Mezza Lebanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Stratford

My girlfriend Caroline has had the food from Mezza before, although for me it was a first. But I haven’t found good Greek food on the island, so I was very hopeful when I saw souvlaki and Greek salad on the menu, so when I showed Caroline the menu, she picked Wednesday evening for our supper date. The restaurant interior looked new, clean and well staffed, with a long line up as it was just past five pm.

I knew I wanted souvlaki but they have such a large menu that I could eat there for a week without repeating myself too often. ;)

I ordered the Mixed Grill, some stuffed grape vine leaves, and of course baklava for desert. The chicken souvlaki, while tasty was not the best I’ve had, in fact I found it a touch dry and rubbery so I’m not sure how they marinade it. Typically it’s garlic, rosemary, oregano lemon juice, olive oil, wine, and refrigerated for a lengthy amount of time to let those flavours soak in. These were disappointing in texture and flavour, I’d give them 2.5 out of 5. Okay, but I found I enjoyed the chicken shawarma meat and the donair quite a bit more. They were served with a side of donair sauce and a garlic mayo that I hope they weren’t calling tzatziki sauce, as the closest it’s ever been to yoghurt was while stored in the refrigerator, but as a condiment for the chicken shawarma it was lovely. Their hummus was good, and I enjoyed the pickled turnip. We both opted for rice, which was alright.

The grape vine (Dolmades) leaves were stuffed with the rice, and olive oil soaked lovely flavour. A touch sour but oh so lovely when I’d not had any for years! I bought three and shared one with Caroline, which left me with 2.5. Lol. Next time I’ll settle for one.

Caroline and I both had the Greek salad with the meal, and I’m a bit indifferent to the dressing they used. The olives were pitted which Caroline liked, but I prefer them with pit for the flesh of the olive is tastier and firmer I find. I wish the salad had a bit more onion and feta.

The baklava, crisp on the top, nutty in the center, and honey soaked bottom, perfection.

While I would recommend Mezza to my friends and family and plan on a return visit, the souvlaki is okay at best, the staff were friendly, courteous and busy!

P.s can’t wait to try their Chicken...

Came for a visit to PEI. Reached PEI super hungry. Googled for a Lebanese shawarma place. Read reviews. Decided this place won’t be half bad. Ordered 3 shawarma grill platter. Told the employee not to put any pickles in one shawarma, twice. He agreed to not put any pickles but proceed to put pickles and pickled turnips or whatever in one shawarma. Honest mistake. Requested to remove pickles, pickles removed without any hesitation. Went to our hotel. Ate the shawarma. Started feeling nauseous after first few bites. Didn’t think much of it. Finished half of the shawarma. Started feeling more nauseous. We bought 3 shawarmas for 3 of us. 2 of us started throwing up in copious amounts. Didn’t finish the rest of the shawarma. Waiting to see if the third guy will also throw up while writing this review. Mind you, shawarma looked and smelled fresh. Very unhappy with the outcome. We still have 3 more days left on our trip. Looks like we will have to head back to Kitchener or stay in PEI till we feel better. Definitely would recommend to friends who visit PEI to steer clear of this place. 1 star for food because I still feel sick. My friend can’t even stand up after all of this. We had to throw out the rest of whatever we didn’t finish. Service, 2 stars because the employee(guy) looked like he didn’t want to serve anyone and that he didn’t care about what he served to customers. He did everything but a bit grudgingly, which is okay, since he is allowed to not be happy about his job. 4 stars for atmosphere because the shop decor looked like it was a well established business with a long enough history. P.S we had breakfast at 9am and only one coffee after that because we were driving all the way until we reached PEI. We started feeling nauseous after we had your food. Hope you can fix whatever it is that caused this. To anyone who thinks this was unnecessary, we paid 20 cad before tax for 1 platter and this is definitely not what we were...

Tonight's take-out got 5 stars reviews all around from our group of 6.

This was our second time trying the new Mezza location in Stratford. The first time I think they were still getting the kinks worked out so I wanted to give them another try.

Tonight we tried the Mixed Grill Plate (chicken shawarma, chicken skewer and donair meat), Shawarma Plate, Shawarma Sandwich and Fattoush and Tabouleh Salads. Everything was fresh and flavourful.

The savoury chicken shawarma was shaved fresh off the rotisserie.

Chicken skewer kabobs were nicely done on the grill. An employee was carefully monitoring their temperature with a probe. Chicken came with a traditional garlic sauce which was packed with flavour.

Shaved donair meat was moist, dense and yummy with the sweet donair sauce.

Hummous and pickled turnip were great. Pita bread was soft and fresh.

Some of us got the "lentils and rice" for our side instead of plain white rice. It had a wetter consistency than I was expecting, but it was still delicious and more interesting than boring white rice. Would order it again.

Overall, a more delicious and healthier alternative to typical "burgers and fries" fast-food fare.

The plastic take-out containers are heavy duty and will survive numerous cycles through the dishwasher if you want to reuse them. Although not easily found, the containers are printed with some of the tiniest recycle ♻️ symbols I've ever seen.

I hope they eventually switch to compostable containers, but in the meantime, at least these ones can...