Ghadir has long existed as a meat market, but has since moved its operations across the street and now functions as a butcher, small grocery store and eatery serving their legendary shawarma and other meat goodness.

You might have even tried their meat already without even knowing it: they supply other epic shawarma joints such as Shawarma Empire with their raw ingredients.

One central area seats about 18, a TV in the corner.

Another seating area off to the side holds far more overflow.

The real action is behind the counter though, where shawarma is shaved and your order is put together. You can see a ton of butchery being done behind the counter all day long too.

The process of your own cooking or shawarma making starts with whole animals, slaughtered days prior, deboned to Ghadir’s exacting specifications and never frozen, just kept in their huge walk-in fridge in the back. They also do all their own spice blends.

They never use electric knives to shave shawarma off the spit, preferring a good quality knife costing nearly $200.

A Ghadir Plate comes with one sandwich ($8.99) or two ($14.99) in the typical options of beef or chicken, served with you choice of fries or rice, hummus, garlic, salad and pita.

The idea here is to do Shawarma the way it would be served back in Lebanon or the Mediterranean. You can taste the freshness and the uniqueness of the spices which have that sweet Christmas-y flavour and a delectably crunchy caramelized exterior.

A beef kafta plate ($11.99) comes with two skewers and all the same accompaniments as the pita plate. I’d be hard pressed not to order the shawarma but you can taste the freshness in this too, the meat ground fresh after butchering.

Lahm-ajeen are just a buck each, a kind of manakeesh flatbread topped with ground meat.

Those are all prepared here too, fired in an oven behind the counter, and you can order them in bulk up to a kilo for $39.99, and with other toppings like zaatar and cheese.

BBQ is the main specialty behind shawarma here, and you can order a BBQ whole chicken platter for just $14.99, a family special going for $19.99.

All this is well accompanied by a little Ghadir pita ($1.49) topped with sauce and herbs.

Some specialty items like a shisha and a wide variety of dates are available here, but aside from that the aisles resemble your average corner store, most staples in stock.

Ghadir is open until midnight, two on weekends, and during Ramadan they stay open til three and offer meals to the homeless and needy.