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| - Recently my friend told us to try Paramount and little did we know, they were opening one closer to home. They just opened their Erin Mills location on November 15th.
We decided to try it out last night. Boy, was it busy! Driving by, you can already see the crowd waiting inside (thankfully there's a decently sized indoor waiting area). I thought they were joking when I was told it would be about 10 minutes...and I still think they were (just to keep us around). We ended up waiting 15 minutes, so it wasn't a bad estimate.
We were told to check out the menu, then order and pay at the counter. We returned back to our table and were given fresh pitas that were warm and puffy, which we enjoyed until it cooled down. It took 15 minutes for our food to arrive at our table, which was not bad considering how busy it was.
We wanted to try a bit of everything, so we ordered a plate of Chicken & Beef Shawarma and a plate of Mixed Grill. It was an incredible amount of food for two people, but it can definitely feed up to four. Each plate came with a lot of plain white rice (the other option was fries), some pickles, a little bit of lettuce and tomatoes, and delicious garlic sauce (don't forget to bring a pack of gum!). Out of all the meats, my favourite was the shish tawouk. The marinated chicken was very juicy and it was cooked perfectly. (The shish tawouk plate is something I will definitely order next time!) The BBQ beef was nice and juicy, slightly but not overly chewy. I'm not a big fan of kafta, but the kafta was not bad. Considering it is a Middle Eastern / Arabic restaurant, I was expecting the shawarma to be one of the top reasons I would dine here again. However, I was pretty disappointed with the shawarma meats because they were both dry. The temperature and the texture of the meats tasted like either the plate itself or the meats had been sitting in the kitchen for a long time.
The staff were all very friendly and quick at everything they do as they were trying to clear the tables as soon as possible. I thought the restaurant was a bit noisy, somewhat similar to a bar and grill with a lot of chatter plus the clinking of cutlery and plates.
All in all, I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is even just slightly interested in Middle Eastern / Arabic cuisine. It's a nice, friendly environment, the portions are big, and the shish tawouk is great!
One more thing... Our friend also told us "one cannot leave without having their baklawa". I have never been a fan (maybe because I've never had well-made baklawas), but we still decided to try their entire assortment. The first one I tried was the cashew-filled baklawa and it just melted in my mouth... It was a tiny bit too sweet, but so delicious. Our friend was right. I'm not sure I will ever step out of there and not have a bite of their baklawa before I leave!
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