OnCoal Halal Restaurant — Restaurant in Waterloo

I’m very disappointed in this place after reading the reviews! We paid $115 with tip for the double lamb and chicken meal. We ordered our food and found a place to sit - it was not busy. The worker was not inviting, barely cracked a smile when ordering. After we sat down he came over to place the plastic over the table cloth and just draped it over our drinks until we started moving things…weird. But okay it’s more about the food….Food was ready very quickly and served on a large round plate with a bed of rice. No plates are offered just plastic cutlery. The chicken was not crispy, more jelly like but inside was decent, not dry. The lamb was ok, not stinky like some places. There are no sides included, no salad etc. The man who served us at the counter stared at our table the entire time we ate. We were given 4 sauces, two hot and two tahini in mini take out containers. When my husband asked for more tahini sauce the same man said no. No it takes a long time to make it - meanwhile there is a tray of them behind him - he offers hot sauce (which we have enough of) again he told my husband no! I’m sorry we just spent over $100 on one plate of food and you say no to extra sauce? My husband even offered to pay, again a no. This put a bad taste in our mouth and we just wanted to pack our meal and leave. I went to the counter to get a take out container and it was at that moment I saw the same man packing a take-away meal and giving this customer 4 tahini containers….he saw me watching him and then asked me, you want white sauce? I said yes! He just pointed at the tray and shrugged his shoulders. I shrugged mine. He finally gave me an extra sauce and we got out of there. I felt disrespected from the moment we entered. I am a white Muslim woman and my husband is a non-white Muslim. We both felt as though we should not be there, that the employee did not want us there, almost how dare we enter their restaurant. It was shocking to me. We were so excited to try this new location as we seek out Halal restaurants and are very choosy with who we give our money to. It really makes me sad, with all the chaos going on in the world right now, this type of resentment coming from a restaurant should not be happening. Will...

Fake Reviews, Rude Staff, and Unhygienic Practices – Stay Away!

If I could give this place zero stars, I absolutely would! Most of the positive reviews you see here are completely fake, likely written to cover up the horrible service and disgusting conditions at this establishment. The worst part? The management and staff have the audacity to be rude to customers who leave honest 1-star reviews! Instead of addressing concerns or improving their service, they just copy and paste the same generic replies to every review, proving how little they care.

Terrible Food Quality The food here is completely inedible—overcooked, dry, and tasteless. It’s obvious that no effort is put into preparing fresh meals, and they simply serve whatever is convenient, regardless of quality. If you’re expecting a decent meal, don’t waste your time or money here.

Absolutely No Hygiene Standards! What’s even more shocking is the lack of basic hygiene. Trays and utensils are kept near the washrooms—a major red flag for any place that serves food! (Check the attached video if you need proof). This is beyond unacceptable and clearly shows their complete disregard for food safety and customer health. It’s disgusting and a major health hazard.

Zero Tolerance for Feedback Instead of listening to customer concerns and fixing issues, the staff behave rudely if anyone dares to leave an honest review. They cannot handle criticism and would rather blame customers than take responsibility for their horrible service.

Final Verdict – Avoid at All Costs! If you care about good food, proper hygiene, and respectful service, STAY FAR AWAY from this place. There are plenty of better options where your money will be well spent, and where basic hygiene is actually maintained. AVOID THIS PLACE...

Food was good. But, i think the guys working there are bloated egos. Communication in english was a problem with them which lead to the attender misunderstanding my order and the question. When i pointed out this issue the guy working their started acting very rudely to the point i felt very unsafe with them.

Update july 10/2025: Your response is inaccurate. I did not behave in a racially inappropriate manner, and your statement is false. I am disappointed that instead of addressing customer concerns, you resort to personal attacks. Clearly accountability is not in room with us. While ordering my friend asked the attender if we can just get fish from the fish mandi he nodded his head which looked like he is saying yes. So we said we'll take that. But, they got the entire fish mandi. when we told the other attended we just wanted the fish he said "you get what is in the menu". Once we were done eating we took the fish mandi to the counter and asked them to take it back and pointed out the language barrier and then the staff started behaving rudely.

I just checked other 1* reviews and they seem to point similar concern i.e language barrier and rude behavior. If my bad behavior and "racially inappropriate" was true, then i wonder why other people who gave 1* have went through exactly same situation as me. You can search with keywords "behavior" "rude" "language" in...