Babaz Plus

Babaz (also referred to as Babaz Plus, but I’m choosing the shorter option) popped up downtown in the last year. It seems to have sprouted from seeds blow in from Burlington, where they have a counter in this bizarre Tim Hortons that is also a mini food court for some reason? Whatever, Burlington sucks, I only eat Hamilton Shawarma. This one is on Main Street between the laundromat and two (2) convenience stores that are adjacent to each other. People speak favourably about it online, particularly about a woman name Amel who works there. Let’s check it out.

_{(Editor’s note: They both seem to be preceded by Babaz (not plus), a place that’s been in London ON for well over a decade. Unclear what the relationship is, but they use the same branding.)}

Upon arrival a few things struck me:
1. There was absolutely nowhere to lock up a bike
2. The man holding the sign for Little Caesars was muttering to himself incoherently and loudly
3. The dog crap left on the side walk had been stepped in a number of times.

Let’s go in.

The first thing I noticed was something I’m not used to seeing in shawarma shops: children. A young family was getting dinner together while spending some time at the laundromat. The mom was getting frustrated by her children’s behaviour, as moms inevitably do. Once they were done, the gentleman asked for my order. Not the famous Amel, but he was nice. I noticed the menu had both Chicken Shawarma, and Pineapple Chicken Shawarma. Intriguing, but here at Hamilton Shawarma dot com, we’re using the chicken shawarma sandwich as the benchmark while we work towards our mission statement: “To review every shawarma in Hamilton”. I ordered the one without pineapple.

I asked for my usual, everything but pickles. There were also some olives I had to dodge. I ended up with a shawarma with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, hot sauce, garlic sauce, tzatziki, and hummus. That’s a lot of sauce. The gentleman tossed the wrap on the grill briefly while I paid and sent me on my way.

This is a big boy, coming in around 10 bucks. Not a bad deal in this economy. First thing that hit me was the hummus, kind of blunting the other flavours. Then, the onion started to stand out, definitely could have used more time on the grill. And that was sort of the story of this shawarma, not mixed together well. See below:

Left half, all chicken. Right, all veg. Once I got to the chicken it was pretty good, played well with the sauces, which were pretty commanding. The final leg of the shawarma was marked by the hot sauce, which was flavourful, but rather spicy. Maybe because I was getting a concentrated dose.

So how was Babaz (plus)? I probably set the bar unfairly high by eating 2022 hamiltonshawarma.com Shawarma of the Year winner Phoenicia Food Express for lunch, but I do have some critiques. Mixing the ingredients better would be a big improvement, go easier on the sauces, give the wrap adequate time on the grill. There’s some potential here. I’m going to give Babaz at 7/10.