Halal Guys may be great by New York City standards but in Toronto where the shawarma and middle eastern food game is quite intense and advanced, Halal Guys food is mediocre at best. See below for details...
- chicken is relatively unseasoned
- gyro (beef) meat was good but it's so cooked that it tastes like crispy meat bits vs meat itself (if that makes sense...)
- the only way to get any taste is to overdose on the tahini and white sauce which quite frankly defeats the purpose of the seasoned meat and rice
- rice was good (cardamom flavour)
- their hummus is average at best (nothing compared to Paramount)
- extremely limited menu
- hot sauce will give u an ulcer ... It's just way too hot!
With some major Toronto based shawarma joints serving really good meats (kabobs and shawarma), sauces (garlic and tahini), drinks (non-alcoholic beer, juices and smoothies) AND proprietary/unique breads (I.e Me Va Me's Laffa bread and Paramount's stone baked unlimited bread), halal guys is too basic for Toronto's advanced tastes...
They have the hype, but they need to expand their menus and make their core offerings irresistible.. hope they get better, I most probably won't go back till they do.