At 750 seats, the food court in the Avalon Mall is the largest food court in the province. It was announced this week that the city approved three new franchises for the province’s biggest dinatorium:

Mr. Souvlaki

As the name implies, Mr. Souvlaki’s menu is  “full of new and classic family style Greek favourites,” like chicken or pork souvlaki plates, and Falafel Plates (all of which are served on rice with sides of Greek potatoes and Greek salad). Other dishes include pita sandwhiches, spinach pies, and a Gyros plate, “A blend of beef and lamb, slowly roasted on a vertical spit and then sliced into thin shavings, served with rice, Greek potatoes and a Greek salad.”

Mucho Burrito

As the name implies, they call themselves a “Mexican Fresh Grill,” and for a chain, their corporate copy claims to run against the quick-over-quality nature of chains. Direct website quote, “The best way to make food is Mucho good and Mucho fresh is with real food. Food free of artificial preservatives, fake flavours, and artificial fat substitutes. The Mayans never used MSG so why should we?”

Their menu breaks down into 8 broad categories: Burritos & Bowls / Quesadillas / Tacos / Taqueria Salad (salads in edible taco bowls) / Kid’s Menu / Chips and youir chocie of dip (guac, salsa, Queso cheese, etc) / Deserts / Refreshments (including Jarritos, “a little taste of Mexico in your mouth! Available in an assortment of unique flavours.”)

Pannizza

Pannizza is a custom-order pizza and pannini joint, where you pick your toppings sandwich-shop style from a deli counter (or choose from some signature options). Its creators took a road trip around North America, and “ate a lot of sad pizza, cold panninis, terrible salads [and] started taking notes.”

The notes they took asked questions like “What makes you eat that last slice of pizza? What’s the wow factor in a pannini?” Their answer to perfecting panninis came down to their shared postulation that “grilled paninis are underwhelming.” To fix that, Pannizza bakes their pannini bread fresh to order, in some kind of magical process that can do so in 2 minutes and 15 seconds.