It has been just a whisper past two years since I last did a focused shawarma round-up. I was reminded of that quest when a regular reader sent me an email asking if my shawarma map was up-to-date, post-pandemic. It is, more or less. I’ve relied on simply making a pass through the entries on the map and checking Google to see if any place has been marked as permanently closed, but I haven’t gone out and about checking to see if anywhere else might be as well. It’ll take time after all the lockdown closures to get the various maps updated. Such is life.
On a recent venture out to the northwest part of the city, I found myself just a couple of blocks from Shawarma Dalal, Mendoza 5068, Villa Urquiza (they also have two other locations, in Belgrano and Caballito, or at least, there are two other spots with the same name). The place is a small takeout counter, but they’ve setup some tables under umbrellas on the sidewalk. They offer both beef and chicken shawarma, as well as other classic Middle Eastern street food. Nothing that I noted indicated a particular nationality, but, a quick look at their FB page and they are “a family of chefs from Syria”.
Generous sized – and this is the regular, they also have an XL, which must be huge – this was more than enough for lunch for one. Good flatbread. The filling is chockful of meat, and almost nothing else – I think I spotted three shreds of lettuce and two half slices of a small tomato. The meat is so finely chopped it’s almost ground beef – kind of like the texture used to make a “chopped-steak burger”. It seems to be unseasoned, and all the flavor comes from the tangy yogurt sauce, and moderately spicy hot sauce (both of which they offer extra on the side if you want). It’s good, but kind of one note – I’d have really liked some more lettuce, tomato, and some onion, and the whole thing could have used a little salt on the meat.
Horus, Adolfo Alsina 1912, Once – Both from the name, and the decor, the focus is on Egyptian food at this small spot. Friendly service, the place airy and clean. On the shawarma side, a choice of regular or super sized beef ones. The regular is a decent size, and I like that it had a good amount of lettuce, tomato, and onion in it, and the beef was good quality. It wasn’t particularly seasoned, but the garlic sauce (which seemed to be a garlic yogurt rather than a toum garlic and lemon puree) and the slightly spicy cilantro sauce livened it up really well. Definitely a good shawarma and one I’d be happy to eat again, if not go out of my way for.
Tabule, Palermo – I’ve had, on my list to check out, a Tabule in Chacarita, and when I saw it pop up on a delivery app, thought I’d give it a try. Based on the delivery map, however, it came from somewhere in Palermo Chico, so I’ll have to check out exactly where at some point. Shawarmas, at least via delivery, only available in pairs, with a choice of lamb, beef, or chicken, however, no intermixing, a shame, as it would have been nice to try two different ones as long as I had to order two. Lamb was my immediate first choice.
I’m not a big fan of this ultra-thin type of wrap bread – this one is so thin it falls apart from the moisture of the filling, and I ended up having to eat this with knife and fork. This kind of wrap works only when the bread is big enough to wrap around the filling a couple of times, like layers – this one wasn’t. The filling is plentiful, the lamb is good quality, though other than salt, seemed to be unseasoned, there’s a nice amount of lettuce and tomato. And, a really great tahini type sauce, which they sent an extra little tub of the sauce to add more if desired (not necessary, but I used the sauce on something else the next day). No hot sauce available, or at least they didn’t send it on request. Quite good, and I’ll look forward to finding out exactly where this spot is, and/or checking out if it’s the same company as the one in Chacarita.
Again, keeping these reviews to just a few places for the moment, until I’m back out and eating more often.
