[Ottawa] Shawarma Palace

Review Location:
464 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Ontario






This place was actually the very first place we ate at as soon as we made it to Ottawa. I was almost not going to post this review because I wasn't able to take very good pictures, but decided that it was quite good and was worth sharing.

Curtis, who is the Ottawa expert, told us that Ottawa has some of the best shwarma because the town is highly populated with Lebanese people. This was something I wasn't initially aware of. I guess now I know.


We showed up at this place at around 2am, and surprisingly it was still open and pretty busy. We had probably just hit the partying crowd hurrying to satisfy their post-drinking munchies. It had plenty of sit down tables, but it was the type of restaurant where you order and pay at the cash, and then customize your food on the assembly line.The first impression that I had was that this place must get a lot of traffic in a day, because behind the counter were four of the biggest shawarma rotisseries I have ever seen. It was like the torso of a cow was just hanging there! Being the tourist that I am, I had to take pictures of it, despite having all the locals stare at me.

Shawarma Rotisseries

 Choices of toppings and sides from the assembly line

 Shawarma Wraps

Unfortunately I didn't get to try these, so I wouldn't be able to comment on them. But they were essentially made from the same meats as the shwarma plate, and topped with which ever toppings you selected.

Top: Pita bread that came with the plate, Bottom: Chicken Shawarma Plate

There was so much going on in this Shawarma plate, that I actually had to take 2 pictures of it to show everything. Curtis had warned us that the plates here were huge, so we ended up sharing a plate between two people. Good thing we did, because this thing was just a huge mound of food! The guy at the assembly line counter just slopping things into the container cafeteria styles which doesnt' make it too aesthetically pleasing, but taste wise it was really good! The shawarma was amazing, and I really liked the garlic potatoes. I don't care too much for any of the salads because they are usually really strong and bold in vinegars, so I'm not sure how good those were. The humus was really different here too. They made an indentation in the slop humus on our plate, and then poured hot oil in it, followed by a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning. (You can see the humus in the  the bottom right corner of  the picture on the left) Apparently this makes the humus creamier and thicker.

In general this was some really good shawarma, and is proclaimed by many over the internet to be the best in Ottawa. As long as you don't mind the way it looks, I highly recommend!