Bacchus
If there's one food that Toronto should be known for it's roti. It's a mainstay of summer festivals like Pride Week and is rumoured to be in consideration as a hot dog alternative at the hoped-for new-and-improved concession stands at the SkyDome.
A long-time player on the roti scene, Parkdale based Bacchus is an understated boite that serves up tasty and cheap Guyanese and Barbadian cuisine. The specialty here is the vegetarian rotis, and the flavors are decidedly different that what can be found at spots further east along Queen such as Gandhi's or the Real Jerk.
For the veggie rotis, you get to choose from fillings such as squash, potato, green beans, chick peas and mushrooms. Since each additional veggie costs an extra buck, two items at $5.99 seems to work for me.
I've worked my way through a good portion of the menu. I'd recommend the spinach and squash combo although the curried chick peas are also a good bet. Extra fixin's such as lettuce, tomato and onions can be added on request.
The meat rotis are also worth a look although you won't find anything here that's better than the other top roti players in the city. Samosas, soups, sumptuous sweet potato fries, rice 'n' peas and a selection of desserts are also on the menu.
Bacchus, 1376 Queen St West. 416-532-8191
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Apparently Bacchus is temporarily closed for renovations
I work in Parkdale and Bacchus was actually closed for Restaurant Makeover. The reveal happened last night. I'm excited to see what changes they made.
Apparently Restaurant Makeover did not do such a great job and had to come back later and fix all the mistakes for free. It looks pretty good. I like there roti fillings but the roti shell is horrible. The curry is very good and tasty though but I prefer Ali's a few doors by landsdown/bloor because their roti shell is authentic and curry is just as good. If only you could have Ali's roti and Bacchus filling.
I've been a long time customer and have seen the prices go up and the roti size go down. Very annoying and getting too expensive to want to go back. Quality is still good. You can get a much bigger roti from Gandhi for the same or less price.
I agree that the prices have gone up and the roti sizes have gone down. I do miss the two size roti size option that Bacchus used to offer. I do enjoy Ghandi.
That being said, every so often I get a craving so strong for a Bacchus roti that I have to make the trek down to Parkdale to pick one up. Or more -- usually I get one for same day ingestion and a second one for the next day.
And really, where else can you get a roti with melted cheese?!? I don't know whether or not that's considered an "authentic" filler, but I can't say that I really care either -- it's yummy.
Might have to try Ali's in order to compare and contrast. But I suspect I'll still end up at Bacchus.