North Restaurant- Shomal

very good food for family i recommend to go there for dinner. nice Persian food

Good appetizers, kababs were ok. We drove a long way to come here. I had the kabab torsh (what I came for) and it was good. The koobideh was also ok. The Barg however was nasty. Small thick cuts of meat (looked more like chenjeh and tasted more like liver). And had a weird unpleasant scent. The waitress completely disregarded that we ate everything but literally didn’t touch the barg. I wasn’t looking for a discount or anything. But it would have been nice for her to make that obvious observation and pretend to care why someone hasn’t touched their food for the sake of improving their restaurant. Great service! NOT. Won’t be going back.

We wanted to try something new! Service was surprisingly very pleasant, as our server was very helpful with the menu.
Food portions are huge, especially for lunch. I also felt that my meal was somewhat cold compared to my boyfriend’s meal. The chicken was made well, the salad ($ 2 extra) was nothing too spectacular but the bread was really good and sadly got us full from the start. Overall, it is a bit pricey for our liking but we enjoyed it.

Came for dinner with some friends. Let’s start off with the appetizers. The appetizers was good no complaints. I enjoyed the bread they serve you, very delicious. I have no bad things to say about the appetizers. The main entrée was not good at all. For a 15 $ kabab plate, it tasted horrible. I have tasted a lot of Persian food in North York and this has probably have been the worst. Very bland, rice was not tasty. I did not like my dinner experience. Other than that, service was decent. I don’t see myself coming back here.

Classic inconsistent Persian restaurant.
Some days it’s horrible. Some days it’s great.
Something is up with Persian restaurant service. What’s with the attitude?
On the good days, food is good. No complaints.
Just hope you get the good day and not an evil waiter/​waitress.

Amazing food!!! I am soo glad this was the place I had experienced Persian food. Service however, not the greatest. Very average to below. If you are a foodie, do give it a try though.

I’ve been here twice. People have promoted this place excessively. It’s alright at best. The food is good and filling, but the service is hurting. There’s an air of pride in the wait staff that’s hard to describe. The meals take too long to prepare. The venue is a little cheesy. Prices are high. I walked out with a feeling of ‘meh’. I’ll go back to this place if my friends are going, but otherwise, I don’t expect a third visit.

Dinner with some Persian Friends:
Food, service, value, ambience: 3.5÷5
Food was tasty, no complaints.
Repeat: Can see ourselves visiting again.

First time I ate here was many years ago and every couple of years i decide to give it another shot. And every couple of years i get disappointed. Food is good but my god the service is atrocious. And this goes back at least 6 years. Too bad

The place is in the back corner of a plaza and has three different signs that say «North» — I guess each sign shows their growth. The service is great and the server explained each dish and answered all our questions. The food was great but we were full from just the appetizer! Will definitely come back. BTW, the yogurt drink is awesome.

I’ve been a loyal customer ever since they opened. There has not been a single time that I was slightly unhappy about the food or service here. My favourite dish is Kabab Torsh, which is sour, mouthwatering and very juicy. I always get the Yogurt drink and sit on the patio, which is decorated gorgeously. There’s great Persian music playing in the patio and you can easily carry out a conversation at normal voice level. The waitresses are polite and cater to the customers in a way any good restaurant should.

The food was good. The restaurant has a great atmosphere. I ordered the kabob torsh. This was the first time I tried it and it wasn’t bad. If you are not into trying new dishes then I would say just order chicken. You can’t go wrong.
Only area of improvement would be that the service wasn’t great.
Overall a great place.

I really do enjoy the food here and the wide range of options they have on their menu but didn’t have such a great experience last time I came here.
First, my friend and I waited close to ten minutes before being seated and watched as several waiters and waitresses danced by, glancing over but not bothering to seat us. There were LOTS of empty tables, the restaurant was not busy yet. We had to ask one of them if we could be seated and she told us that someone was coming. Waited another couple of minutes. Finally someone took us to a table.
We started off with“Mast Chekideh”, a thick, drained yogurt as an appetizer. I absolutely love this: it’s so creamy, heavy, delicious with a dash of salt on it, scooped with Iranian bread.
They didn’t have a lot of items advertised on their menu available and I’m not sure why. It was a Saturday. I asked for two different things and was told they don’t have it until I finally ended up ordering Chicken Barg. It was tasty as usual but I was disappointed that they were missing so many menu items that are commonly ordered.
Another strange thing that happened: when we first got seated one of the plates on our table was dirty so the waitress switched it out for another clean one from a neighbouring table but instead of taking the dirty plate back with her, she left it on the other table… kinda gross.
I will probably be back because I do really enjoy the food but service could be way better.

If I were writing this review after my first time here, this would be a 4. Came here over the weekend and it was simply not the same as my first visit.
Pros:
Décor is very nice
Free bread
Cons:
Orders came in wrong
Long wait time for food
Booth near the entrance is horrible
We came on a Saturday night. Although it was busy, the restaurant is very big and we got our seats pretty quickly. They gave us the seat near the door opposite the table where they keep the menus. The problem is the table bangs into the seat whenever the servers drop the menus on the table. It’s like being on a place and the person behind you kicks the seat. It gives you a bit of a jolt. We told one of the servers but it’s a force of habit for all the servers to just plop the menus down real quickly. They’re not doing it on purpose, but I can’t keep telling every single one of them all the time. I just gave up and endured it for the most part.
We ordered the koobideh kabob dinner and the lamb shank dinner. I also ordered a side of roasted potatoes. We actually tried to choose vegetable side dishes first but the waiter told us there were none. We settle on the roasted potatoes and were brought mashed potatoes. The wait time for the food was pretty bad. Something like 20 minutes. They came out and told us there would be a delay. However, everyone else coming in later than us got their food before us.
The koobideh was pretty good. I had that the first time here as well. They consistently do that very well. The lamb shank though could of been a lot better. First, it was way overdone. Any part without fat was hard as rubber. It was also very salty. I’ve had way better lamb shank at Persian supermarkets for half the price. At the very least you get some bread that resembles naan bread for free.
I love Persian food, but my experience here left me a little disappointed. I might come back again. but not anytime soon. Just don’t sit at the booth right by the entrance.

Service is terrible here and food is just OK, you can have much much better Iranian food in Toronto.
My plate was a mess like I had 3 different pieces of Koobide from others leftovers! I asked the waiteress to change my Koobideh, she brought back an icy cold Koonideh like it was right from the fridge!!! I told the manager what happened she took the plate and brought me back my food heated in microwave!!!

It was difficult to find at first, I was looking for the full name but it’s just North. The décor inside is really nice — used to cheap and good Persian place just down the street on yonge, it’s definitely not what I’m used to. From the raving reviews from fellow Unilocalers and some Persian friends, I finally decided to give the place a try.
Maybe I’m spoiled by tadeg down the street on yonge and finch, I found north quite over-​priced. 32 $ for a chicken and veal combo with rice… The option for half rice and half salad is nice. Girl needs her vegetables other than the dinky tomato they give.
I was expecting mind blowing food based on the price they charge but I wasn’t tooo knocked off my feet. For 32 $ I could’ve went to all you can eat sushi or feed myself 3 times from tadeg. I’m wouldn’t mind spending the dough if I see value in what I’m getting — but not here.

Came here for dinner tonight. It was relatively busy and got busier as the night progressed.
We ordered the yogourt appetizer and the warm eggplant appetizer (they do have names but I don’t remember what they’re called not would I know how to pronounce it).
The yogourt was thick and creamy but plain. I should’ve got the yogourt with spinach and/​or garlic, but I wanted to try something different.
The eggplant was two whole eggplants stuffed with a sweet walnut paste and grilled. It was a bit too sweet for my taste but went perfectly with the bland yogourt!
We then ordered the barg dinner (veal tenderloin) which was really really tender, and the chicken breast dinner, which my husband enjoyed more than I did.
We didn’t stay for the live music, perhaps next time ;)

The best kabob Torsh I’ve ever had! Great quality meat. Lots of flavour!
They bring out hot bread.
Large portions!
The wait staff is not always so attentive. But is pleasant.
Appetizers are a must try also delicious!
Overall a great experience and a nice place to bring visitors that want Iranian food.

Food is great, but the service is quite slow…
Monday’s dinner appointment was necessary to review this place again!
I’ve been coming to this place for a while, its among the more popular places for Persian/​North Iranian dishes! interior is beauitfully constructed, almost feels like you’re at one of those cultural pavillons at Epcot Center in Orlando lol… the patio and ambience is gorgeous! you definitely feel like you’re in a different place!
for starters: ⁴⁄₅
we had their Mirzaghasemi: a medley of bbq’d eggplants, egg, garlic and local spices! this is served with pita, and its definitely perfect balance of flavors! im a big fan of eggplant. lol…
Entrée:
Koobideh: 4.5÷5
Served with long grained flavorful basmati rice! it was so delish! oh and of course their 2 ground beef skewers was a joy of flavors to experience! Their portions were generous, so generous i had to take ONE skewer home… too much meat for a meatarian like myself.********also sidenote, you should try their Sultani: skewer of ground beef, and beef tenderloin… its their popular item as well.
Dessert…sorry I couldn’t fit anymore food in me! lol… next time!

A few weekends ago, the weather was beginning to change, and on this sunny Sunday my friends and I decided we wanted to go «North» and visit Persian Cottage Country. Now, while a flight to Iran for brunch on a Sunday would have been ideal, financially/​logistically it just didn’t make sense (at all).
So traveling «Shomal» on Yonge we ended up on the GTA side of Steeles (yes that would be the Shomal/​North side), we did the next best thing to traveling abroad for Iranian food — we visited the motherland in our own backyard.
Unilocalers have highlighted the beautiful interior of this restaurant before, but I felt it necessary to point out that after speaking to our server (and my close friend whom I was dining with) I learned that the murals on the walls, the replica villa set up, and the patio-​esque seating areas are all set up in a way to give you the feeling that you are dining in the Northern area of Iran (similar to our Cottage Country).
Ohhhhh Yesssssssss… Now the name makes sense, Yes? North Iran? North? Shomal?
Once seated I left my DC’s and went a walk about, chatting with staff, asking questions and taking pics (it’s what I do). The coolest experience was talking to the guy whose sole job is making the naan style bread in a giant tandoor-​style oven (the Iranian names for both escape me at the moment — apologies). He showed me the process on how they roll the dough, place it on a moist soft bag and slap it to the wall of the oven. I got to send one that I «helped make» back to my table with pride!
The brunch/​lunch we shared was epic, my first experience with «good» persian style cuisine and I was thrilled (and stuffed)!
To begin we shared an appetizer of:
Kashke Bademian — Mashed Fried Eggplant topped with Fried Garlic, Onion, Mint & Whey.
Served with the bread to scoop it, there a distinctive Blue cheese flavour that I loved! This was heavy but an amazing dish!
To follow we shared in entrees of:
Sultani (which was similar to a skewered BBQ meat) very moist and full of flavour AND an order of Kabob koobideh, which is essentially a seasoned ground beef affixed to a long metal skewer for cooking. I’ve had Koobideh several times before in Windsor, London, and a few spots in Richmond Hill but I must say this was the best flavour and most moist I’ve ever had.
Lunch came to $ 58 + tip for three people, which I found to be very reasonable! Although service seems to be the one thing that people gripe about, I didn’t notice it to be too far off other places, so I won’t deduct major points for that (perhaps we got a good one).
As the Irani population in my hometown of Richmond Hill grows, so to does my love of their culture, their people and most importantly their food! I’m excited to coerce my friends who brought me here to organize another meal here in the very near future (if you’re reading this let’s make plans to visit ASAP).
Irani Eatcrest Out!