Motimahal

Great Indian food! Quality and quantity of food is amazing! Would definitely be going there again! But I have been there before and the food this time wasn’t as great as I went last time. My fiancé did tell them the food wasn’t top notch as usual and he is a regular at Moti Mahal!

My husband and I are not from Toronto and had dosa’s for the first time, and they were sooo delicious. The crêpe was light and flakey, and the dipping sauces were pretty tasty. This place looks like fast food joint more than a restaurant, and be ready to wait cause there are a lot of people who order from this place. I would def go there again.

Came here for our last lunch before leaving Toronto. Had always heard about famous Gerrard Street so wanted to try a place from there. Ordered a lot of vegi dishes. Everything was really solid but the paneer tikkah wrap was outstanding. MIght be one of the best wraps I’ve eaten. Service was decently fast. The place is complete dive but serves really solid food. Would definitely be back.

Terrible. The only reason this place gets two instead one star is because the price was pretty good and the food was ready for pick up pretty fast. Otherwise the food is terrible. Nothing tastes like it should. Everything is loaded with salt and there were so many onions in the tikka that it pretty much all tasted like a salty gross onion. It’s a fast food McDonald’s like Indian restaurant with plastic tables and everything is already premade in a buffet type arrangement.

The food was here was only decent. Maybe it’s more authentic, but I have personally had much better Indian food in Toronto and most other places for that matter. The wait was very long, which was strange given that most of the food is prepared ahead of time. Part of the problem is that the prepared food is sitting in front and gets cold. So part of the «preparation» is one guy putting each of the food items into a *single* microwave one at a time. Yes, a microwave. Yes, one at a time. Suffice it to say, we won’t be coming back anytime soon.

For Indian Food in Toronto, go here!
My Favourite is Fish Kathi Kebob. For some reason, it is not listed on their price board. The Vegetarian in my family love the Paneer Kathi Kebob.
In addition, I love — Chana Bhatura, Raj Kachori, Chicken and Goat Kebobs, Pudina Parantha, Pani Puri, Chat Papri, Dhahi Bhalla, Rasmalai, All Mithai… basically everything.
Best North Indian food outside Brampton and Mississauga. Décor is not great, Indian music blares from TV but I enjoy watching it.

When I eat here I usually get the goat curry. Done very well with lots of bones and meat. The serving is quite large for the price. You get a large bowl filled to the top, you have to be careful not to spill it when they call your order. Get some pipping hot naan to go with it and your all set for a great meal. This place is almost like a Indian version of Mc Donald’s. They have a lot of stuff on their menu and everything is done relatively quick. Lots of booth seating. This place has been there forever. You have to eat here if your in Little India.

I would give this place a higher rating but their service is annoying and frustrating. They get your order wrong, are inconsistent and outright rude. Still the best chicken biryani I ever had though

It took me a while to get to this place. I live far away from Little India, and had an impulse craving for something different. After a quick online check of what’s in the area I decided on something that sounded authentic. After a 45min rainy commute I hop off the streetcar amongst the jewelry shops and flamboyant dress stores that make up this part of town.
This restaurant has an insanely gaudy neon light fixture out front. I think I like it. It lets me know where to take anchor in the dense fog of hunger in which I find myself. Upon entering I realize this is not your high-​brow upscale establishment, but that’s beside the point. I’m here for the food, and from the way things look, it’s going to be affordable. And it is.
On the right wall there are pictures of many different dishes that I presume are Indian in origin. I have no idea because I am blissfully uneducated in Asian food. The menu above the back counter lists many chicken, vegetarian, and combo dishes. I am equally at a loss here, not knowing what any of this stuff is. I ask the guy behind the counter what he recommends. He says the dinner combo. I say Ok! This consists of my choice of 1 meat portion and 3 veggie portions and it will be about 15 minutes. I order a bottle of Labatt while I’m waiting.
I walk back to the seating area to drink up and pass a bizarre assortment of deserts behind a glass counter. Lots of different colours, and a bin of what resemble burnt cashews. I’ll bet those taste great (no sarcasm! really!). The seats and tables are made of plastic. That kind of plastic that a kid’s backyard furniture might be made of. I plop down on one of the benches and the table nearly falls off its pedestal. Oh yes, I’ve come to the right place. Sitting there waiting for my order, I leaf through the menu between glances of hooded, rain-​soaked pedestrians through the bright neon-​framed windows. The music is what the Top 40 must be in India right now or maybe the best of ’95. It makes me feel like a white curry-​eating gangster. The best part was when the music skipped, became distorted while skipping, and eventually stopped altogether. The realness was almost too much.
I go back to the counter to give back my empty and the guy has a plate just for me ready to go. What great timing! I just have to chose my meat and vegetable options from the trays behind the counter. That being the case, why did I have to wait 15 minutes for the order? Oh well. I pick the chicken curry, spinach paste, and lentils. Walking to the utensil stand I see nothing but spoons. How am I going to eat chunks of chicken without a fork?
Seated once again I begin devouring the many delectable flavours before me. Sometimes this is awkward with only a spoon. Everything is great. I could not stop ripping apart the naan and dipping it into the chicken’s curry bath. The chicken was extra tender by the way. The vegetables on the top right of the plate consisted of onions, cucumber, and pickled… something, covered in a delicious green slime. I found myself dipping the naan into this green slime as well. Great stuff indeed.
My conclusion and summary of Motimahal is that this is not a white-​collar dining establishment where you are to wait to be seated. Nor are you expected to wear dress shoes and a jacket. I hesitate to use the term ‘fast food’ because fast food implies that the food is garbage, and that couldn’t be further from the truth here. This is affordable, authentic Indian food. Maybe even the best I’ve ever had. I will be back because there is so much left on that menu waiting to be demolished while listening to the best skipping rap tracks this side of Mumbai.

Disappointed!
I ordered a delivery which was punctual. The delivery guy was very pleasant. I ordered butter chicken, saag paneer, bhindi and a vegetable biryani.
The butter chicken sauce was great (which is why I have given two stars and not one). HOWEVER, the chicken itself was bony and possibly the cheapest cut of meat I have ever had. I think I managed to get about an ounce of meat off the entire dish.
Saag Paneer was tasty enough but watery.
Bhindi wasn’t bad but nothing to write home about.
Biryani was mediocre.
I also ordered some lhassi’s which were nice.
Flavours were great but portion size and quality of ingredients were poor.

Ordered from them for the first time tonight. Delivered in less than an hour, I was quite happy to get something new. I was highly impressed. Goat Karahi, Pulao Rice, Butter Chicken and Alu Jeera so far. Impressed.
I chase Indian food all around the world. It’s normal to be in a horrible location and get stupendous food. An excellent place only charges more for what could be terrible food. I’ve learned that I should never judge an Indian resto from its environment.
I will be ordering from them in the future.

The place isn’t much to look at, and you have to stand in line to order, but not sad: DELICIOUS chana bhatura and chaat papri, especially for the price, and as many others have mentioned, WAY better than Lahore Tikka. I feel like the thalis and butter chicken have already gotten a lot of love so let me give a shout out to the veggie dishes. If you’ve never tried it, chana bhatura is chickpeas (chana) served with the most amazing deep-​fried naan/​bread thing (bhatura), with a little bit of curried potato and pickled carrot. It’s a huge amount of food that is absolutely full of flavour!
We also ordered a dozen veggie samosas to-​go for a get together later in the evening. They were a little greasy when they were fresh, but after a few hours and crisped in the over, they were perfect! The outside was super flaky, the inside was flavorful, and the tamarind chutney was spicier than most I’ve had before — yum! Everyone else that tasted them was equally impressed!

5 stars for being the best butter chicken I have had on Gerrard! Much, much better than lahore tikka house for LESS MONEY.
The butter chicken has a good level of heat, your nose will run but it doesn’t overpower all the other flavours. I think they make it to order, to some degree, because it isn’t on their hot plates & usually takes about 10 minutes. The chicken has always been tender and juicy. The naan is great! They give you nice big pieces.
The large ($ 20), with 4 orders of naan ($ 1.50/each) filled 4 people for about $ 30. Awesome.
The samoas’s (chicken $ 1.50, vegetarian $ 0.80) are also delicious.

Don’t come here if you don’t like spicy hot. Everything pre-​prepared is medium spicy so we asked for Panneer Tikka and Butter Chicken made special in the back mild by request. We waited longer especially for this. But when we tasted they were both super hot spicy. Nice staff, but sorry not coming back.

It’s been a couple years since I’ve been here, and having stopped in here for lunch one day this week, I am very sad to say I was not as impressed. I ordered the same masala dosa as I had previously and was shocked to see how very little filling was in it. On the plus side, it tasted okay, but the sides accompanying it were limited. Also it was under $ 8 for my lunch, so it wasn’t that I spent a fortune. Still, I remember it being much better before.

Motimahal is by far the best place in the city where you can get a no frills, cheap and fast Indian meal.
Every time I come here it’s a must that I order a Thali plate and Masala dosa. I then rotate between their amazing Kababs or their tandoori chicken and even when I order all of the above I never walk out of there spending over $ 30.

I like three item in this restaurant… Dal Makhani. which is lentils with butter and species, malai kofta… and butter chicken. just amazing… must try if you go there.
you can have this with naan or other indian bread…

This place has solid good Indian food for a great price. Very authentic, unlike crappy Lahore Tikka House down the road. The ambience here is tacky and uncomfortable (it sucks quite honestly, but I gies that’s why we’re paying this price). Whenever we’re craving good Indian food these days, we head here. I always get 1 – 2 dishes to go as well, since it’s really good value for money. Making it at home will probably cost me around the same amount.
Meat samosas are good, butter chicken, kadhai chicken, chicken tikka masala, biryani… everything we’ve ever tried really. Naan is good too. Head here for delicious reasonable food, but don’t expect a fancy place. The guy who takes the order at the cash is a little confused always.
We actually ordered samosas and biryani for a pre-​wedding family dinner from here, and people loved it. It was so reasonable and good. Highly recommend this place. I have a terrible dislike of Lahore Tikka House with its non-​authentic, re-​fried, over-​priced crap. I’d come here and deal with ambience issues any day for the delicious food.

I’d do Motimahal again for take out, but the dine in option is just so busy and cramped. The food is fabulous that Bathura is light and flaky– perfect for sopping up some spicy Channa Masala. Samosas are perfect and the Thali option is fab if you want to try a bit of everything. The butter chicken is delicious, too.
Prices are cheaper than most other places on the street, but the environment sort of kills it for me. For take out: 4 stars. Dine in: 3.

2.5 star
This review is based on desserts at Motimahal. and on dessert only. So it might sounded unfair. as we ate at 2 Indian restaurants for the evening and this is the last one that we decide to go for dessert.
Gulab Jamun, Kalakand and Kuifi not bad. but I have better…
Specially the Kuifi. the one at Lahore Tikka is a lot better.
Seatings definitely is special. but one good thing is this place is not too smokey and You won’t smell like food when you get home!