Our Story

Ottawa Samosa is primarily made up of Owais Khan and his wife Rumana who is the main chef. They have worked hard to create a company that values quality, professionalism and family. Ottawa Samosa could not exist without the support of family, and the origin of it is a family story.

Neither had expected to work in the culinary business, although Owais’s father owned an Indian restaurant called Meezan when he lived in Toronto and Rumana fostered a love for cooking by making traditional Indian food growing up, learning from her parents and in-laws and watching YouTube videos. 

Owais moved to Ottawa in 1999 for university. However, he found it difficult to find halal food in Ottawa. Instead, he used to bring home food his parents had cooked and freeze it. When he shared it with his roommates, they loved it. They would particularly obsess over his father’s beef samosas. 

Eventually, once Owais had a family of his own, his father moved to Ottawa to live with him. He taught Rumana how to make many of his recipes, stressing that she should stick to the traditional recipes.

Ottawa Samosa was developed in 2014 after Owais’ father passed away due to a complication in surgery. It had been a dream of his to open a place in Ottawa that sold incredible samosas like he used to sell in Toronto. For that reason Owais and his family felt very strongly about fulfilling it for him. 

In the beginning, the friends and family of Owais were Ottawa Samosas’ first customers. But word spread quickly and the need for a commercial kitchen became apparent. After using the commercial kitchen of a friend in Toronto for a while, Owais and his family found one to use in Ottawa at the Kanata Kash N Karry in February 2020. Currently, Owais and his family are looking for a second, larger kitchen.

Now that Ottawa Samosa has a commercial kitchen to use, the next goal is to sell to wholesale customers. Although Ottawa Samosa still caters to individual customers, products such as the Punjabi samosas would be particularly great for corner stores and small grocery shops.