and shawarma, and it failed in showcasing the generosity that Iraqis are known for, especially...

Where do I start with this gem of a restaurant...the food was incredible. We ordered 3 of the mix platter dishes, 2 falafel sandwiches for my family of 5 and there was so much food we didn't know how we were going to eat it all.

The kofta was amazing...very flavorful, tender and juicy. The shawarma was probably the best I've ever had and I usually don't like beef shawarma as I find it too dry for my liking. This shawarma was juicy and tasted incredible. The shish tawook was tasty,but a tad dry

The falafel sandwiches were again, very tasty, which coming from me, someone who doesn't like falafel says a lot.

There was complimentary lentil soup. Tastes almost as good as my wife's soup. Very very good.

Omar our server was incredibly patient as we were a very large group overall, 22 people. He took our orders efficiently and accurately. The food came out hot and all at the same time which was a nice change from most places where groups are this large. He was attentive and constantly checking on us to make sure we had everything we needed.

The restaurant itself seems to be going through some redecorating which isn't complete yet, but I didn't notice until someone in our group pointed it out.

I have been to many middle Eastern restaurants over the years and this visit was hands down the best in a long long time

Next time we're in the area we'll definitely be going back

Thanks again to Omar and the rest of the team at Baghdad for making our family dinner a resounding...