Maple Cedar Syrian Kitchen

One of the benefits of living in your hometown for the first time in basically 20 years is that you get to try out the restaurants you don't have the chance to on quick visits when you're mostly hitting hold favourites re. stuffing my face full of Pictou County style pizza). When my wife and I found ourselves looking for a quick dinner on early on in the week when fewer restos are open, we made our way over to Maple Cedar. Having come from Ottawa, which in addition to being the national capital of the country is also the shawarma capital, it was a bit weird how few shawarma places there are in the area. The menu leans in a mostly traditional Middle Eastern direction, although they do have pizza, donairs and garlic fingers too. We went with the shawarma $15) and falafel platters $15) for dine in. It was nice to see a flow of customers, despite it being a Tuesday, and our food was in front of us in good time. My shawarma platter had thick pieces of chicken on top of a bed of savoury rice. I would have liked to see a mix of white and dark meat and some crispy bits, but it still had a nice, rich flavour and was moist and tender. Of note, the garlic sauce had more of a aioli like texture than toum normally does. It tasted fine, but this would anger Lebanese friends of mine. The falafel platter had a generous serving of eight of the crispy chickpea fritters. The platter's composition made it a sort of build your own wrap, with sides of tomato, shredded romaine, pickled turnip and tahini with pita. We found the tahini a bit bland, but the falafel were spot on and not at all greasy. A container of baklava $10) that we took home was flaky, savoury and sweet, and had the most noticeable flavour of orange/rose water I've ever had in baklava. On a return visit, I went for something quick and easy to go, the large shawarma wrap $11). After a short wait after a few others, I had my shawarma and classily ate in my car. It had a lovely and crisp exterior from the griddle/sandwich press, plus more traditional ingredients than most shawarma places chicken, toum, pickled turnips and the clincher fries. No salad in these bad boys! If they had a better toum, it would be a front runner for the best shawarma wrap that I've had in the province. Maple Cedar may have a broad menu to appeal to a smaller customer base that's less familiar with Middle Eastern food than big markets, but they're still doing right by their culinary origins.

Maple Cedar is a small middle eastern place in a strip mall on East River Road. They have a great menu with lots of tasty choices. We had the chicken shawarma and falafel plates, and they were delicious. The baba ganoush was also fresh and served with warm pita. There are a few tables but most customers were getting take out. Staff are friendly and the order was ready quickly. They also carry some hard to get grocery items like spices, coffees and rices. Definitely returning here to try some of the other dishes.

Just had a wonderful gluten free pizza from these fine folks. It was vegetarian and loaded with fresh veggies. We also ordered chicken shawarma and combo pizzas and my family said they were great. Cheerful and friendly service and good prices.

We have this picturesque family style Mediterranean (Syrian) restaurant during our trip to the Atlantic provinces. We had spent 5 days on the street and I must say that this was the best lunch we had since the beginning of our trip. The portions were generous, the aromas were complex and the meat was juicy. Absolute value for money and service with a smile was unpaid! Thanks to Basem and Rania for this beautiful culinary experience

Great people and atmosphere! We had the poutins and it was delicious. Very nice poutine engraving. Very cozy din in the area. Next time I hope to try their pizza or falafel.