What people say about (Pita Land Shawarma - Nanaimo)
Jason Ellis
Update: Further to the request of the owners to contact them for further discussion and resolution, I emailed them twice and received zero response. Seems to me as though the offer was for optics only. I hope to be proved wrong.
______
Oh man, there's nothing like a proper shawarma or donair! I reminisce about the legendary Lebanese shawarma shops in Ottawa or the food carts stationed outside the nightclubs in Sydney. Where the pitas are so fresh they're chewy with flavour, the abundance of roasted meat cut off the cone and crammed into the pita. All the toum, tabouli, pickles, sauces, and veg you could want. And all this for under a tenner. Those were the days!
We enter a different dimension: Pita Land. Stale pitas, minuscule portions of dry meat annoyingly measured to the gram (sitting on the tray, not cut in front of you), a thin layer of toum that would shame any Middle Easterner. Topped with a ton of browning lettuce and punky tomatoes. I had the misfortune of ordering a side of lukewarm potatoes and the same stingy serving of toum.
The cost of this? $23.00. Ridiculous. Is it the best in Nanaimo? Sadly, it probably is. But it's a shame. Either Nanaimoites have no idea what good Middle Eastern food is or they've forgotten and resigned themselves to mediocrity. And calling this experience mediocre is being generous...unlike their portions.
Photos may or may not be an accurate representation.
Allan Co
The optics and the food were represented and received quite differently from what I saw shared by a local Nanaimo influencer. The dishes we got didn't have as much meat in them and overall didn't seem as fresh either. They have shawarma (grill) there but the meat we got didn't come directly from it I don't think. Not saying the food was bad, it was okay, still can't compare to the places we've been to on the mainland. Perhaps it's the franchise, or maybe the lack of competition in Nanaimo.
Gabriella Fleming
My first time was yesterday I tried a chicken shawarma it was so delicious... I couldn't stop thinking about the food all night so I went back today!
I had to try the poutine and let me tell
Update: Further to the request of the owners to contact them for further discussion and resolution, I emailed them twice and received zero response. Seems to me as though the offer was for optics only. I hope to be proved wrong. ______ Oh man, there's nothing like a proper shawarma or donair! I reminisce about the legendary Lebanese shawarma shops in Ottawa or the food carts stationed outside the nightclubs in Sydney. Where the pitas are so fresh they're chewy with flavour, the abundance of roasted meat cut off the cone and crammed into the pita. All the toum, tabouli, pickles, sauces, and veg you could want. And all this for under a tenner. Those were the days! We enter a different dimension: Pita Land. Stale pitas, minuscule portions of dry meat annoyingly measured to the gram (sitting on the tray, not cut in front of you), a thin layer of toum that would shame any Middle Easterner. Topped with a ton of browning lettuce and punky tomatoes. I had the misfortune of ordering a side of lukewarm potatoes and the same stingy serving of toum. The cost of this? $23.00. Ridiculous. Is it the best in Nanaimo? Sadly, it probably is. But it's a shame. Either Nanaimoites have no idea what good Middle Eastern food is or they've forgotten and resigned themselves to mediocrity. And calling this experience mediocre is being generous...unlike their portions. Photos may or may not be an accurate representation.