Business is picking up at Syrian Table Shawarma & Falafel after opening in December 2023.
Co-owned by cooks Alaa Oughli and Bassam Hamza, the business — located within a shipping container converted into a functioning kitchen with doors and windows — is located outside Soo Market at 73 Brock St. and beside the city’s Downtown Plaza.
Shawarma is a popular Middle Eastern dish consisting of meat, chicken, beef or turkey cut into thin slices, roasted and stacked in a pita cone.
Syrian Table prepares and sells authentic Syrian chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, mixed chicken and beef shawarma, and falafel — a wrap that includes humus, tomatoes, cucumbers, mixed pickles, lettuce, parsley, pomegranate sauce and tahini sauce.
Cook Alaa Oughli told SooToday that the kitchen’s beef shawarma is popular with Saultites but that lentil soup is by far the hottest-selling item on his menu.
Syrian Table also sells dishes with mandi rice, broasted fries, salads and Syrian desserts. Soda pop beverages and bottled water are available.
Customers purchase their orders on a takeout or delivery basis or enjoy the Syrian cuisine at seating available at the Downtown Plaza.
“Our food is not overly spicy but it has lots of spices in it. In our wraps we have seven spices. People are starting to find out about us through word of mouth. We really appreciate our customers and people are happy with what we sell,” Oughli said.
Syrian Table’s food is locally sourced in part, the rest of it delivered from Toronto.
Oughli and business partner/fellow cook Bassam Hamza cook and serve from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday.
“I talked to Bassam about it because he was a chef in Egypt. I said there is an opportunity to open a business so he accepted and we were able to open here. It’s been 10 months now. In the winter it’s very cold and hot in the summer (inside Syrian Table’s outside kitchen) but we are Syrian. We grow up tough so we’re going to make it,” Oughli said with a smile.
Oughli arrived in Canada in October 2016 with wife Heba Allouz, settling in Sault Ste. Marie.
He left war-torn Syria and lived in Egypt before resettling in this country.
“It was an amazing opportunity for us to start a new life because we lost everything in Syria. It’s good to start a new life.”
After arriving in the Sault in 2016, Oughli and his wife Heba familiarized themselves with the English language at Northland Adult Learning Centre before he started work as a cleaner, first for Skyline-owned buildings then at Walmart (where he still works part time).
“I like to work. I can’t sit down,” Oughli said.
Oughli credits his wife Heba with inspiring him to start a business and co-owner Hamza with teaching him what he needs to know as a cook.
Oughli said he has seen that the Sault’s greatest asset is its people.
“The people are very nice over here. They are very helpful. If you have a question they help you. If they can do something to help, they do it.”
“I love cooking,” Oughli said of his new career in his new hometown.
“I grew up watching my grandmother in the kitchen and Syrians love to cook. That’s something that’s in our blood.”
SooToday produced a video profile of Syrian Table in June which you can check out here..
