Bland Downtown 3 Brothers Shawarma & Poutine

Last Friday for lunch I decided to try my luck with another poutine I noticed from my last journey for Poutine a couple of weeks ago.  I wished to see how Smoke's Poutinerie and 3 Brothers Shawarma & Poutine (160 Rideau Street, Ottawa).

The main difference location wise is 3 Brothers Shawarma & Poutine is right on Rideau at the Corner of Dalhousie whereas Smoke's Poutinerie is set back a bit from the main street (Rideau Street) on Dalhousie Street resulting in less foot traffic.

Upon entering at 11:30 am., I noticed only one other customer in the store who happened to be finishing up his meal.  No worries, still early for lunch so the number of customers really didn't worry me.  What did worry me was the menu, with "Poutine" in the restaurant title one would figure there would be more than one simple offering of the Quebec specialty dish.  Sadly there was not, in fact, the menu photo showed a mere fast food style fries doused in gravy.  Not very appetizing for a place supposedly pushing poutine.

With poutine out of the picture, I perused the rest of the Shawarma based menu to settle on what I thought to be a fine choice and ordered...

The Order: The Chef's Special: 1 Chicken Shawarma (all dressed) with potatoes and can of Coke.

Within a about two minutes my order was prepared and served up.

I studied the small take out storefront for the best place to sit.  With not to many options, I chose right at the counter overlooking Rideau Street to watch passing customers.

The Shawarma was nothing special. I had it "all dressed" to see what the chef would put together to make it's best.  Nothing special was the result, just bland everything is there no special seasoning.  It was like the basic boring McDonald's hamburgers of shawarma.  Just there take it or leave it.

The potatoes had promise.  The potatoes were fried and seasoned with some type of seasoning and presented with a white garlic sauce. An interesting culinary take that should compliment Shawarma.  However, these were served stone cold!  There was more interest in the Toronto Maple Leafs would win the Stanley Cup than interest in keeping these potatoes even room temperature.

Overall, 3 Brothers Shawarma needs some help.  Formerly located in the Union Canada Building that is now being converted into a hotel by Claridge, this once thriving Poutine and Shawarma restaurant seems to have lost it's way.  Uninspiring Shawarma coupled with serving up cold dishes that should be served at least warm, seems to point out that this restaurant has lost its way.