The Shawarmaz Story — From One Mom's Kitchen to 9 Locations Across Montreal
Some of the best things in life start with a simple feeling.
Not a business plan. Not a market research report. Not a five-year strategy mapped out on a whiteboard. Just a feeling. The feeling of sitting down to eat and realizing that something is missing. The food in front of you is fine, but it is not the food you grew up with. It is not the food that smells like home and tastes like someone made it specifically for you.
That is where the Shawarmaz story begins. With a family in Montreal, missing the flavours of home, and deciding to stop waiting for someone else to bring those flavours to them.
So, we made it ourselves!
Peel Street, 2013
We started small. One location on Peel Street in downtown Montreal, a family, a kitchen and a menu that came straight from our mom's recipes. Nothing engineered, nothing designed to tick boxes. Just the food we grew up eating, made the way she always made it, because that was the only way we knew how to do it properly.
The goal was simple, and we never complicated it. We wanted to bring real, homemade Middle Eastern food to Montreal. The actual food. The food that smells like a Sunday afternoon at home, the kind that you do not realize you have been missing until someone puts it in front of you, and suddenly everything makes sense again.
We were not sure how Montreal would respond. You never really know until people start walking through the door.
But they did. One table at a time, one order at a time, people came in and came back the following week with someone new beside them. A friend, a coworker, a cousin who had been hearing about it for weeks, finally made the trip. Word moved the way it only does when something is genuinely worth talking about, slowly at first and then much faster than we expected.
We were just making our mom's food. Turns out, a lot of people in Montreal had been waiting for exactly that.
The Food That Built Everything
Here is the thing about building a restaurant on your mom's recipes. You cannot fake it, and you cannot rush it.
Every dish at Shawarmaz starts from the same foundation that it always has. The garlic sauce that people ask for extra, every single time. The marinade that gives the shawarma its depth and warmth. The homemade falafel. The spice blends that smell like a kitchen you want to spend time in.
The menu has grown and evolved over the years, as the best menus always do. Shawarma sushi arrived and became something people specifically drove across the city to try. The Shawarmaz Bomb turned into a signature that regulars order without even looking at the menu. The Chipotle Habibi brought something new to the table without losing what made everything else work.
And the Magic Poutine, a garlic potato base layered with crispy pita, tahini, parsley, and sesame seeds, did something that nobody expected. It won La Poutine Week in Quebec. Twice.
The food also started making its way beyond our four walls. Today, Shawarmaz caters corporate lunches, birthday parties, family gatherings, and events of every size across Montreal. If you are feeding a group, we have got you covered.
Award-Winning, and Proud of It
Winning La Poutine Week once is an achievement. In Quebec, where poutine is not just food but cultural identity, competing against hundreds of restaurants and coming out on top is genuinely meaningful.
Winning it twice is a statement.
It means the dish did not just get lucky. It means it connected with real people, in real numbers, who tasted it and voted for it because it was simply better. It means a family that came to Montreal with Middle Eastern recipes ended up making one of the best poutines in the entire province.
That is the Shawarmaz story in one detail. Rooted in tradition, open to creativity, and good enough to earn recognition in someone else's culinary backyard.
From One Neighbourhood to All of Montreal
After Peel Street came Saint-Catherine W, the location that became the heart of the downtown Shawarmaz experience. Open until 3 AM on weekends, built for the pace of the city centre, and quickly becoming a landmark for anyone who lives, works, or studies nearby.
And that last word matters. Studied.
Because somewhere along the way, Shawarmaz became a student favourite. The UQAM location brought the brand right into the heart of the student corridor near Place des Arts, and it fit immediately. Fast, filling, genuinely delicious, open late, and priced for a student budget. For thousands of students across Montreal, Shawarmaz became the answer to the question of where to eat, whether it was between lectures, after a long library session, or at 1 AM when the deadline was finally done, and hunger had officially won.
From downtown, the locations kept coming. NDG for the west-central neighbourhoods. Saint-Leonard for the east end community. Pointe-Claire for the West Island. Curé-Labelle in Laval, which grew into one of the busiest and most loved locations in the entire network. Saint-Eustache for the north shore. Vaudreuil-Dorion for the western corridor.
Nine locations. Nine neighbourhoods. Nine communities that now have Shawarmaz as part of their weekly routine. Same menu at every one. Same halal standards. Same garlic sauce. Same food that started on a family table in 2013 and has been feeding Montreal ever since.
Marché Central and What Comes Next
The newest Shawarmaz location at Marché Central is a glimpse at what the brand looks like when it keeps pushing forward.
Situated in one of Montreal's busiest shopping destinations, the Marché Central location brings something new to the Shawarmaz experience: self-service ordering kiosks. Faster. More flexible. Built for the pace of a location where people are on the move, between errands and appointments, looking for something great to eat without slowing down their day.
The franchise expansion is already underway, with opportunities open across Canada, the United States, and internationally. The story that started on Peel Street in 2013 is now being written in new cities, by new partners, with the same recipes and the same standards that made Montreal fall in love with it in the first place.
The Bottom Line
Twelve years ago, we decided that the best way to find the food we missed was to make it ourselves. What we built in the process became something much larger than we expected. It became a place where the Middle Eastern community in Montreal feels at home, where curious locals discover something new, where students fuel their late nights, where families share a table, and where the food is always, without exception, worth coming back for.
This is our story. And the best part is that it is nowhere near finished.
Explore the full menu, find your nearest location, or learn about franchise opportunities here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. When did Shawarmaz open?
Shawarmaz opened in 2013 on Peel Street in downtown Montreal. It was founded by a family who wanted to bring real, homemade Middle Eastern food to the city, built on traditional family recipes passed down through generations.
Q2. How many Shawarmaz locations are there in Montreal?
There are currently 9 Shawarmaz locations across Greater Montreal, including downtown Saint-Catherine W, UQAM, Marché Central, NDG, Saint-Leonard, Pointe-Claire, Curé-Labelle in Laval, Saint-Eustache, and Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Q3. Is Shawarmaz halal?
Yes. Every Shawarmaz location is fully halal certified. Halal sourcing and preparation standards have been in place across the entire network since the restaurant first opened in 2013.
Q4. What makes Shawarmaz an award-winning shawarma restaurant?
Shawarmaz has won La Poutine Week in Quebec twice, one of the largest and most competitive food events in the province.
Q5. Where is the newest Shawarmaz location?
The newest Shawarmaz location is at Marché Central in Montreal, featuring self-service ordering kiosks for a faster and more flexible experience.
