Posted by Some old, some new. Here are our thoughts on the takeout we enjoyed this last month. Check out our previous thoughts here!
The Kebap
Ok, if you’ve ever visited The Kebap, you know exactly what we’re going to say. This easily-overlooked eatery serves essentially one dish: doner kebab sandwiches. (Not to be confused with donair and not be be confused with souvlaki-style “kebabs”.) Doner kebab is lamb and beef cooked on a vertical spit and shaved off as it cooks. This ultra-tender and flavourful meat is then served on Turkish bread with spicy sauce, tzatziki, and onions and herbs, resulting in what might just be Nanaimo’s best sandwich.
Worth going out of your way for. 
Possibly our favourite sandwich. Ever.
Ups
The flavour is incomparable. Once you have the beef and lamb sandwich, your life will change. Count on it. It’s also a huge plus that the owner himself prepares and serves the food. This fellow works with an old-fashioned cordiality that frankly doesn’t exist anywhere else in town. On top of that, while the storefront is somewhat hidden, it’s only a few steps from Departure Bay beach. Thus on a nice day, you can grab your food to go and have a lovely seaside picnic.
Downs
You could argue that there isn’t much selection to choose from on the menu. You can have a sandwich or a wrap. You can have beef and lamb or chicken. That’s pretty much it. However, as we mentioned before, one you have the beef and lamb sandwich your life will change and you won’t even see the rest of the menu ever again.
Opening hours can also be tricky. The restaurant appears to be a one-man operation so it’s not always open when we want it to be. *coughSundayscough*
Conclusion
We love it. It’s one of our favourite places to eat, nailing the food, pleasant service and great location, with fair prices too. We only wish ot was open every day. Maybe we’ll see you down there!
The Wheatsheaf Pub
We heard through the grapevine that Cedar’s Wheatsheaf Pub was home to exceptional pizza, so we decided to check it out. Full disclosure, we actually ate in for this meal, but we expect the takeout experience would be roughly the same.
BBQ Chicken was the right call on this hot Summer night. 
Gotta get them parms and chilies on there.
Ups
We can confirm that the pizza was good. It did not quite live up to the hype we’d seen but was overall still worth having. The crust was the right mix of chewy and crispy and was sturdy enough to hold the ample toppings. The BBQ sauce used was unremarkable (perhaps store-bought?) but the addition of a bit of feta was a nice touch. Ample cheese was melted over all of it, and perfectly browned. The price of a medium was $18, which we thought was quite reasonable.
Downs
Being in Cedar, some in Nanaimo might find it a bit far to go for merely good pizza. While there is a full pub menu in addition to the pizza offerings, we found the options to be somewhat uninspired overall. Nothing really jumps off the page to set this pub apart from any other.
Conclusion
We found the Wheatsheaf to be good overall. If you are in Cedar, then this is an easy choice for pizza and pub grub. For those of us coming from town, there may be equal or better options closer to home.
LaBelle (Parksville)
We spotted LaBelle on a drive to the beach and decided to check it out. We caught them during their soft-opening period but their key items were on the menu and ready to go. LaBelle offers Quebec-style menu items like Montreal poutine and “steamies” – steamed hot dogs covered in onions and slaw. We had both. 🙂
Not shown: umbrellas which made parking lot eating tolerable. 
Montreal-style poutine. 
Folks from back east will enjoy their steamies.
Ups
The first thing that jumped out to us was the very reasonable price of $1.99 for a steamie. These aren’t massive Costco dogs by any stretch, but they are delicious, and quite different (with the slaw) than most other hot dogs around town. Two of these would be a great lunch… for $4. Nice. It also helps that they are quite good – super soft meat and bun and the mustard/onion/slaw toppings were punchy and great. (Though not so for your breath.)
We also want to give a shout out for the service. We were welcomed into the restaurant, the menu was briefly explained to us, and we were ushered to the ordering counter. Great. We also witnessed what appeared to be great leadership and teamwork on display as the young trainees put our order together under instruction of the boss(es).
Downs
As good value as the steamies were, the poutine was the opposite. Granted, the poutine was large and tasted good (see details in our feature here), but that $10.99 price tag was a bit hard to swallow.
The menu at LaBelle was also quite limited during our visit, but given they were just getting started, we’ll give them a pass on this.
Conclusion
We liked our meal at LaBelle. We expect that over time the prices will even out (watch for the steamie price to go up and the poutine price to go down). We are also looking forward to trying some of the new menu items as their operation ramps up. They teased that their famous burger was “coming”, and is likely available now. It’s worth checking out as you pass by!