Oi Oi!

Before we get going on today’s excellent “content”, let’s delve into the Shawarma Police fan mail, shall we?

“Dear Shawarma Police,

I don’t think you’re a real policeman, and it’s only a matter of time before you’re exposed as a FRAUD and a PHONEY.

Yours faithfully,

Reginald Hollis”

Well Reginald, that was insightful. Thank you for taking the time to write that and send that in. Let’s try another one.

“Dear Shawarma Police,

I can hold my breath for over five minutes. Is this a record?”

What? I don’t know. Yeah, probably. Next.

“Dear Shawarma Police,

LOVING the blog. Have you been to Lazord? It’s my favourite.”

Why yes, yes I have! A few weeks ago, as a matter of fact. Took some snaps, ate the food, and totally forgot to write it up. Let’s get that fixed… now.

Lazord is located just off St. Enoch Square, right in the centre of town. You would, however, be forgiven for not knowing it was there, because it’s on a relatively quiet side street that is better known as “behind Matalan”. Being off St Enoch square, however, it is very accessible by transport – 2 minutes (if that) from St Enoch subway station, 5 from Glasgow Central, and buses go nearby.

I wandered in one Saturday early afternoon and found the place to be full – a shame because I had planned on eating in, but never mind – I could always get a takeaway. The menu seemed quite limited – shawarma wraps, Syrian sides and some grilled chicken, from memory – however that’s all I really wanted, to be honest. I decided to order the slightly more expensive “Arabic” Special lamb shawarma, for three reasons: 1) I was very hungry, 2) the menu didn’t explain what was so special about it, and I didn’t think to ask, and 3) I always end up reviewing the standard wrap on this site, why not spend a couple of extra pounds, live a little? YOLO and all that, right? Right.

So what the Arabic special shawarma wrap was this:

Honestly, I don’t think the photo does this any sort of justice. It was huge. It weighed as much as a medium sized pet. I was well chuffed! £7 and enough food to feed me for the day, easily. Let me say this: I don’t usually do chips (see Byblos Cafe etc) but these were good – your standard takeaway chips I guess but well seasoned.

I quickly did away with the chips in order to reveal what was underneath:

Again, I have to stress this was only seven pounds – I genuinely think they managed to fit a whole lamb in there. I got the meat sweats just from looking at this beast. The lamb itself had a different, but not unpleasant, taste to the usual lamb that you get around Glasgow – whereas lamb shawarma can be overly salty, this stuff was sweeter than your usual. As I say, not unpleasant in itself. That said, there was a lot of it – what you see above is me roughly halfway through – and I didn’t eat much more after that. I was defeated by a kebab for the first time since 2002.

I feel bad here, because I don’t want to give the impression that, because I ended up chucking the last three slices away, that this was somehow bad. I can see quite why this place has a good reputation, and the food was very nice, however the dryness didn’t help matters. When I reviewed Shawarmarama last week, I noted that the meat to salad ratio was spot on. As you can see in the photo above, there was some salad, but nowhere near enough. The wrap was more wrap than vegetables, it has to be said. Salad + sauce keeps it juicy, and had there been more juice, I could have forced myself over the finish line – though had I done, I would have exploded.

A quick word about the two trays at the top – the left hand side was filled with pickles – a nice touch, but it went straight in the bin. The mayo was for the chips – however it was all a bit rich so after the first couple of chips got dunked, I left it the hell alone.

My conclusion is that sometimes less is more – had I just gone for the regular wrap, I suspect I would have enjoyed it a lot more than this behemoth – but I must stress, for the part of it I was able to eat before I was defeated, this was some of the nicest shawarma I have had in a long time.

Lazord – Howard Street, Glasgow.
Arabic Special Lamb shawarma wrap (inc chips), £7

7/10