The shawarma; as ubiquitous throughout the Middle East as lecherous middle aged men are across South East Asia.
A staple snack of late night hunger pangs, a killer of lunchtime cravings, a panacea for all ravenous yearnings that strike at the most inconvenient of moments, the shawarma deserves honouring with a classification of its own separate food group.
The shawarma, in it’s purest form, is shavings of roasted meat carved from a giant rotating vertical spit. Soft pita bread and sauces such as tahini, yoghurt or hot-sauce deliciously smother the filling.
This magnificent culinary marvel is omnipresent across the globe, from Brazil to Bangladesh, it’s possible to travel the world eating nothing but shawarma.
At Megamondo Travel we aim to fearlessly reveal the unique and undiscovered; so, armed with a pocketful of loose change and a reckless abandon for hygiene protocol, we laid our stomachs one the line to bring you a review of Dubai’s best shawarmas.
Al Ijaza
Jumeirah Beach Rd
Jumeirah 1
Pumping out shwaramas for over 22 years, Al Ijaza is famous among locals and residents for satiating famine well into the wee hours. On the weekend, cars pack the parking area outside, furiously honking as the occupants shout their demands to nervous staff waiting to take their order.
The shawarma comes with crunchy salad filling, the pita is basted in the grease of the meat and then slightly toasted. The french fry-to-meat ratio is low, which means more meat and less starchy clogging feel when eating. Al Ijaza drizzles tahini sauce throughout, adding an earthy dimension to the flavour. Pickled carrot, cucumber and radish offered on the side are fresh and crunchy.
As an aside, the curious list of drinks should not be missed, we tried the “Facebook”; strawberry, mango, sweet melon and chikoo blended with icecream and topped with chocolate sauce. Sweet and artery clogging, yet refreshing.
Cost: 4 Dirhams
Shawarama score: 6/10
Eat & Drink Restaurant
Al Wasl Rd
Jumeriah 3
Offering a sumptuous sharwarma that could satisfy even the most haughty gourmand, the crowded parking lot of this popular hangout is crowded with hungry customers.
Chicken, spicy chicken and beef sharwarmas are served up by unappreciative, almost belligerent waiters. The frosty reception is compensated by an outstanding shawarma, replete with perfectly soft pita bread, fabulously tender meat drenched in flavour and plump tomato bursting with zest.
What tips it over the edge is the finely sliced cabbage that replaces the usual sodden lettuce of the common garden-variety shawarma. The cabbage adds a crunchy dimension in substitute of french fries, making the experience much lighter than many competitors.
Cost: 4 Dirhams
Shawarma score: 8/10
Arabian Sea Shell Cafeteria
Jumeirah Beach Rd
Jumeirah 3
Our stomachs still churn when we recall the culinary train-wreck that is the Arabian Sea Shell Cafeteria.
We ordered the chicken shawarma, which we held in high hope; the spicy meat dripping with flavour-laden grease promised an experience that offered great things.
What we were met with was average tasting meat, drowning in an unholy union of tepid mayonnaise and tabasco. Scant amounts of damp salad had been tossed in as almost an afterthought and pickled vegetables in a plastic bag were reminiscent of rubber erasers. The one redeeming element of this experience was that the shawarma was basted in its own grease before being lightly toasted, making it crunchy and adding texture to an otherwise substandard attempt at shawarma.
Cost: 4 Dirhams
Shawarma score: 3/10
Istanbul Flower
Sheikh Zayed Rd
Al Wasl
As this was a street-food assignment, we opt to order through a window from the kitchen facing out over the road. We were greeted by an incredibly friendly man who was more than happy to serve us with enthusiasm.
“Hello, I am from Turkistan”, he exclaimed as he gleefully brandished a giant knife and attacked a slab of meat with a beaming grin.
The shawarma at Istanbul Flower is more true to it’s origins, more Turkish inspired. The bread is unleaven and flat, unlike other offerings of pocket-pita. Instead of the standard pickled vegetable on the side, it was incorporated into the filling, giving a tart zing on the palette. There is no lettuce or cabbage, only tomato, however this does not detract from the experience as the tomato is plump and sweet. The thing that makes this shwarma special is that there is no sauce; the juice from the meat is ample to distribute flavour. This interpretation of the shawarma is worth trying.
Cost: 8 Dirhams
Shawarma score: 6.5/10
Al Mallah
Al Diyafah St
Al Diyafah
This is one of the more popular restaurants for shawarma in Dubai, sadly however, we were left with a dry taste in our mouth and a feeling of being slightly underwhelmed.
The bread was dry and the meat filling inside was also. The dryness was offset however by a zesty garlic mayonnaise which had the effect of a moisturising cream in restoring the balance of the contents somewhat.
Sadly, any trace of salad was noticeably absent and substituted by french-fries, which added to the feeling of choking when attempting to swallow.
Cost: 4 Dirhams
Shawarma score: 5/10
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