For our last Eat the Strip outing of 2024, we headed east towards the Ottawa Train Yards.

One of our readers had written to us in early December urging us to go try Chickpeas, a Palestinian eatery that opened in 2016. We did a little bit of digging around and found out it's one of the city’s few fully vegan restaurants. In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of a vegan Middle Eastern eatery in the city.

We visited last Sunday. In contrast to the cold and grey weather outside, Chickpeas was warm and inviting. From the outside the restaurant looked like a literal hole in the wall, but it is surprisingly spacious inside. Over half a dozen tables lined the orange walls. The smell of fresh falafel cooking in hot oil wafted from the kitchen. We were greeted by Ahmad Joudeh, the executive chef. He runs the restaurant with his brothers and father.

Ahmad helped us navigate the menu. While there is a mix of traditional and modern Middle Eastern food available, I decided to order the hummus fatteh. My partner and co-writer of the blog Danielle decided to order the koshari, an Egyptian dish recently added to the menu.

The chickpeas are cooked perfectly. Delicious hummus and olive oil coated my pita chips. We scooped it all up with spiced yogurt, fried almonds and chickpeas. It was tantalizingly crunchy, and the hummus was some of the tastiest we’ve had. I had a hard time deciding if I preferred the fatteh here or the one served by Ottawa Falafel House. Both are exceptional. The koshari was a beautiful mix of east and west. It’s a widely popular Egyptian street food that we were getting to try for the first time. It’s made from rice, black lentils, pasta, tomato sauced fried onions and, you guessed it, chickpeas. The lentils were lightly spiced and reminded us of a nice wintertime stew. We had a good amount left over to take home, too.

Business has been going well, said Ahmad, who used to be an executive chef in Dubai prior to moving to Canada. They originally had three locations but closed two during the pandemic. Now they’re looking to expand again. A little bit of experimenting by Ahmad’s brother, Omar, now a police officer, led to a menu featuring seven different types of hummus, which the family recommends people try by ordering their signature bowls and wraps.

Two of us ate for around $25. We’ll happily be back to oblige Ahmad and try the bowls and wraps next time.