Restaurants
Madras Pantry
Madras Pantry is certainly making an impression since opening a few weeks ago next to Noce on Queen West. The new dosa-oriented take-away has been so busy that it's repeatedly shut its doors early due to having nothing left to serve.
The first night we stopped by (an hour before official closing time) a hand-written note entreating the disappointed to come back another day was taped to the door.
Figuring that lunchtime would be a safer bet, we returned two days later to see what delicious offerings were behind all the anticipation.
Madras Pantry is the most casual offering so far from the owner of/design team behind Kultura and Nyood.
The interior design, which is apparently inspired by street markets and carnivals, is sleekly pulled together to coordinate with the re-imagined 'street food' on offer.
The walls are left exposed apart from the huge, colourful paintings of a sword swallower, Siamese twin pigs and wrestling chimeras. A miniature Ferris wheel in the window attracts attention from almost every passer-by and the shelves of dry goods for sale look more like an art installation than a retail add-on.
A single, long wooden table means communal eating for those that eat in but as we're visiting on a stiflingly hot day most customers grab their dosas and head across the street to the park.
The ordering process at Madras Pantry is kept simple: they only serve dosas, lassis and kulfi. You make your decision at the counter (the staff are very helpful if you want recommendations), receive a number and watch while your food is quickly assembled in the open kitchen.
The dosas here are decidedly non-traditional; they're cooked to order then wrapped up like a crepe for portability.
Fillings range from Szechuan Beef with cucumber dressing to Jerk Chicken with tamarind date sauce. Everything except the lassis are brought in from Kultura every morning, so closing time is effectively whatever time they run out of food.
At $6-$7 including tax, a dosa costs less than I expected, considering how sizeable they are. Finishing the whole thing is a challenge, unless you're really hungry.
I order the spinach and paneer dosa with coriander mint sauce, which is one of two new fillings on the menu. It's suitably fresh and spicy but apart from that it's surprisingly bland, though this might be because huge potato chunks comprise proportionately more of the filling than the other ingredients.
Anna-Lisa, the photographer, makes a better choice with the butter chicken with coriander mint sauce.
Though most of the filling ingredients are the same, the butter chicken component is succulent and generously distributed so overall the flavour is more varied.
We both order a lassi ($4 each), Anna-Lisa gets the mango flavour and loves it. The lychee-mint variety that I order is much sweeter, so we agree she's again made the better choice. We're too full for kulfi this time but I'll definitely stop by another time to try the pistachio.
If you're around West Queen West and in the mood for an impromptu picnic in the park then Madras Pantry is worth a visit. However, if you're planning on dinner there anytime soon then call ahead to make sure they're open or be prepared to find a back-up.
Photos by Anna-Lisa Sang
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http://www.blogto.com/toronto/the_best_dosa_in_toronto/
First time I tried to get in was for lunch and when I opened the door around ten to noon I was told they wouldn't be opening for another half hour - funny how the hours on the window said opening was at 11:30(damn Queen West!!).
Keeping an open mind, I went back last night. With all the great Indian food in this city I have no idea why anybody would go here. What makes Indian food so good is the complexity and layers of the spices; all I got here with my Masala Dosa (they were out of Spinach and Mushroom Dosas) was one layer of spice. Never in my life have I had such bland Indian food - even at those so-called buffets which saturate their food in oil. To be fair, the lassi was great!
I guess Hipsters who are too lazy or too cool to walk up to Bloor (Lansdown and/or Christie) or over to Gerrard for real Indian will probably be seen by the hoards carrying around these things in Trinity. For myself and/or anybody else who puts any value into what they eat, it is worth our while to travel the 10 minutes north to get something that actually has taste - dosa without sambar is just plain wrong.
I ate here on the first day it opened and more recently and can definitively say that it HAS gotten much better. The flavors of the Dosas have gotten much more nuanced and it really seems that it has started coming together.
This place is not a typical Indian restaurant, it is quick and easy, the Dosas do not fall apart and the experience is really close to having a sub or a burrito but much lighter and fresher. I think this is a super spot and would totally recommend it to anyone, especially if you are out for a stroll in the neighborhood and want a quick snack. The lassi is also out of this world.
I will definitely be going back again and again.
firstly the space is beautiful, and this is one of those things that really sets the tone for me in a restaurant.
had the masala dosa but no potatoes so had the cauliflower instead and spying a mango lassi on the counter i had to have one of that as well!
the masala dosa while filling,was lacking a certain something. salt and spice definitely...i was looking to bite into something that was just going to blow my mind! sadly no. but the lassi certainly made up for it!
i will be back for sure in the coming months to try out the other meat varieties but they need to really kick it up a notch
thank you charlotte for doing this review!