Don’t count out Canada’s capital as being home to the biggest shawarma lovers in the country. Ottawa has officially broken the record for the longest shawarma sandwich in the world.
On Sunday, thousands of people took to the city’s ByWard Market for the second annual Ottawa Shawarma Festival. During the event, organizers aimed to set a Guinness World Record by assembling hundreds of wraps that circled around a long line of tables outdoors.
The world record was previously set in London, Ont., with 2,287 sandwiches in 2019. On June 7, the Ottawa Shawarma Festival — created by Moe Mosalam — broke the record with a roughly 350-metre-long line of 2,451 shawarmas.
Thousands of people crowded the ByWard Market on June 7 for the Ottawa Shawarma Festival.
(Chris Stoodley/Yahoo Canada)
Canadian restaurants, including Montreal’s Boustan, Toronto’s Tut’s Egyptian Street Food and Ottawa’s Shawarma Palace, served Middle Eastern dishes, including various versions of the iconic wrap.
A seven-judge panel also ranked several entries for the best shawarma in a blind tasting test. First place went to Boustan, which operates locations across Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. Local restaurants Three Brothers and Shawarma Palace took second and third place, respectively.
An official Guinness World Records adjudicator oversaw the event to confirm the record had been broken.
(Chris Stoodley/Yahoo Canada)
Xav Trudeau, the eldest son of former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, also performed several songs at the event.
In 2024, Ottawa councillors named the city the “Shawarma Capital of Canada.” At the time, Coun. Laura Dudas told CBC News there were almost 200 shawarma restaurants across Ottawa.
More than 2,400 shawarmas filled a line of tables for the event, and all sandwiches were donated to people experiencing homelessness.
(Chris Stoodley/Yahoo Canada)
On Sunday, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe praised the “outstanding success” of this year’s festival.
“What a great day at Shawarma Fest 2026 in the ByWard Market,” he penned online. “York Street was packed with tons of people enjoying amazing food and entertainment.”
The more than 2,000 sandwiches were donated to Shepherds of Good Hope, a local non-profit that supports people experiencing homelessness in the city. The wraps were estimated to feed 2,000 people across the city.
“A shared meal is more than food,” the organization wrote in a social media post. “It is comfort, dignity and a reminder that people care. What begins as a city-wide celebration will end with 2,000 meals shared with people who need them most.”
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