Farouj Fawaz is a popular Syrian fast-food chain (with a chicken bias) in Sharjah. This branch, next door to CityMax Hotel in Barsha, itself not far from MOE, is its first foray into the lucrative Dubai F&B market. Its interior is small but clean, well-appointed and…orange. Food wise, you can have it as a shawarma or rotisserie, broiled or grilled – so long as it’s chicken. We ordered all. Plus, a portion of their famous, Pringles look-a-like potato crisps.
The best part of our meal – the lentils soup 
Interior 
See that rub on the chips? Yeah, that’s the stuff I don’t like
Farouj Fawaz sprinkles everything with its signature “spice rub”, something I took an instant dislike to…and that basically killed everything for me including their famous broiled chicken. Knowing this, I suppose one could ask them not to use their spice rub but that would be like asking McDonald’s not to use their famous burger sauce. Allow me now to take my tastebuds out of the equation; after all, I am sure there are many who actually like their spice rub (otherwise they wouldn’t have branches in Dubai and Sharjah). Their broiled chicken (fried chicken to you and me) was crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside – good. I felt their rotisserie chicken was a little dry – but good. The shawarmas were well loaded and tasty – good. In fact, there was nothing we had there which Laffah does better. If it weren’t for the spice rub, I could see my self liking my meal. Sadly, I didn’t.
Broasted chicken 
Rotisserie chicken 
Shawarma 
Shawarma 
Broasted chicken
I did leave the restaurant with respect for them, however. And that’s because I saw them give every delivery biker who came in to collect food a little shot of their amazing lentils soup. Bravo to Farouj Fawaz for running such a humane program. We all got a little shot of that soup and let me tell you, it was excellent – the best thing I had there. Kind acts of charity however only go so far towards enhancing the dining experience of a restaurant. In this case it was not nearly enough to reverse the effect of their spice rub – consider other options.
#1 Food Blogger on Zomato Dubai – 2018, 2019 and 2020
Xerxes (pronounced Zûrk’seez) physically dines at, or orders from, each and every venue he reviews. He pays in full for whatever he and his companions eat, drink, take away or occasionally throw at each other. Xerxes accepts no money, gifts, discounts or free meals in return for reviews or favouritism. What you have read was NOT influenced in any way by the venue. Join his culinary journey on Instagram: @ravenousxerxes or reach out to him via email on xerxes@dellara.com.