877 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON
Rated this place:
Dine on Dosas in West Queen West: Life’s a carnival at Madras Panty. Except replace sticky floors and wild carnies with exposed brick walls, tasteful circus paraphernalia and steaming skillets of dosa dough. The latest project by the team behind fave resto lounges Kultura and Nyood, Madras Pantry is a refreshing new space that’s as hip as it is casual, and as original as it is simple. The simplicity of the place is achieved with its short menu consisting of Indian-style dosas, lassi and kulfi, as well as communal seating and open-air kitchen. My first impression of Madras was a good one. I was greeted by bench dwellers sipping on milky ice-cubed drinks and a vintage-looking ferris wheel turning in the window. Inside was a clean, colourful space with giant circus-themed posters (a sword swallower and two Siamese pigs steal the show) and a wall full of authentic goodies for sale. I ordered a jerk chicken dosa for $7 (including tax) and proceeded to watch the young chefs bundle my chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions and date tamarind dressing into a doughy and crispy crepe-like shell. It smelled amazing and tasted even better. The dough was a perfect texture and the chicken was remarkably lean and perfectly spiced. The food at Madras is so fresh that I recommend eating it there (or across the street in Trinity Bellwoods Park) as opposed to taking out – the cooks even warn that the doughy shell loses its crispness if it’s left too long before eating. The one major flaw in my experience was that they were out of potatoes, even by lunch time, and I’m sure my dosa could have used the missing ingredient. Apparently they’ve been running out of food on a regular basis since opening a few weeks ago, something I’m sure will be rectified as the popularity of this interesting place continues to grow. Enjoy!