Xawaash — Restaurant in Mississauga

Update June 1, 2024: I’m reducing my review to 2-stars.

Food and service are both equally important to me. The service was horrible yesterday. The food was decent as it usually is.

Beef suqar, eggplant appetizer and pita are all on point.

Service = 0/5 stars. The main server and cashier did NOT understand English, Hindi, or even moderate Punjabi. You should not have staff working who can’t communicate in English at a restaurant in a primarily English speaking country.

She put down the order which she misunderstood and printed a receipt. Then she asked me to review the receipt. I checked the amount only as she seemed to nod her head and understand the order.

I wanted one chicken suqaar and one beef suqaar. I wanted one with noodles. She said beef came with noodles. So then I asked her for beef suqaar with noodles and chicken with rice.

She brought out both with chicken and when I asked her why. She said that this is what was on the receipt and I approved it, which was true. But I should not have to review my order in print when I trusted she understood what I had communicated. This is a restaurant, not a contract I have to review and approve. Otherwise just get tablets where I can put the order in myself.

Later she also brought out 3 extra drinks and we told her we did not order those drinks. She insisted we did and I did not want to be billed extra so I pushed her to take those back.

At the end, we asked her to pack our order so we can take it with us. And they never packed it. They gave us takeout but they didn’t include our leftovers that we had asked them to include.

Honestly, I love the food, but I’m not going back here for the service ever again. Leaving 2 stars overall.

1-star low grade service. Just make sure you read and communicate everything carefully. I’ll update my review if things change at...

We are truly blessed to live in such a diverse and multi-cultural city. And with it, we have the options to step out of our house to sample foods from all over the world. It will be "Somalian" food for me today.

I came across Xawaash as I was heading to this area to see how the new LRT construction is doing as it will affect condo / property prices along this route.

I ordered the Chicken Adana platter with rice , qty#1 Chicken samosa, and their famous date cake. The order came out to just under $22.00 because I had a special 25% discount on the platter ( -$3.00).

The online ordering is quick and simple. You get a confirmation of your order along with a ETA for pick up. The location is clean and modern. The service was friendly and courteous.

Everything was packaged very well. The platter portions are generous. First off, I have to admit that the chicken samosa is the best tasting samosa I have ever had. And believe me, I have eaten plenty in my lifetime including a trip to Mumbai. So this was an unexpected surprise.

The chicken adana itself is packed with flavour. The cumin, coriander and oregano bursts into your mouth. Was there sumac in there too? I tasted a subtle hint of sour/tart in the meat. For this dish, I will say no to the sauce the next time around. The dish does not need it because it is already tender and the sauce only masks the flavour of the spices and it softens the texture. But to each their own right?

The date cake with that caramel sauce is a winner !!! Wow was it ever good. A nice velvety date cake with caramel/toffee drizzled on top.....wow...heaven on earth.

This is a clear triple right down the line folks !!! I will be back to try their other dishes later on.

A++ experience all the way.

Treat yourself to a wonderful Somalian meal and let us know...

The overall experience was good. The food for the most part was good. Would definitely recommend trying the Somali food more than the Mediterranean. Found the shawarma to be quite dry but the Beef Suqaar, Muufo and Beef Samosa were definite standouts. The date cake and honey ginger drink were good (I like gingery things so I liked the honey ginger and halwo).

The service was excellent! The worker behind the counter was super nice. When they didn’t have any lamb fatayer left, they refunded it off our second bill without any fuss. Also, they had only one dessert left of a dessert that we wanted but it was broken. The worker saw jt and even after offering to pay for it multiple times, she refused to charge for it because it was broken claiming it was haram to serve broken things (70% of restaurants would have sold it for full price regardless of the brokenness). That definitely left a positive impact for me and it was quite humbling to see someone treat their patron like family in that sense.

One thing to remember, if you plan on dining in, order at the front and they’ll serve it to your seat. They will require payment before serving but you can order in batches (we did a main and dessert/drinks order).

Overall, as someone who has never had Somali food before, I really like Somali food and I definitely would recommend coming here for a meal. Great experience venturing beyond my usual comforts and will...