The Making of a Medley
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
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Urban Planner: November 23, 2009
After a brief hiatus, the shawarma hunt is back on. No vertically roasted meat is safe.
Red and White
519 Yonge St. Monday - Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. Sunday 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.There's something really nice about a restaurant where you can take your sandwich, sit down and watch some Family Channel with the owner's tween daughter. Everyone wants to eat at the kind of place where you're greeted with something verging on exuberant enthusiasm.
This sort of homey charm isn't enough to save a place with bad food. It may, however, be enough to make one gush a little more than necessary. The food at Red and White is good.
The bedrock of a chicken shawarma is chicken. Without the chicken, there's not a vegetable, pita or squirt of tahini in the world that can save the endeavour. The chicken at Red and White is tender. Over several visits, the chicken was consistently tender enough to chew with your tongue. It's savoury and gently spiced, but you can still completely taste the bird.
The vegetables are verging on exciting. A far cry from the masses of soggy undifferentiated crap that some shawarma places use to top their meat, Red and White's veggies are veggies as God intended. The tomatoes are juicy, flavourful and almost supernatually red. The lettuce is crisp. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, there are pickles turnips and they are excellent.
The tahini and hot sauce are both good, albeit not exceptional, but do well to compliment the meat and veggies. However, if there's one area where Red and White is less than excellent, it's condiments. The garlic mayo is potent as all get out, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing the staff could be a little more judicious in their use of it. One would be well advised to ask them to go easy. Similarly, the option of having chili flakes put on your shawarma above and beyond the hot sauce is just overkill. Not only does it make the sandwich spicier then need be, it really starts to take away from the flavour of the chicken. Say yes to the hot sauce, but give the chili flakes a pass.
All in all, though, these are minor flaws in what is an over all excellent shawarma experience, as well as one of the friendlier eateries in the city.
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No vertically roasted meat is safe.
Understatement of the year! ;)
They only started doing the chili flakes thing the last time I was there, and I was like, "Dude, what are you doing, yo?"
They didn't even ask if I wanted stupid chili flakes. It's the only complaint I have about Red and White, which is usually outstanding. Except sometimes they have the less enthusiastic staff who really suck at putting your sandwich together. It only happens once in a blue moon.
I had the mix platter there tonight and I LOVE the chili flakes, but then again, I love things that are so spicy that they almost require medical treatment. The guy will ask you if you want it spicy, so just tell him to use hot sauce only. I also think the garlic mayo is awesome (yes, it's super-potent), though I'm not huge on the hummous.
I think where Red & White really shines is with the beef. I find the beed kinda fatty, crunchy and weird at most schwarma places, but R&W's is lean and spicy and doesn't have those chunks of fat in it. I believe the place is 100% halal too, if that matters to ya.
As for the decor...hmm. Not the greatest, but I noticed they've started putting more decorations on the wall and it's better since they moved the counter to the front. The worst part is the fluorescent tube lighting. It would be much nicer if the dining area had halogen or regular incandescent lighting. Sometimes the radio and TV are a bit too loud.
You're right about the vegetables...they're super-fresh and delicious, especially the cabbage. The big guy who owns the place gave me a couple of those baklava rolls for free because I was kind of resisting (never had them before), but they were really good and now I buy them from time to time. The guy there seems gruff and rushed, but if you speak to him, he's reallllly nice and has interesting stories. When there are other customers, he really rushes around which might be taken as coldness.