I have been trying different places downtown trying to find decent Lebanese food, but all of them were pale imitations. Is there really no demand for genuine Lebanese food in the downtown core? If there really isn’t and people here prefer different flavors, then why do so many places stress their “authenticity” when there is nothing authentic about them? I wish they would just call themselves Mediterranean or Oriental and I wouldn’t waste my time and money.
Best Ever Food Review Show did a cool video on Lebanese food in case anyone is wondering what authentic Lebanese looks like.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rojNQ0Z1R10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rojNQ0Z1R10)
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by DarkGreenGummybear
26 Comments
Not Lebanese cuisine as a whole but grew up in Ottawa and the shawarma here is abysmal. I don’t understand how it can be so mediocre without at least a single standout. Hoping some people come through with recommendations on legit spots. It’s sad that I have to wait to go back to Ottawa to get some decent shawarma.
What’s the best so far in your opinion? I used to love Paramount like 5 years ago and before that, but I then started having bad quality experiences and they’re now MASSIVELY overpriced too.
!remindme 3 days
Have you tried little sito? I haven’t been but heard good things.
I thought Souk Tabule was good but I guess I’m not an expert
What’s wrong with Lebanese food in all of Toronto! Atleast that’s one thing that Ottawa does right!
For real Lebanese food you need to go to Montréal.
Amal. Expensive, not an everyday restaurant, but it is as authentic as I’ve had outside of Lebanon. Chef is from Beirut.
Lebanese Bakery beside Crown Pastries has excellent, fresh pies.
Tried Ghadir and was very disappointed. Truthfully I liked Adonis more.
Takeout Lebanese in the core isn’t great, but that’s the case for most middle eastern food in the core. I don’t think there’s a huge population. Tabule and Souk are the mainstays, but they’re very meh, except for souk’s saj on a good day.
Haven’t been there yet but Laylak look pretty good.
For the most part you’re not going to find the best (and certainly not the most authentic) of any ethnic food downtown. Maybe you might not notice outside of Lebanese food if that’s what you’re most accustomed to.
There’s a phenomenon I call the shawarma trap that I’ve observed in a number of Canadian cities. To have excellent quality food of any nation’s culinary tradition you need to have a certain critical mass of people living in an area who eat within that culture. If you don’t meet that critical mass, you’re dependent on the universally familiar food items to get you by. Butter chicken, if it’s an Indian restaurant, pizza if Italian, souvlaki/gyro if Greek, and shawarma if Lebanese. Everything else is an afterthought.
I remember two restaurants where my parents live (not in TO) that tried to do authentic, homestyle food. One Lebanese, one Turkish. Within 3 months the Lebanese one had turned into a shawarma shop with a few (now terrible) dishes from the old menu and the Turkish one just folded. It was incredible food when they opened, well prepared, traditional recipes with no compromises. But they just didn’t have enough of a Lebanese or Turkish clientele to make it work.
With high rent, low presence of a target market, and the complexities of maintaining a menu, you either have to sell out and sell cut-rate versions of the dishes you want to sell or you become a shawarma shop (or, more usually, both—selling cut rate shawarmas). Halal menus make it even harder without the revenue booze brings. The only solution to halal fine dining is large scale banquet-style catering, and again, you need enough of a market to fill a wedding venue several times a month to make that work.
Arz up on Lawrence is pretty good.
I personally liked M’zaar on Yonge south of bloor when I needed to fill a craving fast. But the hours were unpredictable and haven’t checked to see if it’s still around.
We keep it at home. Just kidding. When I hear about my friends raving about Osmow’s and what not I just have to think happy thoughts. Like others are saying Lebanese cuisine and shawarma in Toronto is not great. I think Shelby’s is alright but even then it’s questionable.
I have no idea why it’s so bad though, I am Lebanese and I find the quality dismal in Toronto. Like others have mentioned I’ve found Montreal great for Lebanese food in my experience.
I think it’s partly due to the fact that Canada is so expensive. People who are willing to start restaurant businesses likely have the capital to front a mediocre Lebanese cuisine restaurant or shawarma joint but likely lack the culinary skills to pull it off. Especially at scale and keeping it consistent. But that’s just me guessing.
There were a few Lebanese bakeries and shawarma places that existed for a few years that had good food but they would end up shutting down. Probably because margins were thin and costs were high. The more expensive Toronto gets the worse the quality gets. And it seems like it’s only going to go up.
I’ve had good dishes at Limon in the beaches. Might be worth a try.
It’s all fast food wraps and shawarma plates downtown if you venture out Turkish places , Armenian, Persian , Iraqi places are doing it authentic. it’s unfortunate I prefer the Lebanese food but your not going to find it , go to Michigan lol
Downtown core is not good for it. Some spots out in Mississauga, also Lawrence east warden and vic park stretch. Got some spots scattered up the Yonge line in North York.
Few years ago there used to be a place called Manaish on Richmond and Spadina. They made amazing Lahmeh b’ajeen and zaatar manaish. I worked in the area and it was a daily breakfast for me there. They marketed themselves as “global flatbread”, which really doesn’t mean anything. If they marketed themselves as “Lebanese brunch” or breakfast, I think they would’ve done better. The owner was such a a happy nice guy, I loved him. It was so sad when they closed. Anyways, that didn’t answer your question, but that was the closest to authentic taste of home in downtown
Shawarma Empire at Lawrence and Warden…the best.
If you walk into a falafel joint and order one and the next thing you see is the server throwing a few balls into the microwave oven, that is a very good sign that it will be terrible.
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There is a great falafel place near st. clair w. and west of Christie on the south side. Their lentil soup is delish too.
Don’t get me started on places that put 300 ungodly toppings in shawarma. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND PUTS ZUCCHINI IN SHAWARMA? 🤦♀️
Go to Warden/Lawrence
The worst is when they sell French fries
I prefer lesbianese cuisine.
Try tabule in midtown. Delicious.
Not downtown (yet) but the really popular Lebanese chain Boustan from Montreal opened up two locations in Toronto last year, one in York Mills and the other in Scarborough, and will open up another one soon in Liberty Village.
Has any given the open locations a try? Is it anything like the OG Boustan on Crescent in MTL?