An Ontario restaurant chain that's steadily been taking over the province is now playing with the big dogs, after opening a new location on Scarborough's so-called Shawarma Row.

What started as two university buddies selling shawarma out of a "dingy little food trailer in Lambeth, Ontario," has rapidly become an empire for Shelby's Shawarma founders Yasser and Yazan — and they're not slowing down any time soon.

They now operate 26 locations in Canada, which includes their first-ever venture outside of Ontario, a location in Quebec City.

When it comes to the GTA, Markham and Oshawa are the two most recent municipalities to welcome new Shelby's locations — but they're not the only ones.

Scarborough just recently saw the doors open on a new location of the shawarma joint — currently in the soft-opening stage — taking up residence on a strip of Lawrence East already known for its saturation of shawarma spots.

Along Lawrence East, from Pharmacy to Warden, you'll find no fewer than a dozen various Middle Eastern restaurants hocking juicy meat shaved off a rotating cone — and now, just east of Warden, Shelby's, too, has thrown their hat into the ring.

Shawarma spots in Toronto garner a similar level of devotion as hockey teams do — you have yours, and you tend not to stray — so Shelby's certainly has their work cut out for them with this new location — but they're not afraid.

"We were fully aware of the 'Shawarma Row' reputation of Lawrence Avenue, which only reinforced our decision," co-founder Yasser Ali tells blogTO.

In fact, he says, Shelby's is eager to embrace the competition.

Sumaq Iraqi Charcoal Grill, made even more famous by Keith Lee, is just one of the incumbents on Shawarma Row that Shelby's will be competing with.

"Shawarma is a classic dish with countless variations, and every culture adds its own distinct touch and flavours," he says. "This is why we believe that our shawarma will continue to succeed regardless of the number of competitors in Scarborough. We believe there is ample potential for more than one successful shawarma restaurant in the area."

Not only that, Yasser tells blogTO, but Shelby's track record of garnering seemingly lightning-fast popularity wherever the chain opens up makes him confident that the new location won't have any issues succeeding.

Shawarma Empire has legions of customers on Shawarma Row who will be hard to convince to go anywhere else.

"We welcome competition with confidence, knowing that our unique experience and delectable food set us apart," he says. "Our track record demonstrates that, every community we serve, people fall in love with our flavours and the legendary experience we provide."

According to Yasser, continually adapting to meet the preferences and desires of their client base is baked into the operational model at Shelby's, which means they're always willing to pivot to better serve the clientele in any given area. 

The only thing they won't support, famously, is putting ketchup on your shawarma.

During an earlier interview with blogTO, co-founder Yasser Ali tells us that the chain has its sights set on international expansion by 2025, and, perhaps going toe-to-toe with the more seasoned mom-and-pops of Shawarma Row is the perfect test to see if Shelby's is ready to go global.

Ghadir is one of the originals on Shawarma Row in Scarborough.

In any event, the chain has no doubt garnered online attention from the around the world with their hilarious presence on TikTok and Instagram, which have earned them 2.2M and 683K followers respectively.

If you want to see how Shelby's shawarma stacks up against your go-to shop, you can visit their Toronto locations in Scarborough (2074 Lawrence East), Bloor West Village (2202 Bloor West), The Annex (551 Bloor West), Queen West (416 Queen West) and Rexdale (2140 Kipling).