Azal Restaurant

I really hope Azal Restaurant is good. You see, I’ve moved to the Beasley neighbourhood and Azal is the nearest place with chicken shawarma on the menu. How great would it be to have good shawarma close to home?

Azal Restaurant is a little place on the corner of Wellington and Wilson. It’s a mandi restaurant, from Yemen. Not exactly a part of the world known for shawarma, but I’m sure that’s fine. I walked out of my house and arrived at Azal Restaurant minutes later. How convenient!

The inside is quaint, but nice enough. There’s no menu posted, just a laminated piece of paper on the counter. No worry, I know what I want. The gentleman came out from the back to take my order, smiling and polite, but a bit confused I was asking for the shawarma. I took a seat and admired my surroundings, this is a place I could end up spending a lot of time in after all. Before long, my order was ready. The gentleman had to consult the menu to figure out what to charge me, not an encouraging sign. I settled the bill and I headed home with my shawarma.

Considering I had no input on the toppings, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber isn’t a bad mix. There’s some sort of sauce on it, not sure what it is. It’s not garlic, more of a sweet-savory taste. The bread isn’t pita, it’s some other sort of flatbread and it can’t actually wrap the contents. And, the chicken, it isn’t shawarma. I have no idea what seasoning it is, but it’s not shawarma and not especially warm.

A quarter way into the wrap it began to fall apart. Halfway through I had to use pressure and concentration to keep it all together. Three quarters through I had to go get a fork.

Much to my own disappointment, Azal Restaurant isn’t a quick, tasty, or cheap place close to home. Not for shawarma at least. I’m fairly unacquainted with mandi cuisine, but that’s a separate adventure for me. My quest for good shawarma close to home continues (spoiler, it’s Lulu’s). On the merit of their shawarma, I’m going to award Azal Restaurant 3/10.