Restaurants
Lahore Tikka House
I want to say something nice about the Lahore Tikka House so here it is. They have great bathrooms. Who would have thought? This unassuming spot on Gerrard Street East in Little India which has long sported a large outdoor eating area is now closed in with four walls, multiple dining rooms, clean kitchens, and the freshest smelling handsoap this side of Lush.
And I sure needed it to wash myself down after ingesting daal, aloo gobi and paneer drowning in oil. This was a definite grease attack. To be fair, I think we ordered wrong. The tables around us were filled with fresh looking plates of briyani and fish masala. In fact, the sights and sounds from our neighbours were enough for me to recommend this joint. Just stick to the meat.
Lahore Tikka House, 1365 Gerrard Street East. 416-406-1668
Photo by Jim U in the blogTO Flickr pool
Discussion
39 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
i love hanging out on the patio having a currie in the summer.
I heard the new place will have a roof top patio!
I ate there once and I was different (and as another poster commented, the service was so-so). I don't intend on going again since neighbours in the area tell me that they guy who owns the place does not always act favorably to his fellow neighbours. And from what I can tell from passing the property many times over the last few years, it appears to be true...
Its sad that Canadians fall for this crap and enjoy it because they think its "authentic."
www.LittleBombay.ca
Since opening, I have eaten there 3 times (the first time was by choice when they just opened, the other two were out of respect to my guests). I will NEVER eat there again and have refused invites from friends and family to go there, I would rather stay home. They have poor service, terrible decor and an even worse atmosphere. The last time I visited, I felt like a chicken cooped up in a cage, it was cold, dark and dingy. I could not believe people actually paid good money to eat in a place like this and that too in Toronto. I stayed out of courtesy to my aunt and cousins who were celebrating her birthday. I could write a book on how poor this establishment is, but if people want to throw away their hard earned money then it is their purgative. The funny thing is that as tourists to India we would quickly criticize and comment "typical Indian Restaurant", yet we put up with this crap right here. I am also sure that this restaurant would not survive in a middle class neighborhood in India, yet flourishes here. You have been warned.
Try the lamb seekh kebob with naan, tarka daal and biryani. All are fine and authentic.
Also across the street try 786 restauarant another fine paki restaurant and high quality food.
But Still if its for the food u guys are going for...
It rocks....overall I would give this place a 3.5/5
1.Brutal Service
2.Flimsy Paper Plates
3.Lazy Servers
4.Loud Atmosphere
5.3 inches of grease in each skillet dish
6.Garbage bags to clear tables in one fell swoop
7.Skillet grease and char flaking off into food
8.Eating in a high school portable experience
9.Generator humming in the background
This place is an environmental disaster dining experience. Gross. Would never go back.
Kindly pls, do not visit this pathetic place. Ive been coming here since 2 years on a regular basis and bringing in different guests everytime, and guess what ??? ... my patience keeps running out bit by bit on every visit. It crossed its limit yesterday when I took my West indian friend there to eat.
First and the most important point to remember is - NEVER GO THERE ON A WEEKEND. BECAUSE THEY DONT TREAT CUSTOMERS LIKE KINGS THERE ON WEEKENDS, FOOD IS JUST THROWN ON YOUR TABLE AND COLD AND ABSOLUTELY TASTELESS. REASON BEING, "THEY HAVE MANY CUSTOMERS COMING ON WEEKENDS RIGHT, THEY BELIEVE IN SERVING QUANTITY TO COVER ALL TABLES, RATHER THAN QUALITY.
Infact yesterday when we ordered Beef Kebabs, they arrived all cold and looked just as if they were taken out from the freezer and out on a grill for a few minutes. My guest was unimpressed. When we told the server regarding this he gave us an excuse which "If he was working in my office, i would have fired him on the spot". He says " Sir you ordered only 2 kebabs so they dont come on the sizzling hot platter they come in a plate and if you would have told us that you need it to be sizzling hot we would have given it to you like that."
HOW RUDE AND OUTRAGEOUS CAN THAT ANSWER BE, as a customer you are bound to serve me with hot food, and I should not be requesting you to serve me hot food, because in that case it would be better for Lahore tikka to buy a LOCK and shut down the restaurant with a PATHETIC SERVICE like that.
The servers, moreover were not interesting in serving, they were loafing around and grouping together whenever they saw some girl walk in who was attractive, now how cheap is that?
Next case, we ordered the lamb biryani which i have ben ordering since 2 years now. This time they crossed the limit. The biryani had only 5 pieces of poorly cut and minor lamb.
I was furious and burst out on the server telling him that "Firstly, the kebabs were cold, now the biryani is cold and i can see only 5 pieces of lamb in there, to which he says sir we serve only 5 pieces."
I replied back with anger on my face saying "are you lying to me outright, listen pal ive been coming here since 2 years and I have always got more than 8 to 9 pieces of lamb for a price of 10$, are you telling me you people serve only 5 pieces of lamb with some tasteless rice for $10."
He had not answer and just pretended things were in control.
My guest at this point was very upset, as she said she didnt enjoy any aspect of the food nor the place. She said she didnt expect the place to so shabby and low key, to which i had no answer. And she insisted that we leave right away.
All my appetite and my urge to have a good weekend dinner at this pathetic place was ruined. I'd rather go into a good Indian restaurant where there is class and the service is disciplined. This pakistani restaurant needs to revamp their surrounding, change their servers and hire polite people who dont bullshit you when you know exactly whats going on. OVERALL PLS DONT BULLSHIT THE BULLSHITTER, WITH YOU OVER PRICED UNDER DELICIOUS AND CHEAP QUALITY SERVICE.
FOLKS MY ADVISE, IF YOU WANT TO GO TO LAHORE TIKKA, MY HUMBLE REQUEST ... DONT GO, you would only end up being disappointed, the reason being we brown folks know exactly what the food should be like, but to the rest of the ethnicites who dine there, have no clue as to how much they are actually paying for pathetic food.
MANY THANKS
The owner should be banned from keeping the restaurant open, prices are not worth for such kind of crapy food. I brazilian and i must say i love spicy food, but no one does it better than the indians.
I have been to this place multiple times, and the experience has always been amazing food wise. But once again, stay with the "Pakistani dishes", and go with a Pakistani friend if possible :) for extra guidance.
Next, the place is outstanding. The food is very good and not expensive as others have put it. You also might want to try another restaurant on the other end of Gerard India Bazaar (same side) by name Ali Baba or something. That one too is good.
I will say however, that the sizzlers and lamb briyani are excellent. Also try the pani pouri..it's a great appetizer.
As for the kitchen, it's not surprising based on the volume of people they serve....I'm a little concerned now.
Was Pakistani food invented after partition or is it just a way of saying it is a type of cooking found in that part of former India that is now Pakistan?
P.S - If its YOUR BIRTHDAY and you ask them to sing for you, the staff come out with a `dhol`- pakistani drum and a slice of cake), and sing you a birthday song with the crowd joining in at times. SUPER FUN! if your looking for a quite and 5 star expereince go somewhere else. But if you want great food and fun come here!
Couldn't agree more. Bad food, poor service, paper plates, flimsy plastic chairs, etc.
How can anyone recommend this place?