Ontario bars used to close at 1 a.m. Quebec bars closed at 3 a.m. So for about a decade, Ottawa’s answer was to walk across a bridge.
At its peak between 1984 and 1990, roughly twenty licensed venues packed a 400-metre stretch of Promenade du Portage in Hull, and as many as ten thousand people crowded onto it on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Everybody bought themselves two extra hours, and then everybody had to eat on the way home. Myself, included. My Carleton pals and I would head out to Club Zinc across the river after Oliver’s, Stoney Mondays or the Laff announced ‘last call.’ We would dance til 3 and then we would hit this sensational shawarma place to refuel. The name escapes me but the shawarmas were out of this world and ohhh, that sauce.
That’s the same decade Ottawa’s first shawarma shop opened, and the two facts are not unrelated.
How a Licensing Gap Built a Food Scene
Ottawa’s first shawarma restaurant was Marroush, which opened on Elgin Street between Gladstone and Frank in the spring of 1984. It was founded by Moustafa al Hajjar, then 24 years old and until recently a dishwasher, who took the name from a Lebanese chain so newly arrived customers would recognise it.
Marroush stayed open late and threw parties. The after-bar crowd ate there and danced on the tables, and that late-night trade is credited with turning shawarma from an unfamiliar import into Ottawa’s default meal.
The bridge traffic ended by regulation, the way it began. In 1997, after complaints about noise and violence at closing time, Hull moved last call in that area to 2 a.m. Ottawa extended its own hours to 2 a.m. at around the same time, the arbitrage disappeared, and most of the strip’s bars became restaurants and shops. Marroush itself closed in 2012.
The habit outlived all of it. In April 2024, Ottawa City Council voted to declare the city the Shawarma Capital of Canada, an actual municipal motion rather than a slogan. Estimates put the count somewhere near 200 shops, more per capita than any other Canadian city.
Here are twelve worth your order, by neighbourhood. Hours are as of August 2026 and this is a category where they move, so check before a late run.
ByWard Market and Rideau Street
1. Shawarma Palace — ByWard Market
Address: 464 Rideau St
What to Order: The chicken plate with garlic potatoes
Vibe Check: Bright, fast, permanently busy
Open Late: To around 1 a.m. weeknights, 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Why It Made the List: It won the blind taste test at Ottawa’s first Shawarma Festival in 2025, it has been on Rideau since 1996, and it now runs ten locations including a counter in Carleton University’s Nideyinàn food court.
Insider tip: The Rideau branch draws the tourists. Locals go to one of the other nine and wait half as long.
2. 3 Brothers Shawarma & Poutine — Rideau Street
Address: 160 Rideau St (5 other locations)
What to Order: The shawarma poutine. Fries, curds, gravy, shawarma meat, one container
Vibe Check: Functional, bright, built for volume
Open Late: Reported to 3 a.m. most nights and 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Why It Made the List: Six locations, including one on Osgoode near uOttawa, one in Kanata and one across the river on Montcalm in Gatineau. It is the closest thing the region has to a shawarma safety net.
Insider tip: The poutine is not a novelty item, it’s the reason to go aside from the shawarmas of course. Order it once before you decide it sounds wrong.
3. Shawarma Time & Place — ByWard Market
Address: 6 ByWard Market Square
What to Order: Standard chicken wrap, extra garlic
Vibe Check: Small, right in the middle of the Market’s noise
Open Late: To midnight midweek, 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Why It Made the List: Position. It’s directly in the ByWard Market square rather than a few streets off it, which matters at one in the morning.
Insider tip: Thursday it runs to 2 a.m., which is worth knowing during term.
Centretown and the Glebe
4. Shawarma’s King — Centretown
Address: 395 Bank St
What to Order: Mixed shawarma wrap
Vibe Check: Unfussy Bank Street storefront
Open Late: To 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 a.m. the rest of the week
Why It Made the List: It keeps the latest confirmed hours of anything on this list, and it’s the one place here whose closing times are consistently documented rather than guessed at.
Insider tip: If you’re deciding at 3 a.m. and you’re anywhere near Centretown, this is the answer.
5. Jericho Lebanese Food — The Glebe
Address: 840 Bank St
What to Order: The falafel combination plate, and the hummus regardless of what else you get
Vibe Check: Small room, artwork on the walls, a mural on the ceiling
Open Late: No. To 10 p.m. most nights
Why It Made the List: Chef-owner Raouf Omar painted the art and the ceiling himself, and cooks the food, and usually serves it. The vegetarian side of the menu is stronger here than anywhere else on this page.
Insider tip: Go when you want to sit down. This is the least “eat it walking” entry on the list.
Wellington West and Westboro
6. Shawarma Al Mouna — Wellington Village
Address: 1266 Wellington St W
What to Order: Chicken wrap, for the crisped edges
Vibe Check: Bright, small, genuinely friendly
Open Late: No. To 9 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Sundays
Why It Made the List: Generous portions, crispy-edged wraps, and they hand out free samples of lentil soup while you wait.
Insider tip: Take the soup. It’s not a gimmick and it’s not upsold.
7. BiBi’s Middle Eastern Kitchen — Overbrook
Address: 1155 Lola St, Unit 7
What to Order: A shawarma wrap or a rice bowl
Vibe Check: Modern, counter service, made from scratch daily
Open: 11 am to 4 pm, seven days
Why It Made the List: Halal, vegan and gluten-friendly options across the whole menu rather than one token line, which is rarer in this category than it should be.
Insider tip: The best option here if someone in your group doesn’t eat meat and is tired of being handed a falafel as an afterthought.
8. Shawarma Garlic & Onion — Westboro
Address: Richmond Rd
What to Order: Chicken shawarma plate, or the donair wrap
Vibe Check: Neighbourhood Lebanese storefront
Open Late: No. Shorter hours than anywhere downtown
Why It Made the List: Canadian-Lebanese cooking done without apology, and the freshly baked pie that comes with the plate.
Insider tip: This is a lunch answer, not a 2 a.m. answer. Plan accordingly.
South Keys and Orléans
9. Shawarma Station — South Keys
Address: 2446 Bank St
What to Order: The chicken plate, which arrives larger than you expect
Vibe Check: Roadside, practical, busy from breakfast on
Open Late: To 1 a.m. most nights, 2 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. It also opens at 7 a.m.
Why It Made the List: The opening hour. Almost nothing else in this category is serving at seven in the morning.
Insider tip: Shawarma Palace is at 2440 Bank, six doors away. If you ever wanted a single image for “shawarma capital of Canada,” it’s these two addresses.
10. Shawarma Chef — Orléans
Address: 2012 Tenth Line Rd
What to Order: Chicken shawarma, and the house-made sides are the point here
Vibe Check: Small Orléans strip unit, quiet, run like somebody’s kitchen
Open Late: No. To 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday
Why It Made the List: The east end’s independent answer to a stretch of Orléans that is otherwise franchise after franchise. Under new ownership since 2022 and emphasising house-made ingredients rather than volume.
Insider tip: It closes early by shawarma standards. This is a dinner plan, not a fallback.
Across the River in Gatineau
11. Le Palais Libanais — Gatineau
Address: 332 boul. Gréber, with further branches on boul. Maloney E and chemin d’Aylmer
What to Order: Chicken or beef shawarma, or a mezza spread if there are a few of you
Vibe Check: Family Lebanese restaurant, three locations across the city
Open Late: 11 am to 11 pm
Why It Made the List: The most established shawarma name on the Quebec side, and the one Gatineau residents send you to.
Insider tip: Three branches means you’re rarely far from one, which is not true of most of this list.
12. Marroush Shawarma International — Gatineau
Address: 662 boul. Saint-Joseph
What to Order: Beef and chicken, and take the large
Vibe Check: Small, plain, generous
Open Late: No. To around 9 p.m. weekdays and 8 p.m. weekends
Why It Made the List: Enormous portions, well-seasoned, fairly priced. It also carries the name of the Elgin Street shop that started all of this in 1984, though any connection between the two is a story nobody has written down.
Insider tip: Not a late-night option despite the name and the neighbourhood. Go in daylight.
FAQ: Shawarma in Ottawa
Is Ottawa really the shawarma capital of Canada?
Officially, yes. Ottawa City Council passed a motion declaring it so in April 2024. Estimates put the number of shops near 200, more per capita than any other Canadian city.
Where can I get shawarma late at night in Ottawa?
Shawarma’s King on Bank Street keeps the latest confirmed hours, to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. 3 Brothers on Rideau is reported to match it. Shawarma Time & Place in the ByWard Market runs to 3 a.m. on weekends.
What was Ottawa’s first shawarma restaurant?
Marroush, on Elgin Street, which opened in spring 1984 and closed in 2012.
Is there good shawarma in Gatineau?
Yes. Le Palais Libanais has three branches, Marroush Shawarma International on Saint-Joseph does the biggest portions, and 3 Brothers has a location on Montcalm if you want something familiar.
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lead photo by RDNE Stock on Pexels
