Ottawa has turned its love of shawarma into a world record, after thousands gathered in the ByWard Market to watch a 350-metre line of wraps stretch through the city’s second annual Shawarma Festival.
The Canadian capital, already known locally as the “Shawarma Capital of Canada,” broke the Guinness World Record for the longest shawarma on Sunday, June 7, with organizers assembling 2,451 wraps in a single line. The achievement came during Ottawa’s 200th anniversary year, giving the city a food-filled moment of civic pride that mixed culture, competition and charity.
The record attempt was held during Shawarma Fest 2026, a one-day celebration in the ByWard Market featuring restaurants, performers, DJs and crowds of residents who packed York Street for one of the city’s most distinctive public events of the year.
Ottawa beats the previous shawarma record
The previous record was set in London, Ontario, in 2019, when 2,287 shawarmas were lined up. Ottawa surpassed that mark with 2,451 wraps, creating a roughly 350-metre stretch of shawarma that drew spectators through the market area.
The event was created by Moe Mosalam and overseen by an official Guinness World Records adjudicator, who confirmed the record attempt. For Ottawa, the win carried a little extra meaning. City councillors formally recognized Ottawa as the “Shawarma Capital of Canada” in 2024, a title supported by the city’s unusually high concentration of shawarma restaurants and the dish’s deep place in local food culture.
Restaurants from across Canada joined the festival, including Montreal-based Boustan, Toronto’s Tut’s Egyptian Street Food and Ottawa’s Shawarma Palace. A blind tasting competition judged by a seven-person panel named Boustan the top shawarma of the event, with Ottawa’s Three Brothers and Shawarma Palace finishing second and third.
The festival also featured a performance from Xav Trudeau, the eldest son of former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, adding another crowd-friendly moment to an event already built around music, food and public celebration.
The record also became a charity meal drive
The record-breaking shawarmas were not wasted after the celebration. Organizers donated the wraps to Shepherds of Good Hope, an Ottawa non-profit that supports people experiencing homelessness and people in crisis across the city.
The donation was expected to provide about 2,000 meals across Ottawa. Shepherds of Good Hope describes its wider mission as providing housing, crisis support and community services for vulnerable residents, and the shawarma donation turned the public festival into a direct food support effort for people who needed it most.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe praised the festival’s success, saying York Street was packed with people enjoying food and entertainment. The scale of the turnout reflected how strongly shawarma has become tied to the city’s identity, from late-night takeout counters to family-run restaurants and national chains.
For a city marking its bicentennial, the record offered a playful but telling snapshot of modern Ottawa: multicultural, food-loving and eager to turn a local obsession into something big enough for the world record books.
Make Swikblog your go-to source on Google for reliable updates, smart insights, and daily trends.
