Hamoudi's Shawarma - South Windsor — Restaurant in Ontario

Insulting and humiliating experience

I ordered wraps with saj bread instead of regular, and during the chaotic ordering process, five different staff members were involved, who didn’t communicate with each other. I paid for my full order at the counter—around $50 and wasn’t asked anything about the bread. Naturally, I assumed everything was included in the total since this was my first time there.

What followed was incredibly uncomfortable. Several staff members began staring at me, talking to each other in a language I didn’t understand whilst pointing at me and glaring at me. Their expressions and body language were clear: I was being treated like someone who had intentionally skipped paying. I asked what the issue was, and a woman finally told me it was about the saj bread. I immediately offered to pay—not once, but several times—and she said it was fine. Yet the employees continued to stare me down as if I had done something deceitful.

Let me be clear: I had no issue paying. Why would I try to avoid paying an extra $4 when I had just spent $50? The implication that I was trying to get away with something was deeply insulting.

I can’t say for certain if my race or appearance had anything to do with how I was treated, but as a visibly brown woman, I can say this: it sure felt like I was being judged and profiled.

This all happened in a crowded restaurant, in full view of other customers. I walked out feeling embarrassed, singled out, and incredibly disrespected. I had a breakdown in the car trying to explain it to my husband, who wanted to go back and speak to management. I stopped him—out of concern for the young woman who likely just made a mistake. No one deserves to be treated that way over a staff oversight.

This was one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had. I won’t be returning, and I strongly do not recommend this restaurant—especially to people of colour. Basic respect and dignity should be the bare minimum in any customer interaction, and clearly, that standard was...

Had my first visit tonight - won't be my last. I showed up at about 18:40. The line was almost to the door. Odd at that hour. I noted on the way in that the Subway next door has exactly 0 customers inside.

First impressions, the place is well lit, immaculately clean - well done. I don't know if the crush of people was a regular thing for a Sunday night, because they were understaffed for the amount of people in line. No worries, it would just mean a bit of a wait.

The menu is fairly simple and straightforward. They serve all the standards, from the Fattoush salads to the shish tawook, even has an ice cream shop inside, and it looks like they may make their own ice cream.

When I enter a new place, I always try to order something I am familiar with in order to establish a baseline - always compare like food items. Apples to apples as it were. With that in mind, I chose the Chicken Shawarma sandwich. There were 3 of those awesome, natural gas fired, vertical rotating spits on the back counter. 2 chicken and 1 beef. Chicken is obviously their most popular.

Unlike most Arabic places, this is similar in concept to a subway. Select your dish, dress it out the way you want, then they put the meat you want at the next step. I chose the garlic sauce, pickles, pickled turnips, and onions, topped with tahini.

The taste is really good. The meat, tender, and heavily spiced, but not "hot". The garlic sauce is my favourite Arabic condiment. This sandwich is on par with anything I have eaten in the Dearborn area.

Pretty impressive. I will be back - those shawarma burgers look mighty...

I've eaten at many schwarma places and this was by far my worst experience. Made two simple orders and both had many mistakes. So much so that the manager had to apologize for the inconvenience whilst in the middle of an order. While in the middle of the first order, an employee tried charging us extra for a different type of lettuce on our schwarma, even though this has never happened before. This is when the manager formally apologized and told the employee otherwise.

The second order wasn't any better. Ordered some fried kibbi and was told that i needed to pay for the pita bread, but garlic sauce was included without charge. This was false, as I've ordered multiple times without paying for pita bread. Furthermore, upon arriving home there was no garlic sauce included! I called to complain and was offered 2 free sauces as an apology. 2 sauces for a 20 minute drive? Bullshit. A total less than $20 has lost a customer permanently.

Furthermore, upon speaking to friends, hamoudis almost forgot my friend's fries! The cheap prices show in their bland food and forgetfulness. Be careful as they try to charge inexperienced customers extra....