Jimmy’s A & A Deli

awesome!!! best food in calgary!!!

My sister discovered this place, and raved about how it was the most authentic shawarma she has eaten in Canada. After going here a few times, I have to agree. The meat is perfectly juicy, and the small portion is huge, I am usually only able to eat half. The only thing I dislike is that you have to pay extra to add hummus and tzatziki, without which no shawarma is complete in my opinion!

Being a vegetarian can be challenging when dining out. Jimmy’s was very up for trying one of my strange requests.
A veggie samosa diced up into a wrap! Too good.

If your looking for an explosion of flavour. May I suggest a large Mixed (chicken and beef) shawarma. Hope you have an appetite though!!!

I had this crazy craving for falafel. I asked around and one friend told me about this place. It’s not hard to find (just off 16^th ave). It’s kinda different inside. Cramped, cluttered, but smells good. I got a couple spanakopita (good but I didn’t taste any feta) I got one chicken samosa (great flavor but my first bite was all chicken cartilage) and lastly I got a medium falafel pita. It’s HUGE! I couldn’t eat it all. Lots of fresh ingredients. Pretty salty. If I came back I’d prob go for a meat pita instead. But it did fulfill my falafel craving. No credit only debit and cash. Wasn’t exceptionally speedy service but friendly. Lots of hookah pipes for sale if you’re interested LOL!

Solid place for a chicken shawarma and Jimmy himself is quite the personality!
Warning: come with an appetite. The portions are huge. A small will leave an average person feeling quite full (although hubby gets a large — I don’t know how he does it!).
In addition to the copious amounts of meat, the shawarmas are filled with lots of veggies, including lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles and banana peppers. Also, there’s garlic sauce and hot sauce if you’re into that. It can get really messy as they are VERY generous with the amount of sauce they put in the shawarma (you’ll need lots of napkins) and the lineups can get really long.
They also have various salads, olives, samosas and baklavas for your eating pleasure.

If you want a serious, generous, flavourful shwarma, this will do the trick! It is a fun place to visit. They have a great variety of tempting (so far all good) take-​out items. The Jamaican patties are yummy and they often sell out. They have a nice selection of delicious baklava. It is great for take-​out or casual sit-​in dining. They have some fun grocery items too. Whenever I go, I pick up a few bars of the Olive Oil soap they carry. The service has been friendly and helpful.

I used to live right by Jimmy’s. If I had a guest and they wanted a quick bite, I’d always take them here. The portions are misleading — a small is sufficient for most people. I would sometimes share a large shawarma salad with a friend and we’d be stuffed.
Their baklava is made in house and delicious. Their spicy hummus is delicious.

Okay, so this place gets 5 stars because of 2 things that happened here:
1) My friend’s name is Jimmy too so he got super personal and friendly service (just for the kicks I guess).
2) Shawarma here is gigantic!
I don’t particularly like the fact that its sweet, but it still is very delicious (and BIG, HUGE for the price!!!)
The parking space is never enough, neither are the seats because so many people are always here (big lineups) but even then, this place scores big due to service & food quality.
Definitely recommended!!!

There should be a live feed to watch all the counter banter especially if Jimmy is slinging words.
The portions are huge so you better be hungry to take down a large.
I like the salad, everything in a shawarma mixed up so the flavours get busy together.
I used to bounce back and forth between chicken shawarma and donairs but now I just go for the combo.
Their garlic sauce is second to none.
The baklava is always fresh because they have lots of turn over, so you might as well round out your meal.

It has never been easier to give a place 5 stars.
Got a combo wrap which includes chicken and beef, with your choice of fresh veggies, topped with garlic sauce and/​or hot sauce (I got mine with sweet sauce just because).
I gotta say, the wrap was incredible. Meat was tender and juicy, sauce was on point, veggies were plentiful and fresh, even the pita was soft and warm. My goal now is to find a place that does donair/​shawarma wraps better than Jimmy’s, and I’m kind of hoping to eventually come to the conclusion that Jimmy’s is still the best.
The service was great if not better than the food. Staff were attentive and the manager was easygoing and upbeat. There’s also a huge selection of samosa, baklava, and cold drinks and a corner full of incense, spices, and other obscure items you can’t find at your local Wal-​Mart. My friend is using some of the spices he found here for his barbeque party and I am so excited to try it.

For all of those complaining about the mess… that’s like complaining about getting water in your eyes at the water park !
Jimmy’s A & A is my favorite place in town to get a schwarma or donair !!
Friendly staff, cool atmosphere and the best food !
they are not stingy when it comes to the amount of food per serving, they don’t weigh out your meat like all of the other shops do which i find amazing !
If youre lucky enough to see jimmy he’ll always tell you what cool things are going on around town !

Soupy, watery mess.
I have a friend that SWEARS by this place, but I went and have no idea why he raves.
My sandwich was bland, not wrapped well and there was so much sauce that I honestly just stopped eating it.
If you go: be prepared for a long line, and sub-​par food.
Sorry guys — you gotta try harder to deliver a quality product if you want my business!

I don’t get those reviews and honestly doubt their authenticity. While it is possible that some people have different preferences, this is just extreme.
The doners or shawarmas or whatever they like to call them are not authentic and have nothing to do with the real thing. They are messy and very frustrating to eat, and the portions of the different ingredients are all off. The place itself is dirty and many of the products being sold are expired or not sealed correctly.
On the bright side the staff is nice, but that’s easy to come by. Anyway I would advise you to go elsewhere. If you do enjoy their sandwiches then great, but please know that they are not authentic.

I couldn’t say that this is the best Shawarma in the city, but what I can very well say is it’s my favourite. If this situation needs some gravity added to it, well I would do terrible things, terrible unspeakable things just to get my hand on one of these delicious flavourful and fresh wraps, or even more terrible unspeakable thing if you got in the way of me enjoying them. Don’t you mess with my shawarma, man! Well that got heavy real quick, but for good reason! Have you had one of these things? The chicken is moist, flavourful, very spiced and not overly greasy. What goes into a shawarma is kind of hard to explain. All of the ingredients are the same — chicken or beef, your choice of lettuce, tomato, onion, peppers, those pickled purple dealies and your choice of hot and/​or garlic sauce (get them both! Go ahead, make your day, punk!) all wrapped up in a pita. Simple, right? But the way this tastes when put together at Jimmy’s A&A Deli is best described by Paul G.(1)‘s review of Thi Thi Subs (2) — «it’s like I just described the Eiffel tower in terms of its constituent steel beams.» The numbers going into the shawarma equation are simple, but the final output is inexplicable, relying on art and possibly wizardry to create a concoction not achievable by science alone.
The second party of this review? The people here are so lovely! It’s a family owned business and from start to finish, they make you feel like part of the family. The sign outside says «Made with Love» or some derivative of and oh heck yes it makes a difference. Is a blind taste test Jimmy’s Shawarma going to compare with another quality no name shawarma, well I damn well think so, but even if it didn’t, the people are so awesome here that the authentic friendliness and overall care they put into their business and patron is enough to make we want to shop here everyday, regardless of product.
They can sometimes get a little pushy with the samosas, but they ARE fan-​freaking-​tastic, if you get talked into one just go with it, you won’t be disappointed.
(1)

(2)

I spent most of my life in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Home of some of Canada’s historical land marks, some of the country’s première universities, the most number of pubs and tims hortons per capita, and of course DONAIRS! Over the years I have come to become a bit of a donair aficionado, whether ordering in with friends during a game, or a drunken stumble to another famous Halifax landmark, Pizza Corner.
I have tried several donair places after moving to Alberta, but none came even close to what I have come to know and love. I was telling this to a friend I went to school with at SAIT after he told me about «the best donair place he had ever been to!» just a couple blocks from the school. I went, not expecting much, until I walked into Jimmy’s A&A.
First look from the outside, you think it’s a corner store. Far from it. Walking in we were greeted with the smell of mediterranean spices and the familiar smell of donair sweet sauce. On a side note Alberta, get rid of the garlic sauce! That is not what you put on donair! Has to be sweet sauce. But I digress.
Jimmy’s had a large selection from donair, shawarma, meat pies, salads, a large selection of olives and pastries. I ordered a donair with sweet sauce, tomatoes and banana peppers, my «go to» order, and a small piece of baklava.
One thing that I notice in Alberta, is the way you sauce the donair. A squirt bottle with sauce that is spread over the meat, like how you get at subway. WRONG! lol. the meat should be tossed in the sweet sauce before being put into the pita.
Seeing the sauce being squirted on the meat left me thinking here we go again, another attempt at donair. Well that was the only strike! I got into the donair and I have to say that it is up there… the best ever? no, but close. The seasoning of the meat elevated the donair beyond my expectations. Although applied incorrectly, the sauce was delicious. And it was a hefty helping of a meal! Do not order anything bigger than a medium if you don’t want to be taking left overs home with you. The baklava was also very good. A nice small piece was a welcome treat after the savouriness of the football size donair.
I have been back to Jimmy’s twice through school, and already look forward to my next visit!