Seemo’s Shawarma will make your weekend dining decision quick and easy

Seemo's Shawarma Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

It’s great to see the city’s shawarma scene leveling up with a healthy Levantine representation of spit-shaved meats. There’s Lebanese (Beirut Grill & Deli, Cedar Halal Food & Grill), Syrian (Maroush Shawarma & Grill), Egyptian (The Dough Show) and Iraqi (Rawsha Mediterranean Cuisine) shawarma being carved across the greater Orlando area. In recent years, Palestinian variants have emerged, with Heart of Jerusalem joining mainstays Jerusalem Restaurant in Kissimmee and sister restaurant Flame Kabob in Dr. Phillips. More recently still, Mashawi, a food truck from the owners of Palestinian coffee outfit Zayn & Co., launched this month, but yet another mobile op, this one parked on the fringes of Azalea Park, is making a case for shawarma supremacy.

Seemo’s Shawarma is a trailer decked out in fire-engine red, and it’s hard to fight the fire-licked dishes set forth by Waseem “Seemo” Saedi, a Palestinian by way of Jordan. Parked on a lawn next to the Astro Skate roller rink on South Goldenrod Road, the trailer draws a steady flow of cars navigating a dirt road, then rounding the mobile conveyance to get to a grass parking lot. There are 10 Seemo’s Shawarma-branded picnic tables, all with umbrellas fitted with lights in their skeletons for bright, photo-friendly nighttime dining. It’s where we dug into a steak shawarma ($15) that Saedi hand-fashioned from layers of ribeye and fat trimmings before securing it onto a vertical spit.

Seemo's Shawarma Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

“I’ve gotten really good at it,” he said about making shawarma from scratch, “stacking it probably takes me less than an hour” — which is about how long it took us to eat everything we ordered.

That steak shawarma wrapped in Palestinian saj bread (it’s cooked on a convex griddle) comes stuffed with house pickles, tomatoes, red onions and parsley. Then tahini and pomegranate sauce is spooned in, followed by a dash of sumac. Wonderful stuff, even if the toum (75 cents) we ordered as a dip lacked the requisite fluff. “I’m just shaking my head at how it turned out,” Seemo told us with full-on contrition about the emulsified garlic sauce. “The texture is off, but the flavor is there.”

Indeed it was. Moreover, the shawarma was so enjoyable, I had no trepidation ordering the hokey-sounding chicken shawarmadilla ($13), essentially a chicken shawarma but stuffed in a flour tortilla with Monterey jack cheese and griddled. It came with a side of fattoush salad and a piercing shatta hot sauce. The tortilla, basted in a broth/olive oil blend and seared, added flavor, but let’s talk about this ridiculous chicken shawarma.

Seemo's Shawarma Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

The thigh-and-breast shavings marinated in a host of secret spices (of which Saedi would only divulge garlic and onion powders, cinnamon, cayenne and chili powder) get their juicy lusciousness from — heavens to trompo — chicken skin.

I could’ve strapped on the four-wheelers, headed to Astro Skate, careened around the track like Skinny Minnie Miller, then come back for another one these fusion-y handhelds. But I had a double smashburger ($13) on a grilled potato roll to get through. The 80/20 patties glopped with American cheese, diced caramelized onions, jalapeños, pickles, red onions and Seemo’s burger sauce smacked, and their crispy perimeters raised the burger to elite status.

Seemo's Shawarma Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

Appetizers were of a similarly high caliber — deep-fried corn ($6) tossed in butter, Parmesan and Cajun seasonings didn’t make a lick of sense being served from a Palestinian shawarma truck, but I’d sure as hell order it again.

Then there’s Dooni’s falafel (six for $5, 12 for $9, 18 for $13), arguably some of the very best falafel I’ve had the pleasure of eating in this city. The recipe for these fried beauties comes from Seemo’s mother-in-law, but it’s his wife, Dooni, who makes them every day from ground chickpeas blended with parsley, cilantro, onions, sesame seeds and spices. They’re shaped before being fried to order, and my own better half, who is not a fan of falafel, devoured them with great abandon.

When Seemo came to check on us again, he looked so grateful at the joy we were getting out of these beauties. He then told us that his wife has many family members who live in Palestine’s occupied territories and that 70 of them have been killed by the IDF’s genocide in Gaza.

It added poignancy, and weight, to the food this friendliest of chefs cooked for us. It also served as motivation for us to continue paying weekend visits to Seemo’s Shawarma. I’d encourage you to do the same. And, yes: Free Palestine.

Seemo’s Shawarma: 866 S. Goldenrod Road (food truck next to Astro Skate), 407-733-6626, instagram.com/seemosshawarma

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