Scarborough's Shawarma row + eating through Ajax; Armenian, Syrian, Indian, Caribbean Chinese + doughnuts.

Scarborough's shawarma row is evolving. Aleppo Kebab has found an audience in Ajax and why you should drive out to eat there. + 4 other places to check out.

Scarborough’s shawarma row is changing, and this is good and maybe not so good.

Lawrence Avenue East, Victoria Park and east, is home to some of the best Levantine cuisine in the city. Easily. Colloquially coined as ‘shawarma row’ or ‘Lawrence Middle East’ by some locals, the strip has expanded over the past 30 years to the point where the ‘row’ now extends from Victoria Park to Birchmount Avenue.

Luxmy Foods - once a very popular Tamil spot

I remember when my mom used to bring me here as a kid, not for shawarma, but to visit her favourite Tamil short eats spot, Luxmy Foods. Luxmy closed many years ago but the sign is surprisingly still there.

The row is mostly still low slung plazas, block after block, with dozens of takeout/restaurant types nestled next to each other. It’s a miracle this facade still exists in this city.

13 distinct plazas, 2.5km.

It is an incredible mashup where you will find regional food from many corners of the Levant, and beyond. As I’ve said a number of times, it’s not about whether you like falafel or shawarma, but what style. Iranian? Syrian? Lebanese? Jordanian?

The stalwarts — Shawarma Empire, Ibrahim, Yummi’s, Nasib’s, Ghadir — are all still here, with many new additions during the pandemic. Some have close (RIP Boustan and honestly, good riddance).

Shawarma row is evolving, three Nigerian restaurants (all great actually) have opened in the row in the past six months. Along with two Greek restaurants, a great takeaway sushi spot, three biryani places, two Nashville hot chicken spots, and two barbecue spots (skip and go to Beach Hill Smokehouse). While we’re seeing a steady rise of diversity on the row, this is still very strongly where you go for the best shawarma, kibbeh, falafel in town. And it remains largely free of franchises. Most are independently owned businesses. At least until the plazas start disappearing in lieu of condos. Just a matter of time, eat it now.

There’s some drama, from what I’ve heard so far, owners are being taken advantage by landlords in a variety of different ways from false infractions to asking for unreasonable deposits to take over leases. This might be a crucial point for the street as we (ever so embarrassingly slowly) reach the launch of the Eglinton Crosston LRT. It’s a complicated situation but based on the conversations I’ve had with owners of recently closed establishments, there seems to be quite of abuse with the system. So what you’ll start to notice is that some of your favourite places are either closing or moving. And new shops that replace them are also closing abruptly.

A good example is Aleppo Kebab, owner Zakaria Almokdad and his then business partner chef Anto Kanajian opened a small 18 seat “the mountains in Syria” restaurant in the Saag Food Plaza in 2019. It was an instant hit, a consistently good menu comprised of charcoal-grilled kebabs, two types of shawarma, and an assortment of vegetarian plates. It was also a fairly unique combination of Armenian + Syrian food under one address.

Aleppo Kebab recently shuttered, quite suddenly due to a number of disputes. I’m not at liberty to share, but the good news is that Zak had the foresight to look for a second location. Aleppo Kebab opened a few months ago, I’ve had the chance to visit a few times. Also, it turns out, Zak is bringing Aleppo Kebab back to Scarborough.

More below. Let’s go on a tour, Aleppo Kebab Ajax (605 Church St N, Ajax) and four other great spots to check out in Ajax..

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