Shawarma Bros
4501 W. KL AvenueI haven’t been eating out at work much recently. Friday nights and Saturday’s after I get done working have been my regular night’s to hit up new restaurants lately.
I came in to work pretty hungry Monday night. After I dropped my son off at school, I went back to bed before I had to be in the office at 2:30 PM. I didn’t wake up until almost 1:00 so by the time I got moving, I didn’t have much time to grab something to eat.
We had a fairly simple night. We were done with what we needed to do outside of the office by about 4:00 PM. The rest of the night was going to be sitting in front of a computer which tends to make me more hungry because I just sit there and think about how hungry I am.
I finally gave in knowing it was going to be a long night if I didn’t find something to eat.
I went with a fairly new place that I’ve driven by a couple of times on my way to work.
Shawarma Bros opened up a few months ago inside The Bodega on KL Avenue just to the west of Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo’s Arcadia Neighborhood. For a long time, this place was a different liquor store but when The Bodega signs started going up, I was hopeful that it would be a true NYC style bodega and have food. It didn’t for several years but back in August, that changed. It isn’t the deli style counter service spot I was kind of hoping for but it’s still a spot with a big menu of sandwiches.
The set up of the shop is a little odd. The majority of the space looks like any other convenience store. There are coolers full of drinks and shelves full of snacks.
The restaurant portion of the business is a kitchen in the corner next to the registers. There’s a menu that hangs from the wall next to the fountain drink machine. The odd thing here is there is nowhere to place an order.
I assume most people use DoorDash like I did but if you walk in to the shop, you actually place your order at the main cash register. I guess this works pretty well if you’re ordering food and buying beer. I had to wait a few minutes while a group in front of me placed an order but didn’t really know what they wanted. Once they were done, I told the lady I had a DoorDash order. She grabbed it and I bought a couple of Pepsi’s since I was standing at the counter anyway. My order was for a Double Cheeseburger and a large order of fries. The cost was a little over $22.
I didn’t realize it when I ordered but I didn’t actually need to order the large fry. The burger came with fries. It didn’t say that anywhere on the menu or on the DoorDash selection. Therefore, I ended up with a lot of fries and that’s what I started eating on my way back to the office.
The good news is, the large fry is a lot of fries so it makes the price worth it. The fries are pretty simple, frozen, battered fries. I’ve said many times in the past these are not my favorite type of frozen restaurant fry but I will still gladly eat them when I’m hungry and I was hungry. The plastic to-go container was filled with about as many fries as you could possibly fit in there. I didn’t even have half of the container gone when I got back to the office. I ended up snacking on these fries throughout the night instead of trying to eat them all at once.
The Double Cheeseburger was a simple cheeseburger but it was also quite delicious. It’s two patties with cheese and choice of toppings. I left pretty much everything off except pickles and sauce. I have no idea what the sauce is because again, it doesn’t say anywhere what it actually is. The sandwich is a really good flattop burger. Way better than fast food. It’s the simple things that make a cheeseburger good and this one does simple really well.
As for the fries that came with this sandwich, I took those home and saved them for the next day. I made myself a steak sandwich for dinner and threw these fries in the air fryer to crisp them back up. They worked really well to extend that meal so they didn’t go to waste.
I’ve always wanted to see a restaurant in this spot on KL Avenue not too far from WMU’s campus and a ton of student housing. I’m surprised no one has ever thought of it before. Shawarma Bros is a great spot to pick up something quickly and get a tasty meal. The menu is much bigger than burger and fries so you have quite a bit to pick from. I wish they were open later in to the night being as close to campus as they are but I guess there are other spots along KL/Michigan Avenue for those late night cravings.
