Review of Rose City Kitchen, a Middle Eastern sandwich shop on Queen St. W

Website:  http://www.rosecitykitchen.com/
Address: 406 Queen St W., Toronto, ON
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
When I visited: March 2014
Rating: $, 3

Rose City Kitchen (@RoseCityKitchen) stands where The Big Fish (fish and chip) joint used to be on the hip Queen St. West, close to Banh Mi Boys.

The 15 seat shop was started by the talented Shontelle Pinch of the Gourmet Bitches food truck. The restaurant showcases 5 pita flavours that represent various countries in the Mediterranean region with ingredients that reflected the flavours of the region.

Ordering was easy, I picked a region followed by a protein. On their menu (see the Rose City menu here since it is not on their website yet), they provide suggestions on how many pitas’ to order.
They suggest “1 for a snack, 2 for a meal and 3 if you’re starving”. That means for $5, I can get half a pita (which is their snack size) with tons of fillings. That is well worth it!

I ordered the Lebanese sandwich with chicken, the Egyptian sandwich with chicken and a tabouleh salad. The Lebanese sandwich was my favourite as the combination of the garlic sauce and the tender chicken made for a moist sandwich. I didn’t mind that I had garlic breath all day.  The restaurant said they were still marinating their steak, so, unfortunately I was not able to sample that.

With all three items, I found that their sauces and flavours were on the sweeter side compared to other joints serving pita and falafel sandwiches. I enjoyed this.

The best thing I had at the snack bar was actually their hot sauce! Their house-made hot sauce paired well with everything I ate with sweet and spicy notes. I would buy the hot sauce! (Hint hint Rose City Kitchen!).

Looks like we’ll see more of Rose City Kitchen as this is the first location out of the 3 that will open in the city.