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| - this is like a little david copperfield (or if you prefer penn & teller) outfit.
they line their corridor with containers and containers of beautifully coloured food, fresh looking, piled really high like a freshly packed grave. but like a magic show, its all an illusion of the highest order.
the litmus test at a place like this should be the falafel or the shawarma. i had meat earlier in the day so i decided to get the combo plate at 7.99.
i had falafel (3 balls), a chick pea salad with onions, tomatoes, etc., beet salad and fried eggplant. you were allowed four items for the combo, which came in a plastic container about the size of a harlequin romance book.
to my dismay...it kind of killed the meal for me from the start...he asked me if i wanted it warmed up. everything was cold. brutal. only because it meant that it had to be warmed up IN THE MICROWAVE.
microwaves kill the goodness in everything. ESPECIALLY FALAFEL. as i expected the falafels were crap. they were about as tender as a bite of plastacene. i thank them only for the lesson never to get a falafel thats not made for me on the spot.
the rest of the vegetable salads (they only warmed up the falafel and the eggplant) were mediocre. the beets were fresh, as were the other veggies but bland. fried eggplant, middle eastern style, at its best can be a rich experience of melt-in-your-mouth delicacy. this one was a resoundingly boring one.
i dont think it is too much to ask to have the option of either warming stuff up in an oven or making it fresh (the falafel at least). the fact that this food can be made quickly doesnt mean that it should suffer the embarrassment of cursory attention to vitality of taste and texture.
go to laila across the street...the cost is comparable and the food is ten times better. http://www.yelp.ca/biz/laila-toronto
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