Khayal Shawarma — Restaurant in Toronto

With a few adjustments this restaurant could be a lot better. Ordered about $50 worth of food last night directly off their website. It said 25 mins till pickup. Arrived 20 mins later. They hadn't even received the order and had to take a photo of the receipt off my phone to even see what I had ordered. Barely apologized and said they'd make it quick and just need 12 mins. Having put enough in the green p parking for 15 mins this should have been fine. Checked back after 15 mins. Still not ready. "Your order is ready, just 1 more minute." He says. 5 more minutes pass. Still not ready. Now the parking meter has expired. I go out and move the car directly outside their shop. I call and ask them since they have repeatedly messed up on the timing to just bring the order out to my car when it's ready. They said sorry, it was too busy to do this. There wasn't a single customer in the store and they were FULLY staffed. This was their opportunity to try to win back their reputation with a new customer. They were polite but this was just bad service.

Now the food. It's pretty good, but they are chincy with the meat and the sauces in the shawarma platters and instead give you a ton of pickles (the cheapest and worst part). The side shish tawouk is a total ripoff at $7 and honestly is a waste of packaging. It's 4 small pieces of chicken breast in a massive aluminum takeout container. It also tasted like it was cooked in very close proximity to burning vegetables as the charred taste was overpowering. The side falafel is a good price at $6 for 8 pieces, but it comes with no sauces or anything else.

Like I said. Adjust the portions and plating of the food. Organize the kitchen and speed things up. Clearly from the reviews this restaurant needs to streamline their processes. Everyone is talking about how slow they are. Do that and this could be a decent restaurant. Oh and also... Turn down the music. Seriously. I guarantee that nobody enjoys listening to that while in your store. That...

Located near Broadview Station, we chose Zaad as an alternative to a dinner option in the area. Unfortunately, we were met with slow service and poor communication during the dine-in experience. However, the food was delicious and the bathrooms were clean. Warning for the emergency sign hanging extra low on the way to the bathrooms located downstairs.

Their menu had the standard Shawarmas, Platters, Saj and sides. Also, they offer bundle packs like family meals and catering options as well. They have daily specials. When we went, the Monday special was the Shish Tawook Platter and Drink for $14. The platter had chicken kebab that was mild but well-seasoned, tasty basmati rice, hummus, garlic sauce, Zaad sauce, house salad and vegetables.

There are lots of seating spaces with a spacious area to wait for your food. The bathrooms are located downstairs. The women's bathroom was notably clean and well-maintained. However, a potential hazard of the low-hanging emergency exit sign located before the entrance to the men's bathroom and can be easily overlooked until it is too late.

Not sure if this was a standard service in the evening but a separate employee initially took our order. Then probably went on break but the entire responsibility of managing the cashier counter, from order-taking to cooking and assembly, was left to one other employee. During that time, there were 4 other orders that came after us and they were served the food before us. Confused if the previous employee didn't pass on the information about our order. Nevertheless, had been advised that it could take the Shish Tawook Platter approximately 15 to 20 minutes for preparation we would have chosen something else. However, upon receiving the platter, we found that the assembly process, despite the wait, was fairly fast, taking...

Response to the owner:

There isn't a way to contact you. The e-mail on the website doesn't work, from the website - the fb,trip advisor, yelp pages all link to other businesses and the insta is linked to some boy's page. I also tried calling your number, but no answer. So while I appreciate the reply, the effort to repair the situation seems not genuine as there is no proper method to contact you. Regardless, please train your staff on customer service and food handling - also check if your meat has gone bad or not. You also forgot to remove 'ChatGPT said' in response to one of your negative reviews, so make sure to remove that part before responding back to your customers lol

TL DR: Everyone got sick after eating the chicken shawarma, beef was fine, guy on the counter hates his job.

I did have their shawarma's once in the past when a family member brought it home and it tasted pretty good so I decided to visit myself yesterday. The guy on the counter looked like he didn't want to be there and was pretty rude. I ordered 3 chicken and 2 beef and I noticed he input 4 chicken instead of 3, and when I corrected him he said ' you said 4 chicken' - bro are we going to argue about my own order? Idk if the guy is overworked or had a bad day but I don't need his attitude when I'm placing my order.

The taste of the shawarma was unfortunately the worst we've had. No hummus in the shawarma which should be illegal lol. Whoever ate the chicken got food poisoning and whoever ate beef is fine. Also they have a video playing on the front of the store of how their shawarma's look like -- mine didn't look like that at all. If you're reading this review just pass, I've tried lots of shawarma places and unfortunately this was not it.

The positive - nice seating area...