The food at Mazaar Lebanese Cuisine in Downtown Windsor is incredible. And the location is quite lovely.
The interior is pretty, with exotic lanterns and what appears to be stone art on the walls.
It’s also quite comfortable, with good padding on the chairs and padded booths.
An acoustic musician came in to play while we dined, which made for an enjoyable evening as we all appreciate live music.
What We Ordered at Mazaar Lebanese Cuisine
On our most recent trip we ordered the hummus and pita appetizer, which featured hot-from-the-oven puffy pitas and smooth, flavourful hummus drizzled with oil. We ordered two orders for six people, and had quite a bit left over, so one order may do for most parties.
We found out that Mazaar Lebanese Cuisine had one of our favourite Quebec beers on tap, Unibroue’s Blanche de Chambly. It’s is a bit like having a bubbly champagne, but in a beer. A few of us ordered the effervescent beverage to sip with our appetizer.
We loved the vegetarian Fattoush salad with crispy fried pita chips. I might try the salad with the baked version of pita chips the next time as a healthy alternative. The salad dressing was flavourful and the herbs were perfect. The salad served four of us without anyone feeling deprived.
As a main, the Falafel Salad was significant enough to satisfy a woman in our party, who took some of it home.
Another member of our party enjoyed the new Hakoora Salad, with pomegranate, caramelized walnuts, dates and a pomegranate viniagrette. He finished his salad.
The best dish I’ve found at Mazaar Lebanese Cuisine is the Lamb Shank Manssaf with lamb rice. Tender, juicy lamb which was fall-off-the-bone good. The lamb had a different, peppery rice containing ground lamb and Sultana light-coloured raisins, sprinkled with toasted nuts. Divine.
This time I tried the Lamb Freekeh, a braised lamb shank served on freekeh (a grain), sprinkled with roasted almonds and raisins, and drizzled with a yogurt laban-emmo jus. The lamb, again, was tender, and the freekeh was pleasantly chewy.
The Shish Tawook, a chicken breast kabob, was moist and well-flavoured. The garlic dip served with it was also really good. We’ve also enjoyed the Chicken Shawarma.
While I didn’t try it, the Shrimp Siyadiyeh, which is tiger shrimp on sayadiyeh basmati rice with onion chips and mixed nuts, looked amazing.
We also had a report from our table that the Spicy Fish Beiruti, featuring a cod filet topped with shitake mushrooms and dill sauce on rice is delicious.
Each plate had plenty of rice or grain or salad, and could be split into two servings if you’re careful to save some of the feature item (like the kabob or falafel).
We’re not from the area, but travel to Windsor occasionally. In previous visits we ordered from Mazaar Downtown and most recently we visited the restaurant.
The restaurant is handicapped-accessible, features an outside patio and free parking.
Mazaar has two locations in Windsor.
Here are other spots to try in Windsor and places to explore in the province of Ontario.
Enjoyed November, 2017, December 2018 and December, 2019.
Mazaar Downtown
372 Ouellette Avenue, Windsor, ON N9A 1A6
+1 (519) 967-9696
