A guide to South Asian food in Toronto
Toronto has one of the largest South Asian populations of any city outside the subcontinent, and its restaurants reflect how varied that community is. The city has Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil (from both India and Sri Lanka), Bengali, Goan, Pakistani, Nepali and Tibetan cooking, and a long-established Indo-Chinese Hakka scene that you won't find at this scale anywhere else in North America.
Our Toronto listings cover the city and the neighbouring areas people routinely eat in: North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, York and nearby Mississauga. Suburban Brampton has its own Brampton guide.
Neighbourhoods to know
- Queen Street West and Dundas Street West. Downtown's west end has become the centre of Toronto's modern Indian dining. It's full of restaurants with cocktail lists, small plates and fusion menus. Kalyug on Dundas West pairs Indian and Hakka dishes with a cocktail bar, MOBA is a few doors along, and Karahi Boys and Desi Bar & Grill are on Queen West.
- College Street and Little Italy. Some of the city's highest-rated Indian restaurants sit here, including Aangan and Indian Cookhouse.
- Gerrard India Bazaar. The stretch of Gerrard Street East around Coxwell Avenue is Toronto's oldest South Asian shopping street, dating to the 1970s. It is the place for sweets, paan, street-side corn and a walk on a summer evening.
- Parkdale. Toronto's Tibetan community is centred here, and it is the best part of the city for momos. You'll find Tibetan and Nepali dumplings across the city too: around eleven of our Toronto listings serve them.
- Scarborough. The east end is the heart of Toronto's Tamil community, and the place to go for Sri Lankan hoppers, kothu roti and South Indian meals.
Toronto specialities
Hakka (Indo-Chinese). Toronto's Hakka food traces back to the Chinese community of Kolkata, many of whom moved to Toronto from the 1970s onward. Chilli chicken, "Manchurian" dishes, hot garlic sauce and Hakka noodles are the staples. Angara downtown and Mumbai 74 both serve Indian and Hakka menus side by side.
Modern Indian and cocktails. More than forty of our Toronto listings are noted for their cocktails, far more than any other city we cover. Places like Leela Indian Food Bar, which serves tapas-style plates, reflect a newer generation of restaurants mixing Indian flavours with a bar-first setting.
Street food. on Queen Street East and on Bond Street take their menus from the street food of Delhi: chole bhature, kathi rolls, momos and chaat.