We were told to take a healthy appetite to Yummy Touch Kitchen, a Middle Eastern restaurant that opened around a year ago in southeast Ottawa.

“This place is definitely tucked away in an out of the way strip mall in the east end and is well worth the trip,” Eat the Strip reader John wrote in an email in September. “Everything is prepared fresh from scratch in house. I suggest you try it with a group of friends.”

Delicious eats? In a strip mall? This sounded like a slam dunk. So, we wrote to John to thank him, and decided to go check out the newish restaurant with our friend Carina last Thursday.

The restaurant is located next to a Tim Hortons with ample parking around. We arrived around an hour and a half before closing and were greeted by a warm couple that gave us the lay of the land. Husband and wife duo Sohayb and Ghareed, originally from Jordan and Palestine respectively, told us their lamb rice and shawarma platters are amongst the most popular dishes on the menu. The rice lamb turned out to be the English translation for mandi, a dish for which I confessed my love during a previous Eat the Strip outing.

We chose a table towards the back of the restaurant, near a beautiful mural of an oasis. The walls were painted with kiln ovens, and the ceiling is adorned with hanging plants. There is also a highchair for those with children and a few board games for families to enjoy while waiting for their meals. This added touch made yet more sense when Ghareed told us they plan to convert the restaurant into a café in the evenings.

She added that her mother has been catering for over a decade. When the family acquired the commercial space, they didn’t realize there was a seating area. That’s when they pivoted to the idea of a restaurant. While the first weeks were a bit slow, business has since picked up, and the response from the community has been “big,” said Ghareed. This, even though they only started advertising the restaurant around four months ago.

We ordered the—you guessed it—lamb rice and a mixed shawarma platter with all the fixings. The fall-off-the-bone lamb was served on a bed of flavourful rice. Not too oily, it was topped with parsley, raisins and nuts. The lamb was juicy and cooked to perfection. Over on the shawarma platter, the hummus was delicious. It was creamy, and we couldn’t get enough of it. Co-writer of the blog and my partner Danielle put it perfectly that the potatoes served with the shawarma platter “brought breakfast to dinner.”

We certainly recommend the lamb rice, or as it’s known in the Middle East, mandi. However, before we could pay and head out, Sohayb and Ghareed insisted we try some of their all-new waffles. We tried the lotus and pistachio ones. They were heavenly. Warm, gooey caramel filling oozed out of each spoonful. If you have a sweet tooth, we suggest you leave space for this delicious desert.

We paid just over $50 for our meal, thanked our hosts, and set out clutching our full, happy bellies, dreaming of our next visit to Yummy.