Paramount Fine Foods

Feb 2, 2021 @ Shops at Don Mills

BOGO Chicken Shawarma ($11.98 for two) with spicy potatoes and lentil soup (+$2.30 upgrade)

The chicken shawarma had really dry chicken today and just barely enough garlic sauce and pickles. 

The lentil soup was REALLY good with a nice grainy texture from the mashed lentils, very filling and perfect on a cold day. The spicy potatoes were delicious as usual. 

Jan 26, 2021 @ Shops at Don Mills

Gotta take advantage while the BOGO promotion is still happening!

Beef Shawarma and Shish Tawook ($11.49 each x 2) and upgrade to spicy potatoes and fattoush salad (+$2.30 each and so worth it)

Beef shawarma had lots of beef, but unfortunately the beef was way too well done and became tougher. The sandwich also didn't have garlic sauce, but a lighter sauce instead (maybe so that the garlic sauce didn't overpower the beef) and it came with pickles inside. The pita was pretty good too. 

Shish Tawook had really yummy juicy chicken breast kebab style with garlic sauce and pickles. There was also an option to get a spicy version of the shish tawook sandwich (so we got that too) and it was pretty good! 

The sides: the fattoush salad was mixed better from the Don Mills location with a better ratio of dressing to salad and lots of veggies not just romaine lettuce (so it tasted better overall). 

The spicy potatoes were REALLY good! Fried potato cubes tossed with a spicy sauce (and evenly distributed on all the potatoes) - super tasty. Both these sides are worth the extra upgrade (so try it out!)

Jan 21, 2021 @ 2450 Sheppard Ave E

 Super excited to see Paramount on Ubereats' BOGO list and their sandwiches were BOGO (what a great deal!). 

Unfortunately, I didn't have the best experience at this location, the guy who gave me my food was a little rude, he told me I was late and that my order was ready at 12:30, but the Ubereats app told me it was ready at 12:50 so I got there at 12:45 and the food was cold. (I didn't complain, but I kept it in mind for future orders)

Chicken Shawarma with fries ($10.91 for two) and for an additional fattoush salad (an extra $2.30)

The chicken shawarma was good! I love their thick grainy garlic sauce that's oh so tasty! The chicken was done well and wasn't too dry and the sandwich came with lettuce and pickles. 

The fries were okay, but the fattoush salad was worth the extra money since it was so good. I loved the savoury and tangy dressing but it was also super oily and there was way too much dressing in the salad. The crunchy bits were good and paired well with the salad (we added more lettuce afterwards to soak up all the dressing and it was much better - for such a small sized container, it could have used a lighter toss of dressing)

Baklava $7.99 (pre-tax)

Much cheaper to buy in person than online!

This location's baklava didn't have as many varieties, but it somehow tasted better with more rosewater flavour than the Don Mills location (curious...)

Dec 19, 2020 @ Shops at Don Mills

I enjoyed the last box of baklava from Paramount so much that I came back for more two days later. 

10 pieces of Baklava (15% off if you order online)

A different assortment of baklava at the Shops at Don Mills location, 3 each of the round pieces, one small rectangle and 4 bigger squares. However, these pieces didn't have any rosewater flavour. These did seem fresher than the baklava from the Victoria Park and Sheppard location, but I miss the rosewater flavour. 

Dec 17, 2020 @ 2450 Sheppard Ave. E

10 Pieces of Baklava $7.99 (10% off with cash payment)

The pieces got really tiny, but the flavours were great! Lots of pistachio and rosewater flavours and it wasn't super sweet. For those that don't like rosewater, it's not overpowering, but you can definitely taste it. The cashew baklava were pretty good too - I went through this box super fast.

Jan 4, 2018 @ Shops at Don Mills

Puffy bread

Half Mixed Combo Platter $43.99

Chicken and Beef Shawarma, kafta skewer, shish tawook, BBQ beef skewers and falafel with pickled turnips, pickles, lettuce and cucumber accompanied by garlic and tahini sauces

Delicious!

Fattoush Salad

I love the crispy bits in the salad

Fries

This was so much food for two people - but it was so delicious! 

Baklawa selection

Sept 25, 2012 @ 253 Yonge Street

Two years ago, Paramount Fine Foods opened up a new location bringing their popular Middle Eastern cuisine to the heart of downtown Toronto. 

Menu

We were served these huge steaming hot puffy pita pockets right after we ordered (talk about efficient!)

Paramount Special

My friend ordered this drink with mixed fruits: strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, almonds, crushed pistachio, ashta cream and honey in strawberry and mango juice. Really delicious! It was like a drinkable dessert with a full serving of fruits. 

Chicken Shawarma Plate $10.99

Grilled chicken shawarma, garnished with mixed pickles, tomato and lettuce.

A humongous portion! The chicken was yummy - not too dry and crispy on the outside. The sweet and tangy sauce worked well with the chicken and vegetables. I also really liked the fluffy and lightly scented long grained Basmati rice (a nice change from Jasmine rice for me). 

Beef Shawarma Plate $10.99

Grilled beef shawarma with mixed pickles, tomato and lettuce. 

It was interesting that the beef shawarma had a slightly more bitter and more watery sauce, but I thought it was a good complement to the drier beef and the sauce was a good complement to the beef taste-wise. 

Overall: Paramount Fine Foods is definitely doing something right! The food is great, portions are huge and appropriately priced (so you get great value for money). It does get boiling hot in the inside of the restaurant (especially in the summer), so it's a good thing that the service is fast (eat and go!).

Website: http://www.paramountfinefoods.com/

Kandahar Kabab

Jan 31, 2021 @ 45 Overlea

Two KK Fish ($11 for 2) and Chicken Seekh Kabob ($11.98 for two with rice)

First the fish, these were much bigger than the Markham Road location and had way more white meat (almost seemed like they used a different type of fish (it was so charred I couldn't tell and I'm not great at recognizing the differences between fish). The dill sauce was excellent paired with the fish, but sadly this location's fish was super salty (much prefer the Markham road location's). 

The chicken seekh kabob was okay, but again very salty. It paired well with the rice (and the rice here is better than Naan & Kabob's, but not as good as Aleppo's). 

The naan was delicious when it was hot (try it here!)

Jan 23, 2021 @ 2307 Markham Road

Since we were in this part of town, we grouped a few Ubereats BOGO deals together and picked them all up so that we had food for the next few days (good time to try them all and it was an economical way to make one trip out and avoid excess trips). 

There was quite a lineup here (which I could barely bypass to pick up my food). 

KK Fish ($13.99 for two)

The fried fish were rather tiny in the big tray container they gave us. Taste wise, the fish were pretty tasty cooked with tons of spices and with a slight char from the frying. The dill sauce that came with the fish paired really well to help offset the heat from the fried fish. Since the fish were quite tiny, they didn't have a lot of meat, but what they did have was white fleshed and very tasty. It was pretty easy to finish a fish and they also came with naan and lots of sauce and salad (but the salad didn't have dressing - not sure if they forgot).

Website: https://kandaharkabab.com/

August 2, 2019 @ 45 Overlea Blvd

Kandahar Kabab $15.50 and small Kandahar fries $3.50

So much food! There was a filet mignon kabab with vegetables and a kofta kabab. I might have been overambitious ordering the fries as an extra side, but they were really good.

Kandahar Chicken Kabab with chicken and kofta

Also really good with huge pieces of grilled and well-seasoned chicken breast. 

Website: https://www.kandaharkabab.com/

Bab Tuma

Update: Restaurant has closed

Discovering another new place with the Ubereats BOGO promotion:

Chicken Shawarma $9.99 (x2)

My first thought was that there was some kind of Middle Eastern spice mix in this shawarma that's familiar but also kind of different - like cloves or nutmeg or something (kinda tasted like Christmas spices). It was the dominant flavour in my opinion and I couldn't really get over that flavour. There was also like a gingery garlic sauce with some chicken and peppers that made it a bit sour.

I didn't really like the shawarma here, but at least I can say I've tried it. 

Aleppo Kebab

Nov 8, 2020

We were exploring the options on Ubereats and noticed that Aleppo Kebab was doing BOGO and on top of that Ubereats gave me a 50% off coupon, which worked out to a pretty sweet deal even with the delivery fees. 

 
Half Aleppo Mix $33.99 (it's one tinfoil container not two)

It was a bit more expensive than the in-store price (which was likely due to the Ubereats mark-up), but it was still a lot of meat with lots of pita underneath and sauce containers on the side. It didn't come with rice or fries, but since we also had the mixed plates (below), it worked out to be a lot of food. 

 

Mixed Kebob Plate (BOGO) with Chicken Kebab, Aleppo Kebab, rice or fries (we got one of each), grilled tomato, jalapeno, onion, pita, hummus and salad $18.99

The plate was a lot of food and very flavourful and delicious - it was great value for money since we got two of these plates for $18.99 and it came with so much food!

October 27, 2020

After reading the BlogTo article on Aleppo Kebob last year, I've been meaning to try Syrian food.

I thought the half Aleppo mix would be a good start to try a sample of their kebobs

 

Half Aleppo Mix $29.99 

The platter came with two spicy Adana kebabs, two Aleppo kebabs, one chicken and one beef cube kebab. The Adana and Aleppo kebabs were pretty tasty with a flavourful spice mix (and some extra spiciness for the Adana kebab). The chicken and beef cubes were also marinated and seasoned well with good flavour and nice juicy meat with a slight char on the outside from the grill. 

The platter also came with grilled onions, tomatoes and hot peppers. I personally liked the grilled tomatoes, not quite the same as Persian style grilled tomatoes with the tomato cut in half and placed on the grill, but they had the char from the grill and were pretty tasty. I would skip the onions and hot peppers thought (except when eating the onions and parsley mix with the pita and kebabs - because that was delicious altogether). 

 

The sauces:  garlic sauce, babaganoush and hummus

The platter usually comes with hummus and garlic sauce, but they gave us a complimentary babaganoush to try. It had a slightly smoky flavour but the eggplant spread was really nice. The hummus was a little thinner than the hummus at Ghadir and had a slightly smokier flavour as well. The garlic sauce was delicious, but also not quite as good and addictive as the Ghadir garlic sauce. Overall, the sauces still paired well with the meats and it was really tasty! 

Large Rice $6.99

When I ordered, I wasn't too sure what would come with the platter since they only said 6 skewers, so I ordered a large rice to go with it. In hindsight, I probably don't need the large rice since there was so much food with the platter, but the rice was super savoury and flavourful with spiced with saffron and other spices to make you want to keep eating it!  

Website: http://www.aleppokebab.ca/

Ghadir Meat & Restaurant

June 17, 2020

I really like the food at Ghadir Meat & Restaurant, but the last visit to Ghadir wasn't great. This time around, I called ahead and they made my order in time, but I was rather frustrated by the lack of social distancing in the restaurant (even at an off-peak time like 2pm). The store had helpfully drew arrows to direct the flow of traffic, but people totally ignored it and most people didn't wear masks either. Considering the small enclosed space inside the store, it's very difficult to avoid/distance from people walking in all directions. My order was already done, but it took me a while before I could safely walk to the counter (at a distance from other people) to pick it up. 

Ghadir Plate with two chicken shawarma sandwiches $15.99

The portion of fries has decreased! The sandwiches were still pretty good, but we were hoping for enough fries to help us finish the garlic sauce container (that comes with the chicken below).

BBQ Whole Chicken $18.99

So tasty and delicious! 

Mar 27, 2020

Many restaurants have moved to a take-out or delivery model during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ghadir is one of them. We called our order in advance and just came by to pay and pick up, but they forgot our order until we got there and then proceeded to make it. 

Barbecue chicken and shish tawook platter with fries, hummus, turnips, pickles and tons of garlic sauce.

There were more fries in the sandwich combo than the shish tawook platter. However, there was an extra portion of garlic sauce in the platter box. I think the better deal is the sandwich combo (since it's cheaper and you get more fries). The shish tawook is pretty yummy, but it was a lot of chicken to eat. 

Mar 13, 2020

One barbecue chicken meal with a sandwich (wrap in the middle), fries and drink combo

We got the sandwich and fries combo mostly for the extra order of fries (so we could eat them with garlic sauce - Ghadir's garlic sauce is TO DIE FOR). 

Barbecue chicken meal

Delicious whole cooked chicken - flattened and cooked over a charcoal fire. The meat was really tender and juicy and it was seasoned really well. 

Dec 22, 2019

 

The sandwiches look kind of small by just by themselves since they've also been pressed and grilled. 

The chicken sandwich is pretty good. 

BBQ Whole Chicken $18.99

Flattening the chicken and grilling it over the fire is pretty awesome. The meat was well seasoned and it tasted great with the charred skin from the open grill. It was also served with a TON of garlic sauce, mixed pickles and a few pitas. Definitely enough to feed a family of 4 with some leftover. Great value for money.

Dec 7, 2019

Ghadir Mini Plate with one shish tawook, one beef cubes and one kofta skewer $18.99

The chicken was really nicely done and the kofta was pretty good too. It's a good sampler plate if you don't know which spiced meat you would like better. 

Nov 30, 2019

 

Ghadir Mixed Shawarma Plate with beef and chicken, fries, salad and pita

Excellent plate! They gave us a huge portion of fries and sauces (garlic, hummus and hot sauce) and it also comes with pita, so you can make your own sandwich. 

Tawook plate with fattoush salad

The chicken was perfectly seasoned and really tender and juicy. The fattoush salad had a strange dressing I didn't really like, I'll stick to their regular salad in the future. 

Zaatar and Cheese Manakeesh

I wasn't sure about their zaatar mix, but it grew on me. 

Jul 6, 2019

Mixed Shawarma platter with fries, garlic sauce, tahini, hummus, pickled radish, salad and pita

The beef had a kind of gamey taste to it, but the chicken was good (some parts of the chicken were kind of dry). The garlic sauce is AMAZING, especially with fries. 

Lychee basil seed drink was really good, but definitely on the super sweet side. I've never tried basil seed drinks before this. 

Cheese Manakeesh

It was so pretty and it was actually pretty good as a snack. 

Website: https://ghadirmeatmarket.com/