The Salad House

Best shawarma place there is in Toronto. Massive portions for the price. Chicken plate for lunch is awesome. I have no clue who can possibly eat the large size for lunch. It's enormous.

Great food, huge portions! Friendly staff and always fresh ingredients. This is the best place for salads and middle eastern food in this part of the city hands down

I have heard great things about Salad House, but unfortunately I had been unable to check them out because their hours of operation suck – they are only open Monday to Friday from 11am to 5pm. So I can’t stop by after work or on the weekend.

Fortunately for me today, I had the day off and happened to be walking by at 10:50am. I looked in and noticed that they were prepping for the lunch rush. It was freezing out so I was relieved to be allowed to wait inside. The first thing I noticed when I walked in and browsed the menus on the wall is that the prices are different from what other reviewers have quoted. For example, a small shawarma plate is $6.99 not $4.99. Nevertheless, $6.99 is a fair price.

I decided to order a small shawarma plate with no onions. As they were putting my dish together I noticed that they had added chickpeas to my rice and I could see onions in it. I asked if those were onions and was told that yes they were. Then I reminded them that I had asked for no onions. The gentleman serving me looked a bit confused and told me that those were cooked onions. **Sigh. I have never understood why in the food industry cooked onions are considered to be a whole different species from raw onions. Onions are onions! Anyway, the gentleman was really cool about it and although I suggested he use the same container, just remove the chickpeas, he said, “no no…I will make you a new one. Not to worry. Most people are okay with cooked onions, just not raw onions. But thank you for letting me know.” And so he continued to assemble my plate….and it kept growing, and growing…WOW…that was a lot of food! This was a small??!! Finally he struggled a bit closing the container and wished me a good day.

When I got home I opened the container and it was overflowing! In a good way. To show you the amount of food you get if you order a small plate, I rummaged in my cupboard looking for my biggest plate, and then flipped the container on it – that is why you see a lot of rice on top and little chicken. Believe me, there was A LOT of chicken!! In fact, there was a lot of everything! And every ingredient was fresh, the chicken was moist and well-seasoned with little fat – big points for that! Most importantly, everything tasted clean, healthy and naturally delicious. $6.99 plus tax is a bargain for the quality and portions you get at Salad House. I am already planning to pick-up lunch from here on my next day off.

Check them out if you are in the areas on a weekday. Grr….crappy crappy hours!

P.S. The photos from the restaurant were taken with my crappy cell phone. Can you tell? :)