***~~ (3/5)

I’ve been looking for a Middle Eastern restaurant in Surrey to get my Shawarma plate fix for the past while, and have been unable to do so. I love Falafel Maison’s plates, but that’s all the way downtown on Robson. Donair Affair is a good one in Surrey, but no plates. I tried finding this place before, but I guess I wrote down the wrong address, and I was able to find it this time. It’s actually pretty hidden though. It’s near 160th and Fraser Hwy, hidden behind a Wired Monk.

Best Donair? Not, not really. They did have a lot of different choices, and a bunch that weren’t really “authentic” but that’s OK, because I like spins on classics sometimes. I saw the “Spartan” which was a donair with bacon and cheddar cheese, which I may go back to try. It was the special of the day, but I really wanted a plate. So, we order the Lebanese Plate, and the Turkish Plate. The prices were surprisingly more than downtown, as the plates were $9.49. I think I paid about $8 something at Falafel Maison.

The Lebanese Plate was your standard shawarma plate. You had you choice of meat, and for this one we picked chicken. It came with hummus and tabouli, rice, and some pita. We chose lamb for the Turkish plate, and the only difference is that it came with dolme instead of tabouli. You could also add tzatsiki, a creamy garlic sauce, a bit of hot sauce, and even hotter sauce. Don’t worry, the hotter sauce isn’t too spicy. I recommend putting all the sauces to get the most flavour.

From what I remember, the chicken wasn’t very tender, and some pieces were a bit over cooked. At the time we arrived there, there wasn’t any meat on the rotating skewers, but they were just on the side being kept warm in heating trays. Who knows for how long. The lamb on the otherhand was a bit more tender. But this isn’t just any old lamb, its the type that gets shaved off the skewers. Not whole chunks of lamb. I must say the sauce really makes this taste a whole lot better. The rice was OK. A bit under cook than would I would like. At least the rice wasn’t plain white rice, and had some flavouring to it. The hummus was a bit bland. It need some extra spices, or flavouring in there, perhaps garlic. In my opinion the tabouli was also under dressed. It didn’t have enough acidity. For the Turkish plate, the dolme were a bit slimey, which wasn’t very appetizing. The rice and meat mixture inside though was decent. I would go back to try their donairs, and would go back for the shawarma plate, only if I really really wanted it. Falafel Maison still has my favourite shawarma plates.

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Best Donair
15930 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 865-6696

*½~~~ (1.5/5)

In my hunt to find a Middle Eastern place close by with a Shawarma plate, I accidentally went to the wrong place and wound up at A1 Coffee and Donuts. Note to self, check what the place is called, and the address. It turns out the place I wanted to go to was just 2-3 stores down in the same complex. Sigh.

Anyways, I got in, and it was a Coffee and Donut shop. I saw that they sold donairs on their sign too, so I thought I would try it out, or thought it was the place that I actually wanted to go to. I got in, and it was just a coffee shop. They were playing some hockey on TV, and they sold donuts, meat pies, and some other random stuff. Their board said they had a chicken donair so that’s what I went for. Donair plus a can of pop for only $5. Pretty good deal I guess.

Then it gets weird. He got a piece of bread, and cut it in half, then put it in a panini grill type thing. As he was doing that, he asked me how I want it the donair. Did I want onions? Cucumbers? Tomatoes? Tzatziki? Spicy? I replied yes to everything. He had a couple rotating meat sticks in the back, but he had some chicken precut up and kept warm. He loaded up my donair and off I went. He was a really nice guy. But what the hell did I just order? It was a chicken donair sandwich.

It was like a hamburger bun cut in half almost halfway. Then grilled, with nothing in it to I guess make it crunchy. Unfortunately, I went to Dairy Queen on the way home which took a long time because of the Blizzard deal, so the bread wasn’t very crunchy by the time I got to it. The ingredients itself weren’t all to good either though. Kind of just there, and all mixed in. The sauce was a bit spicy but not overly. Their wasn’t much taste to anything besides the spice. The chicken was well, just chicken. It didn’t have a very middle eastern meat flavour that I was craving for so long. If you look at it, it’s actually kind of disgusting looking.

I doubt they are really a donair shop. It kind of just seemed like something to have because he was Middle Eastern. I wouldn’t come back for a donair. I never tried their other food, so they may be good. If you want a donair and are in this area, I’d definitely try the other one called Kabab Al-Rafidain, or for a sure bet go diagonally across the street to Donair Affair.

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A1 Coffee & Donuts
14795 108th Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 581-4151

As a side note:  A brown friend told me that places use A1 in their name just so they can be first in the Yellow Page directories.

***½~ (3.5/5)

I went to Donair Affair on pure curiosity. I’ve never heard of this place until the night I went to Pho Tau Bay for dinner.

Their menu is pretty big, they have a good selection of beef, lamb, and chicken donairs. Each type of meat has another 4 or 5 selections of flavors. I decided to try the Regular Chicken donair (under $6.00 dollars).

These donairs are GIANT! I didn’t realize how giant it was until I unwrapped it. And thankfully, the quality matched the quantity. The chicken donair was tasty. The meat was moist, and has crispy ends (from the BBQ I guess). I really liked it.

One thing I noticed was that the donair seemed to got giant-er as I ate. I swear, half way through eating it, the size in width seemed to have doubled (see the pictures below). And it also got messier and messier to eat because it was so big. And it continued got messier until I gave in, and put it on a plate and ate it with a fork.

I did manage to finish 2/3 of the donair, which was to my surprise. I thought I was going to finish half, because I did went to Pho Tau Bay and had a bowl of pho right before I came here (yes, this was my second dinner). The only thing I would change is probably ask the guy to be easy on the sauces, because the chicken itself was already moist enough.

Good donairs, come visit this place when you’re really hungry, you’ll get your moneys worth.

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Donair Affair
10786 148th Street
Surrey, BC V3R3X6
Tel: (604) 584-3838