Our Story

While Lebanese food and products are the core of Mid-East Foods, our love for our Canadian ethnic communities has inspired us to evolve into a world of taste.

Our Story

Founded in 1971 by David and Abla Njaim, a husband and wife team who were immigrants to Canada, Mid-East Foods started out as a small Middle-Eastern specialty shop, the size of a convenience store, on the West side of Ottawa, Ontario. The Njaim couple felt it was important to stock specialty products used by new immigrants in preparing their daily meals and provided the Lebanese community with a taste of home.

David and Abla are both of Lebanese origin but actually met and later married here in Ottawa. David migrated to Canada in 1957 when he was 26 years old. Three years later, he met and married Abla who was new to the country; Abla was 19 at the time.

Our Mission

What started out as a small shop offering the community a taste of home evolved into a multinational specialty grocery store that introduces ethnic communities to a world of taste.

In 1987, Elias and Margo, son and daughter of David and Abla Njaim, teamed up to expand our offering and transformed our corner store to a specialty store with over 3000 products where you can do your groceries, grab breakfast or lunch, and place your catering order. Driven by our core values of love for the community and a wide variety of high quality products, we also dedicated 4000 square feet of kitchen space where we prepare fresh foods daily. With our commitment to freshness, we also built a farm where we grow our own Lebanese cucumbers and offer at the store year round.

Our large team of 70 employees and management staff strives to make you feel like part of the family no matter what part of the world you come from. We offer a full line of nuts and beans, cheese and olives, herbs and spices, coffees and teas, fresh specialty pastries and an old-fashioned butcher shop.

Our Life Forward

Fast forward 40 years plus… Our local communities remain at the core of everything that we do. No matter where you come from, you can count on us to find a taste of home or venture out to a world of taste. We are committed to continue growing as your needs grow and as our local communities diversify to make Ottawa a strong community.