Restaurant Spotlight: Shalom Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant | Toronto
For the month of February, we will be turning our focus and shining the spotlight on some of hungerhub's black-owned restaurants.
During Black History Month, Canadians celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and their communities who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada a culturally diverse, compassionate, and prosperous country.
Here at hungerhub we're proud to partner with restaurants that reflect the diversity of this great country. For the month of February, we will be showcasing our country's diversity by celebrating and acknowledging black-owned restaurants and the positive impact they've had on the communities that they help shape and maintain.
Shalom Restaurant
587 Parliament St, Toronto
Cabbagetown
When one thinks of office lunches they often think of a soup/salad combo, maybe a sandwich off of a sandwich tray or a boxed lunch delivered. At hungerhub, we've always wanted to take office food delivery and catering in general to the next level; After all, we are operating in some of the most diverse city's in the world, and food at work, should reflect that. For years, we've been operating in a way that brings the city's diversity and variety of catering to your desks, to move away from traditional bland catering, and towards flavours from the restaurants you want to eat at, whether at work, on your day off or the weekend.
We connected with Shalom Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurant on Parliament street, to learn more about their history and operation, and I had the chance to ask them a few questions:
1. Define your Restaurant Cuisine:
From day 1 Shalom has been serving authentic Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisines to our diners.
2. What was your main motivation when you decided to start a restaurant? Who inspired you to start? and who keeps inspiring you to continue?
Apart from a way to generate a means of income, we were inspired by the fact that Shalom would allow us to introduce our culture and food to the neighbourhood and Toronto as a whole
3. When did you open your restaurant?
We opened our doors in October of 2019
4. What is your most popular dish?
Our vegetarian/vegan dishes are always our most popular and keep bringing people back. They are delicious soaked up with Injera bread - Injera is made with teff, a tiny, round grain that flourishes in the highlands of Ethiopia. While teff is very nutritious, it also contains practically no gluten. It's nutritious, and also has a distinct sour taste that goes perfectly well with our food! Apart from that, Doro wat (chicken stew) is very popular for those looking for a meat based dish.
5. What changes have you made at your restaurant to adapt to the pandemic situation?
Prior to the pandemic we rarely used online delivery partners, we had a busy dine-in and welcomed patrons to dine in with us more than take-out and delivery. During the pandemic, we shifted towards a take-out focused approach, we sourced and looked for containers that travelled better for our food and now people can enjoy our food better at home or for office food delivery!
6. When did you join hungerhub?
We joined hungerhub for office food catering and delivery in October 2021
7. How important has your work with hungerhub been during the pandemic?
Very important!!! We are very grateful to work with you! It enabled us to have access to a whole new market of people ordering food at work, not only has this generated more demand and work for us, keeping us busy during our off-peak hours, it also helped us in spreading our culture and introducing more people to our cuisine, who in turn come back and order for their homes!
8. Were you offering catering orders before joining hungerhub?
Yes, we did, catering has always been something we offered from when we opened our doors, but it was more focused for homes, special events and celebrations. Now with hungerhub the orders are more consistent with daily orders and sent in individual meal boxes to people at work.
We also, through our partnership with Suppli are able to offer zero-waste packaging for those ordering lunch at work, for hungerhub partners who opt in, we package our lunches in reusable containers so that we can reduce waste and include our packaging in the circular economy.
Support local, eat delicious: order your next catered meal from Shalom Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant
