Roman Zaman

so i went to this restaurant with my friend because I heard a lot about it, we ordered kibbe niye, humous with meat, fatet humous, cheese saj, and watermelon juice and pomegranate juice.
Kibbe niyye was definitely not the best I have tasted-​mediocre at best. Usually its red, this one was orange, and simply the taste was off although i tried to put extra olive oil on it but still wasn’t that delicious kibbe niyee u end up eating at Montréal or anywhere in the ME.
Humus with meat– meat tastes a little weird.
fatet humous– disappointment! bread should have been in top, and i simply didn’t even feel the yogurt or anything, it had no flavor!
cheese Saj– amazing, I would go there just for that, superb with haloum cheese!
watermelon juice– definitely fresh and mixed with mint, although it does not say that on the menu, but the mint gives it a refreshing taste.
pomegranate juice was a little sour, but I’m biased since I don’t like sour things.
pita bread came straight from the oven so it was extremely hot and i actually felt like i burned my finger, but only thing they never refilled it even though we have 3 dishes that can only be eaten with pita bread!
overall great décor, service was good, and will only go back for the water melon juice and cheese saj.

Giving them 3 stars for the nice décor and for the appetizers. Main dishes were a bit of disappointment to be honest.

My friends and I went there for lunch to celebrate our friend’s birthday. All I can say, everything is excellent from food to service.

Get the hummus with meat + fattet hummus + mhamara Saj and you will not regret it! Very authentic Mediterranean (Syrian/​Lebanese) food and atmosphere. The food is delicious actually, and the décor and ambiance is very pretty. Took one star off for the service: they all seem to have a «holier than thou» attitude, which gets really annoying really quickly.

I wanted to love this place. I really did. As far as the decoration and authenticity of this place goes, we were certainly impressed. From the copper jugs, forks and even the salt and pepper shaker. Service was also good, but a few off-​putting things I’d like to point out later on. I’d been eyeing this place for months so when the opportunity presented itself, I immediately dragged my family to come here with me. I’ll admit that while reading the reviews, I was in two minds. There were really great ones, and then there were really bad ones. It was between here and Watan or Kandahar, so for the sake of trying something new, we chose Roman. Unfortunately, we left wishing we had gone to one of those instead.
Upon walking in, you’re greeted by a beautiful, very traditional bench you can’t help but sit down on and take a few pictures. All my energy went in to ensure my mother didn’t pull out her phone to take a picture and instead be seated. Besides the bench, there’s an odd out of place table at the front of the store with beautifully decorated bowls which also consumed equally as much energy out of me as my mum wanted to take them home. That pretty! Albeit very out of place. Ever been in a science fair where they display their projects on a table and you walk past and stare? It pretty much looked like an elementary school science fair exhibit.
We were seated very quickly and presented the menus (which were falling apart and could have used an upgrade or two) and our server gave us a few minutes before coming back to take our orders. Not long after he took our orders, the food came out. Rather promptly for a national holiday which we expected to be quite busy, however, was not (which is great if you’re a family of hermits like we are!). I’d seen pictures of the food which looked colourful and opted for mushroom and lentil soup. The mushroom soup was superb, the portions of both were adequate considering it was a starter. Now, this is where it kind of went downhill and my initial excitement dissipated. The menu also stated that the lentil had carrots which were nowhere to be found. Unless they were mashed in, in which case, they were nowhere to be tasted regardless. The lentil soup was essentially «daal» (if you’re South Asian, you know!) so avoid that if you’re South Asian like I am and have that at home in your yogurt containers in the fridge (little bit of an inside joke there). So I had high expectations for the lentil soup but in the end, nothing special. My sister also ordered Yalanji which never showed up until mid-​way through our meal when we called the server and he went to the kitchen to ask. Turns out, they were out of it — meaning their food isn’t fresh, but pre-​cooked. The mains are what really let us down the most! Especially my sister. She got a meat kebab of sorts. We didn’t expect GIGANTIC portions, but neither did we expect that tiny of a portion. On a sad looking lonesome, soggy pita sat one lone (and small!) kebab. If it was one BIG or even a feasible kebab, trust me, I would not be bitching about it as much. But it was TINY! With my sister being coy and not wanting to bother anybody or speak up about it, much to my dismay, she accepted her fate and dug in. It was actually depressing! We all ended up sharing our platters with her and even then, we had to drive her to a nearby place to grab some food and drink. One of the biggest signs of poor dining, when you leave starving. Fix up!
As for myself, I ordered the chicken escalope with french fries and a «salad.» Salad being in quotes because I literally got a spoon of parsley/​coriander with four measly pomegranates on top next to it. The escalope (breaded chicken essentially) was more than forgettable and I’ve never had something more bland. No pita with it. Nothing. Huge, huge, huge disappointment for what you’re paying. The sauces that were provided were afterthoughts, mere spoonfuls shoved in to a tiny container that was gone within seconds — not because it was delicious, but because it was barely in there.
Service was good at the start. Then it got annoying as we were being watched & constantly badgered while we ate. The server kept coming to pick up plates WHILE we were still eating, and had the audacity to ask if everything was good afterwards. Got ready to finish a soup and it was gone! Not only did the server keep roaming around like a fly but also the manager. Probably because we weren’t locals neither were we Arab? We stuck out like a sore thumb. Looking back at the photos of other reviewers, we were better off sticking to the appetizers and teas because those were bigger and looked a hundred times more filling than the actual entrees which were a waste of money. Wanted to love this place but leaving with a horribly bitter taste in my mouth… and not from the Arabic coffee! It gets a one lonely star from me. Like the one lonely kebab we were served.

The manager was a super idiot and was super rude. He is racist and has no idea how to talk to others. I called and ask if we can get a table, he said for 3 people it would be 10 mins wait. I said ok, I can go ahead. I drove from Ajax to have this and in the end got there 1.5 hrs before close. He said he can’t seat me because there is already a family ahead. I told him I won’t be coming back if I am not seated since it is still quite a while before close and we came from far away. In the end he said «where do I seat you, on my head?».
No matter what I won’t be coming to this Douchebag again. He is a racist bastard too who commented saying «go to an Indian or a Pakistani restaurant». I would’ve easily knocked him out right then but I am not an asshole like him. I recommend people not to go to this racist asshole.

We went there at 9.50 and despite them closing at 10.30pm, they turned 4 paying customers. Either change your official timings so people do not drive all the way just to be turned down.
The food was good last time but the pomegranate juice was expensive and not fresh, despite them saying it was!

This restaurant is a great addition to our neighborhood. Great atmosphere, friendly and fast service, very fresh ingredients with a wonderful mix of spices. To top it all off the the kinafi is amazing! I highly recommend this place! Everything we had was great! They even have USB ports at all their tables!

We did not like it at all… We’ve paid too much just to eat the pita and salad… most the (meat) got left as is with small notches of scarry bites
Never come back again
One thing more, after we got waited too long on the rest. front door… The manager came to us and said:
Ok. You can sit here BUT, you have to finish before 5:0 O’clock because the rest. has a big reservation !!!
It was the most rude and salvage behavior from a hospitality guide to a customer !!!

Venue — Loved the venue, interior is beautifully decorated with a cozy Arabic feel.
Service — While there doesn’t seem to be much structure (asked several times if we were being served by different servers), they were very accommodating, willing to explain every dish and offered to heat my dish even though it is typically served cold :) (I was freezing)
Food — Very good! I had the fattet hummos with yogurt ($ 7.99). It was a large bowl filled with a delicious blend of whole chickpeas and pita bread pieces in a tahini/​yogurt base and topped with a few pomegranate seeds. They even offered to heat it up for me even though it’s typically served cold.
**This dish is also typically only served on weekends at Paramount, so it was great that they offered as a regular menu item.
Friend had the fattoush salad and falafel, both really good!
Prices — not bad, I think they went up by about a dollar on every dish.
Would return again!

Delicious. I love middle eastern food though, so maybe I’m a bit biased, but this place was delicious. The restaurant itself is quite nicely decorated — good atmosphere and they play nice, traditional music.
We ordered a lot of food! Between the three of us, we ordered:
— fatoush salad
— mixed grill platter
— vine leaves
— babaghanoush
— sausage and cheese bread
— zaatar labneh pizza
Everything was great, but my favourites were the sausage cheese rolled bread, the zaatar labneh pizza, the the minced lamb kebabs in the mixed grill platter. They were all full of flavour and complimented each other well.
Prices are quite good too. Would come back again.

I loved the experience.
Perfect atmosphere for singles, families and couples. The food was delicious and the service was very good.
I especially enjoyed the presentation, I have never seen plating on wooden trays like this before but it looked exceptionally good.

So in short, restaurant gets a 4, manager gets a 1…
Ok. So:
–the food is good
–Portions are ok. They should be more compared to the price
— the décor was really nice
— the manager is awful… He was busy making sure his suit looks good. He ignored people waiting at the door for more than 10 mins even when there were a lot. Of empty tables. He would call a waiter just to move a cup instead of helping like any good manager would do…

I came here with my family and we all ordered different things: chicken and beef shawarma, mixed grill (chicken and beef skewers), rice, fries, humus, baba ganoush, steak, rice pudding and kanafeh. Everything was just delicious!
I have to say that the shish toukeh was the best item. The marinate was full of favour and the chicken was cooked till perfection: juicy! The eggplant dip had a smokey flavour which my family really enjoyed. The pita bread that they served on the side was warm and perfect.
The pudding had such a warm vanilla flavour and the kanafeh was the prefect mix of sweet and salty.
The price is well worth the food and service is excellent. The ambience is very cultural and the brass glasses give you a complete experience. Me and my family will surely spread the word and come back to this gem!

Ok this place is super awesome!
My family and I came here with some friends and man were we blown away. Being Lebanese, I can appreciate and acknowledge good middle eastern food and Syrians know how to cook! Their flavours are different from ours but still just as tasty!
The lentil soup I had was better than the one my mom makes! And my mom is an amazing cook! So I was shocked when the flavours just kept on coming, the Fatteh was delicious, the Taboulé was tasty and the fatouch salad was different, I could have used some more sumac myself but it was a pleasant and satisfying different flavour pallet to a classic.
I love the falafel, they had a perfect balance of cumin and the right amount of crunch.
I think the only thing I thought was a little different and odd was my father ordered a chicken shawarma sandwich and they were served on a bun instead of pita. Don’t get me wrong, he said it was tasty, but I’m used to it being on pita not a bun. I think next time I’d ask if they can put it on something different.
Otherwise this place is going to be a regular spot for my family and I!
Check it out, oh and during the week… MAKE RESERVATIONS, it’s always packed! Lineups out the door!

The restaurant is beautiful inside so I would give it 5 stars for the ambiance but that’s the only thing that deserves 5 stars. Food was just mediocre, not the worst but not the best either. We ordered quite a few things to share so I tried few different things but I forgot half the things we ate already and I only went last night so that just shows how memorable the experience was!
The worst thing about this place was the customer service, place was busy so I keep giving servers the benefit of the doubt but they were just plain terrible! Our server was either tired or bored, she completely seemed out of it. She was walking around lazily staring in space, (weird!) never came to ask us if we needed anything and keep forgetting to bring us things we requested. When we tried asking another server for cutlery, he just said I will get you your server and walked away and we ended up waiting another 10 mins for our bored server to bring us forks.
All in all, we won’t be returning to eat expensive mediocre food in a beautiful restaurant with bad customer service.

I absolutely love this place. The service, the ambiance and most of all the food is incredible. Everything is super fresh and amazingly tasty
I recommend it and cant wait to return
Try the lemon with mint juice, the fattoush, tabboule was the freshest i ever had, the mhammara, the dessert. Ohh i loved everything i ordered
A few birthdays were celebrated while i was there and it was very special
The service was great and it was a full restaurant.
I give it a ten on ten rating

I’ve been curious about this place ever since the sign went up a few months ago. Today, I finally had a chance to check it out. As I was sitting at the restaurant, I gave it a solid 3*, maybe even 3.5* in my mind. My rating kept changing towards the end of the day and right now, 8 hours after the meal, it’s a ZERO (well, obviously it’s 1 star because I can’t give zero stars). Wanna find out why? Read on.
The restaurant is beautiful. There’s no question about it. It’s probably the nicest Middle Eastern restaurant in Mississauga (side note: GOOD, at least that 1 star is justified).
We came here on Monday, around 4:00 p.m. The restaurant was pretty much empty, with only one other table occupied. I must confirm what others have said before me: the service is really, really slow. Clearly, even if the place isn’t busy. I have no idea how they handle busy dinner time (we were still there well after 5:00 p.m. when the dinner crowd showed up — that’s how long it took to have late lunch there). I can definitely understand the other 1 star reviews. But I digress.
We ordered the mixed shawarma platter (chicken and beef), a chicken skewer and a ground beef skewer. It took a long time to get our food, so I was hoping I would’t be let down. Both skewers were fine but nothing special. The chicken shawarma was good and tender (though too bland for my liking) and the beef shawarma was awful. You could actually SEE how terribly dry it was. You could probably choke while trying to swallow it. The only thing that was really good was the pita bread.
After we finished our meal, we waited for about half an hour to get our bill. 30 minutes I will never get back. Service seriously blows here. I doubt that any of the servers has ever worked at a restaurant. They all looked like they had no idea what they were doing the whole time we were there.
Anyway, we’re still at 3ish* here.
Then my stomach started to feel heavy. And I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Mind you, we split one shawarma dish (basically half of it, since we skipped the super duper dry beef) and 2 small skewers (I only tried a little bit of both), so it’s not like we just had a huge meal.
It’s now well past midnight and I still can’t digest that friggin lunch. It keeps repeating on both of us. Ughh, so gross.
And this, Unilocalers, is a story of how to lose 3 stars within 8 hours.

All that glitters is not gold is a perfect proverb which describes my experience at this restaurant!
I was very thrilled about trying this new restaurant in the area and wanted to unravel the hype it had around it and to my disappointment the experience as far as the service and food was beyond pathetic!
The only reason I would give it one star is due to the beautiful décor and effort to create a beautiful ambience apart from that that the restaurant has literally nothing to offer.
We walked in on a weeknight and got seated. After being seated we actually had to call in the server to take our order for the appetizer which was humus beiruty and a soup. Well the humus was below average and dry and came out immediately after the order placed but the soup took another 15 mins to be sent to our table.
Later we ordered chicken shawrma, mixed grill and kebabs. All our food came in intervals. First came chicken shawrma which was dry and flavorless. Next after asking for our remaining food the next two items came after a gap of 15 minutes. It all seemed like a joke to us-​here we came to sit and enjoy this new restaurant instead we were served with our dinner in bits and pieces-​All the mixed grill items looked appetizing but we’re extremely dry and flavorless. They lacked the smokey grill taste to it. When we called the server and expressed our concern of the food being extremely dry she told us. THIS IS OUR STANDARD AND SAID TO ME YOU ARE THE FIRST ONE TO SAY THIS. HELLO???The staff needs to be trained to address to the complains/​concerns in a better and more professional manner.
We also had to call our server to give us our water glasses which I thought was absolutely bizarre.
Lastly we didn’t order any desert assuming the flavor would be as pathetic as the flavor of the food and honestly didn’t have the patience to wait any longer!

Ever since the signage for this new restaurant went up, I’ve been checking up on the space periodically to see the progress.
After a couple of months of work, the result was an absolutely beautiful restaurant. The interior décor at this place is second to none. Wait staff are dressed in elegant, traditional clothing. Being inside this restaurant feels like being teleported to a faraway place and I think that it’s absolutely awesome.
Setting such a fantastic ambiance is usually a bonus for good restaurants, but unfortunately the food and service is yet to catch up at this establishment.
I’ve been there twice now. My first visit was about a month ago — it was their 2^nd day of their soft opening.
My party of 3 was promptly seated and given a menu. We decided to go with a mixed grill platter and a chicken/​beef shawarma platter for our entrees, with a salad and eggplant/​pomegranate appetizer to start.
That’s when the nightmare began. To give context, we were seated at the front of the restaurant where there was the least traffic, and the place was absolutely packed on the 2^nd day of its opening.
None of our food came within the first half-​hour. Our entrees came out nearly 15 minutes apart, and before our appetizers. My shawarma platter came out cold. The mixed grill came out much later, also cold. Both tasted pretty good, but due to the fact that both dishes had already cooled down, I had to pretty much drench it in their house pomegranate sauce (delicious) and olive oil.
We had finished our entrees and were still hungry, waiting for our appetizers to arrive. We were nearly an hour into our visit now. For a salad and a grilled eggplant dish, this is unacceptable, and we followed up with the wait staff about the progress. 30 minutes later, we still did not have our dishes… And we were just getting fed up. One of the wait staff came and checked up on us, and when we told him we had still not received our order, he looked bewildered and said he’d resolve it immediately.
Surely enough, 5 minutes later we received our salad. It was just plain greens and some dressing. How did this take over an hour to prepare? It wasn’t even the correct salad, as the one we ordered was supposed to come topped with pomegranate. 10 minutes later, we were given another salad — this time the correct one. We had already finished our salad by then, and politely told them that we wouldn’t take the 2^nd serving.
To finish the night, we received our eggplant dish. It had quite a unique grilled flavour that I’ve never had before, and it was quite tasty. However, it would’ve served a lot better as an appetizer, rather than as a dish received over an hour after finishing our entrée.
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First visit TL;DR? I visited a restaurant on their 2^nd day of their soft opening, and they seemed wildly unprepared in every facet of the restaurant experience, especially service times and timing food to be released when still warm. The issues seemed to be correctable if given some attention.
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On my second visit, I was just there to get a takeout order of their inexpensive takeout shawarma wraps. Surely they must’ve resolved their service issues by now, I thought.
Prior to ordering, I asked the staff taking my order what the estimated wait time would be for the shawarma wrap, and she told me it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. The restaurant was much less busy than my first visit about 3 weeks ago, and I eagerly awaited my order.
Unfortunately, the same problems arose. I waited 25 minutes to receive a 6″ shawarma wrap, totally unacceptable if dining in, and even more so for a takeout order.
I’m extremely disappointed that it seems like they haven’t improved in the weeks since opening, and I’m reluctant to give them another try regardless of how unique their offerings are.
Get your act together Roman Zaman, you’re located in the heart of Mississauga and your location has tons of potential. I’d be a regular if you manage to get a better handle on your logistical shortfalls.