Review The Host - Richmond Hill

Good food, good ambiance. Great location. We were a group of 30 people, we enjoyed their Sunday buffet. Staff was really welcoming. It can accommodate smaller to larger group. Perfect spot for get together. Will not mind going again!

It was the first visit to this establishment! The restaurant is well-lit and well-decorated and absolutely has the capacity to engage its customers all the time in its elegance, ambience, and music while their having their food. The only reason for my awarding 4 out of 5 stars is the question mark raised on the cleanliness of one of the glasses the server brought to the table at around 1:15 PM on Thursday, April 5, which was soon replaced with a clean one. Otherwise, the experience was great! Thank you, The Host!

One of my favourite spots for Indian food. Food is always tasty, the atmosphere is great and the service is top notch. Highly recommend trying the lunch time buffet. Absolutely love the freshly baked naan served here. A+

I ordered from here through UberEats. I was very disappointed with the experience. Overall the food was not good. The food was cold and not even room temperature. The chicken 65 and gobi manchurian were were not cooked well. I ordered lamb roganjosh, chicken labadbar and kathal masaledar was not flavourful. The lamb and chicken curry was very oily. The bindaas chicken biryani didn't even taste like biryani. The naan was also undercooked.

The host is a nice Indian restaurant in the Richmond Hill area. I have been there a lot of time, but mostly used to go for buffet. This time it was ala carte menu and to my surprise the food was really good. The buffet is also good, but ala carte food tastes better. Everything we ordered was so nice and perfectly cooked. The staff are nice and the suggestion given to us about the food was bang on. Definitely recommend for anyone looking for Indian restaurants nearby. Ambiance is good and feels like the era of maharajas . Parking can be a pain in some time. The parking space in front is not enough.

Loved the ambiance. Excellent and authentic Indian food. Quality and quantity were satisfactory. Loved the presentation and service. If you like Indian food, go there. You will not be disappointed. I ordered ala carte, can’t speak of their buffet though.

It's been years since we've been here. Blame the kids for being picky... The food was and still is amazing. Service is great. Can't wait until we can leave the kids at home again so we can go back to our favorite restaurants.

I really liked my experience at the Host restaurant 😍, The waiters and waitress were so friendly, polite and welcoming, Interior is very beautiful and you can listen to a nice Indian music while you enjoy your eating, And the best part was all food, appetizers and desserts we ordered, I enjoyed everything I tried. The lamb was very tasty and well marinated, the Mango Lassi was so delicious, Butter Chicken was great and you feel being in the Heaven with those sweet delicious desserts 😋😋

Bland taste .. simply overhyped :((

Tried both the downtown and Richmond Hill location and we loved them both!<br/>We were served a papad roll while waiting for our order to arrive. Service was excellent. After our appetizer plates were taken away, a couple of servers came to provide us with warm plates which they placed on the table using linen napkins instead of bare hands. Then, the dishes were served, again, by a couple of servers so that it all came at once.<br/><br/>We figured we would stick to more well-known, traditional dishes. We got the Tandoori Chicken which was a half chicken, bone-in, marinated in yogurt and tandoori sauce and roasted in a clay oven. It was flavourful but was a bit on the dry side. <br/><br/>We also ordered the Lamb Roganjosh which was boneless and slow cooked with yogurt and traitional warm spices. <br/><br/>While the Roganjosh was good, the hands-down winner for the fam was their special Butter Chicken. It was less creamy and spicy compared to the regular Butter Chicken we are familiar with. It was hearty, with the right balance of sweet and spicy and curry.<br/><br/>We didn’t get basmati rice but we did get an order each of Roti (Tandoori baked wheat bread) which was perfect for picking up the meat and wiping out the sauce from our plates. <br/><br/>Our mango lassi was also perfect, cutting through the strong flavours of the Roganjosh and Butter Chicken. A couple of sips in between the dishes got our tongues ready to take some more of the spice. What a delightful counterplay. <br/><br/>For dessert, we had the traditional Gulab Jamun which are spongy milky balls soaked in rose scented syrup. It was soft and just had the right amount of sweetness. <br/><br/>We also had Kheer which is a rice pudding topped with pistachios. It was very refreshing and a perfect palate cleanser. <br/><br/>Happy to say that the girls thoroughly enjoyed this meal!!

I always have a lot of expectations with indian restaurants. Every restaurant has its own version/flavour of food and this makes them different from others. I ordered tandoori momos which was different and nice and chutney served with it was great. But panner tawa masala was not that worthy and tasted ordinary. Decor is rustic indian and has party hall too. They seem to have decent buffet spread so may have to try that in future to see if my views change!

Been only to the Markham location, though they have a more famous cousin in downtown Toronto. Went twice - the first time with a group of first timers and came back disappointed 2/5 .. Honestly, wasn't very excited when my local hosts (who are long time patrons) suggested this place, but went along to be polite really ;)<br/>Going by the second times experience, I guess the feeling is you need to know what's good and order that. Recency effect leads me to assign a higher rating!!

my first time here was years ago and it was not very good however, my best friend had said they had changed chef and it is a must try. Sure enough, she was right! All th dishes were delicious and it came out piping hot. The murg mitch tikka (green chicken) was moist and tender. The butter chicken was also tasty and very rich and creamy. Love it with all the sauce on the rice or on the naan. Also tried the kofta ...veggie balls. A bit on the spicy side but loved it too!!! Service was great and kept filling the water for us. Highly recommend this place if you want Indian food in Richmond Hill!

I've had a LOT of Indian all across the GTA and went to The Host on a very high recommendation from a co-worker. I have to say that while it was good, very good actually, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It was really not that far apart from anywhere else I've had and given the modest hype, I kind of expected it would have somehow stood apart.

A favourite in our family. Try to make it for the lunch buffet, fair amount of options, fresh, restocked, and better value for your money as dinners can get expensive. Staff is always kind and the try their best to seat you as quickly as possible

Loved the food. Totally authentic Indian food. Garlic naas were just too good. And so was the paneer vegetable. Must go place for those wanting to try good Indian food !! Well done !!

Very good food both buffet and alacarte but service is poor and pathetic and on top the servers have no remorse or guilt about it. Poor attitude, rude and they just ignore you especially if you are an Indian! No wonder other Indian restaurants are opening up in the area and doing good. And note even with such poor service due to their good food I give them another chance but they never fail to provide the same poor service. Hope the owners pay attention to all the reviews where service has been the single most issue reported by all patrons.

Very bad service, for fine dinning, website says closing on 11pm saturday and when we stepped in they made us sit for 15 mins and then waiter comes rushes us to order the food as he said the chef is leaving we said website says 11pm they said thats not my problem and when we asked for suggestions he said everything is good didn't give proper advice, we waited for the food for 30 mins and platter (mila zula) was cold and stale, Malai Kofta tasted awful as it had a very awful after taste, the naan wasn't cooked properly and we were forced to order as he said the kitchen was closing .. overall disappointing experience

Although I find The Host very overpriced, I do like their food. Nothing is outstanding, but I haven't had a single dish that I didn't like either. Where they stand out is their catering. I attended a very large Indian wedding and their wedding food, despite cooking for hundreds of people, was Excellent.  However, I am only giving this restaurant 3.5 stars, because the service was atrociously bad. Just bad. Inattentive, incompetent, rude, slow, I could go on.

I have been coming to this place from the past few years.<br/>This time I planned my son’s birthday party in which I had planned to invite 7<br/>families totaling to 15 adults and 4 kids of age 2-3. I booked the hall 6<br/>months ago and during this period I had called them a few times just to make<br/>sure it is still booked. Upon confirmation, I sent the invite to all my<br/>friends. To my embarrassment on the day when we all arrived they said there is<br/>no reservation (someone from the staff cancelled it in the register).  Created a chaos but then said, we will give<br/>you the room but will charge you for minimum 25 full adult meals buffet. I did not<br/>make a fuss as I was with family and friends. To my surprise they also charged<br/>me $67.05 tip for a rude service throughout the time.<br/><br/>Had they informed me at the time of reservation that the<br/>minimum requirement is 25 people I would have invited a few more families. They<br/>cheated me for approx. $150.00. The Tip should be option not added to the total<br/>bill. If all had gone as planned and pleasing I would have given a handsome amount<br/>as gratuity.<br/><br/>This was a simply trick they played to make more money. When<br/>they know that the customer is stuck and has no way to go. I wish I could have<br/>changed the venue at the last minute. <br/><br/>The host, you simply lost a big buck in greed of few<br/>dollars. We will never come again to you guys.<br/><br/>Beware!

This place advertises that they deliver but they told me its a minimum $500.00 order. The guy on the phone suggested I order a cab for delivery.

Quality is good for uptown location. I actually never really had a bad Indian meal, aside from cooking it myself.  Maybe all the ingredients in the curries just make it flavourful, no matter how they make it. <br/><br/>RM

I have never left a review of a restaurant because all in all the service is usually up to my standards, however after my first time eating at The Host I finally have a reason to write a restaurant review. It was my girlfriends (at the time) birthday and she never tried Indian food so I decided to take her to The Host. I have driven by here multiple times as it is close to my girlfriends house and it claims fine dining, so I figured it would be the perfect place to take her for a special occasion. <br/><br/>=So first off, we walk into the restaurant, and the first door had a cool look to it but that about as good as it got. As we walk in there is no one to greet us and I am looking around aimlessly for a couple minutes for a host (at a restaurant called The Host, ironic much?) Finally a waiter saw me, because I stared deep into his soul and he must of felt my presence and without even acknowledging me he takes another minute to greet us. He tells us to follow him and he literally points us to a table in the back corner of the restaurant...fine dining but the waiter/host cant take me to my seat. Alright, so then our waiter comes and my girlfriend asked a couple of questions about the drinks and just went with a pomegranate martini. The drink was way to strong and all you could taste was the alcohol...yet another problem. My girlfriend has never eaten Indian food before and I have only had it a few times so we had a few questions about some dishes. First for the appetizers I start telling my waiter I want something vegetarian, but before I can even get my words out he interrupts me telling me about some chicken dish that is very popular and delicious. I tell him thats great but I do not eat meat and I order Naan with spinach and a few other things in it. <br/><br/>The dish came out after 5-10 minutes which is fine and the dish was ok at best. Nothing special, could of easily made something better at home with some Indian spices. So our waiter comes back, doesnt even ask us how the dish was and asks us "what would you like to order". I tell him I have a few questions and he responds with "Ohh you have more questions?!?" and at this point im just in disbelief at how rude a waiter could be. I asked him about the spicy prawn dish my girlfriend was going to get and all he said was that it was spicy...thanks for the help. We ordered that dish and I ordered some eggplant dish. Then the waiter says something about rice. To which I say pardon as I thought I had already ordered my dinner. He rudely responds with "what rice are you getting?!" and with myself being confused I ask him "what do you mean?". And once again, obviously extremely rudely he says "what are you going to eat your dish with?" So still in disbelief I ask "what rice is there to choose from?" and he grabs the menu and points to the rice. One is white rice and the other I never heard of so I asked him about that and all he says is "it has more flavor". Well thanks for that, going to a fine dining restaurant and you cant even tell me anything about the food. So i end up ordering the rice that has "more flavor" which also costs money but is apparently mandatory to order...hmmm, makes sense. maybe they should tell you before rudely forcing you to order something without explaining anything. <br/><br/>So finally after the worst service I have ever experienced in my 22 years on this planet my food comes.. The food was alright but honestly The Indian Kitchen is better and The Host proclaims fine dining...what a false statement. I'd suggest to anyone Ambiyan Restaurant in Unionville, great food and most of all great service (take some notes The Host management). So now my girlfriend is all annoyed and the waiter comes to ask if we need dessert and we just ask for the bill. Doesn't even ask how our food was.... So after a few minutes our waiter is walking towards us and literally throws the bill on the table not even making eye contact or asking if we need a machine. I cant fit anymore here but I wouldnt reccomend eating here to my worst enemy. WORST RESTAURANT IN ONTARIO

Good for lunch buffet, good value, decent quality. Never been for dinner

Not as fine as the restuarant claim to be. Last night, we had dinner at the Richmond Hill location and the food was NOT GOOD at ALL! First of all, we were 11 of us and they put us in this 10 people table with two chairs on the sides. We were missing plates and napkins. We hardly had room to put our plates and drinks around. The waiters as usual in Indian Restaurants seemed to be unhappy for some reason and were not very accommodating.<br/>Lets begin with the food -the appetizers that we ordered were vegetable pakoras, mango salad, Mumbai Bhel puri, and paneer tikka. The only thing I could taste on all was salt! The tamarind chutney was thick and tasteless. The main course, daal Bukhara was okay so was the baigan sabji, the palak paneer was just nasty beyond its weird green look! The butter chicken, which supposed to be the highlight of all fine Indian restaurant, was horrible! You could see the onions, ginger and garlic in the gravy. The chicken pieces seemed to be not marinated prior, even the kids who love butter chicken, left the chicken on the side!! <br/>The dessert - they did not have mango kulfi for some reason so we ordered pista kulfi which was drizzled in chocolate sauce. Why? I don't know. Its common sense that kulfi and chocolate do not go well together. I guess the chef has not tried it before!! The gulab jamun was hard and seemed stale. It supposed to be soft and melt-in-your-mouth but not here! Do not even bother getting it. The ras-malai was okay. <br/>Over all, we paid $400 including tip (tip for what I don't know) for the food that was CRAP! Chef Sanjeev Sethi really needs to revisit the cookbook on making sure that at least first off all, ease up on salt esp. on deep fried items, do not drizzle chocolate sauce on kulfi and cook your butter chicken masala thoroughly besides many other faults. More so, the ultimate Indian dessert, the gulab jamuns need to be soft and please do not try to put too much pista and stuff to make it look fancy! it is not working!!! We paid so much money for such a crappy food! Not coming here again any time soon, unless Chef Sethi invites my family and I to do another tasting!!!

Dinner review for THE HOST. Simply outstanding! Went for dinner a few times and the food and service was consistently outstanding; Highly recommend it.

My favorite place for Malai Kofta!

The Buffet Was Pretty Good. I was hesitant to try the buffet because of a few reviews but it was actually pretty good and only $12.00. I will definitely try this restaurant again.

Vile. This place used to be good but now the food doesn't taste of anything and the service is bad. Had the buffet, never coming back!

Undecided. I went with family on a Friday night. At first the service seemed prompt and attentive, with well-trained waiters pouring water and bringing plates. It quickly faltered as water glasses went empty for over an hour (with no waiter coming by even once). <br/>As well, our food took an hour and a half to arrive. For the price, the portions were very small and I found the food to only be slightly better than average. Disappointing, considering the cost.<br/>If they were simply having an off night, I'd consider going back...as long as someone else is paying.

Love it!. Wonderful food and great place to take the family or simply dine alone. Love it. Decor is quite striking with traditional Indian artifacts, not overly done but subtly presented. <br/><br/>Our waiter helped us choose our meals & we were not disappointed.<br/>The butter chicken was delicious and the nan was fresh.Would love to come back here and try their lunch buffet.

Best North Indian Food. By far the best North Indian Food in Toronto to date. The food tastes fresh and authentic. Would recommend this place !

Host is a place I go to 2-3 times a year with vegetarian friend. We love it. Service is lovely -- food is consistently delicious. We come late for lunch and it is fresh and clean. Small problem with the traffic flow -- buffet goers Have to pass the check-in -- but this is minor. Great lunch place!

Butter Chicken. I ordered the butter chicken for take-out, the place I usually buy it at, I pay $10, and its fairly good. When I saw the price of $15, I was expecting a reason to justify the $5 difference, but there wasn't any, in fact, there was even less chicken.

Hmmmmmm. The masala tea was excellent and the food is ridiculously fresh and tasty. They have a real tandoor oven and the results are fantastic. <br/>That being said, expect to be gouged, the food is quite overpriced for what it is. One piece of advice, the naan (while delectable) is priced at about three times what it should be, so order sparingly!

Amazing dinner. Service was always pleasant and food was ridiculously fresh. The soup was amazing and the chicken was the best Indian I have had in the GTA. Place is great but can use a little more light.

Keep up the high standards. When a restaurant establishment is good, one does not have to be picayune in the review. When it is bad, one can keep them up against the ropes and pummel them - even if they pretend to play gastronomic rope a dope by not 'changing ' or improving. Alright ... now this is why this restaurant THE HOST is a good place to eat, especially the buffet ... CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM BEGINS ...<br/>1. excellent service: timely refilling of water glasses and supply of napkins, courteous attitude, respectful and quick service delivery of items. The staff and servers are WELL-TRAINED ... and not 'pretenders'.<br/>2. expertise: excellent head chef and associate cooks ... they KNOW what they are doing ... very tasty items and healthy (very little MSG, preservatives ... if any at all)<br/>3.well presented: good presentation of items, lovely buffet and ala carte items<br/>4. gorgeous decor, both ethnically appropriate, yet contemporary and up to standard<br/>5. the restaurant and the restrooms are clean and modern.<br/>6. the prices (so far) are FAIR ...advice to the management ... don't change them and don't even start thinking of scamming like other establishments ... keep up the good work!<br/><br/>The Host is highly recommended (as of this date) for the ala carte items and the various buffets. Advice to the staff and managers ... keep up the good work with good service, fresh and innovative dishes and fair prices.<br/><br/>Advice to those considering visiting this restaurant ... just go. (If you give a bad review, you are obviously a competitor and troll because this restaurant is actually one of the GOOD ones) ... so, check it out when you are hungry for Indian fare.

My first visit to this beautiful location was with my daughter 6 years ago. Ever since it's my favorite Indian place.Recently I took my family on a Saturday a dinner. The food was superb, we had 3 main dishes to share: Lamb Roganjosh ,Tandoori chicken and Dal and we were looked after by a very charming waiter with a good sense of humor. If you want OK food there are many choices around but for flavors I would recommend Host. Consistently good never disappointed.

One of my favorite places. Whenever I'm in the area, I HAVE to eat at The Host. I have always had courteous service. The butter chicken is the best! And yes there are plenty of chicken pieces in it. The sauce is so good that I want to dip my naan in it. I understand why they won "the best butter chicken' award". The basmati rice is light and fluffy as it should be and the naans are wonderful. I have been there half a dozen times in the last 6 mos. and it's always great.

USE to be my favourite Indian restaurant... NOT ANY MORE. Prices have gone up, food quality has gone down, and it seems like they dont care for service anymore. I only noticed these subtle changes over time until I was introduced to Bombay Bhel which is across the street... dont waste your time and money... just walk/drive across the street for REAL indian food that is HEALTHY and good service.... I'm not sure why but its been going downhill, maybe new owners? not sure what it is, but dont bother...

Pleasantly surprised. Had a very nice Indian dinner at the Host (in Richmond Hill). Good service, nice ambience, adn the food was amazing!

Don't bother. Don't waste your time and money. The service was painfully slow... even after we nicely asked our waiter a couple of times to either take our order or bring our bill. I rightfully left a ZERO tip.<br/><br/>Food is average. Nothing spectacular. Just go to Bombay Bhel across the street. Better food. Better service. Better price.

Pricey... Really tasty... but not worth the price....

Reasonable lunch buffet but on the pricey side compared to some of the better ones downtown. No mango chutney included in the buffet which is annoying.

Horrible service. Over-priced and not really authentic. Never again.

Good food, very pricy, horrible service. The only thing I liked about host at richmond hill is good taste. Very nice.<br/><br/>Their service was horrible. Long wait and while I was eating the service guy almost took my plates away. It looked like they just wanted us to eat fast and leave the place. There was no courtsey offered as well.<br/><br/>I will never go there again. There are many other places to try!!

When my grandparents came to visit, my mom suggested we go to The Host  after having gone for the dinner buffet before. We went to the Richmond Hill location, conveniently situated in a Sheraton hotel with lots of parking and a shopping centre attached. I don’t eat Indian food that much, so this would probably be the third Indian buffet I’ve been to. I’ll try my best to give a helpful review of this restaurant compared to the others I’ve eaten at. So, for my first plate… CCW from the Tandoori Chicken: Bhindi Amchuri (okra), papadum with mint yogurt sauce, samosa with tamarind sauce, potato wedges with tamarind sauce, Kaju Matar Paneer (looks like tofu), Amritsari Choley (with chickpeas). Back: Rice cakes with lentil sauce     This restaurant definitely has the most plentiful selection of curries compared to other places I’ve been. This was probably my first time seeing rice cakes and

Lovely ambiance with great food and service, I’ll definitely be back again (and ask for a spicier tandoori murgh).

First time going to an Indian buffet. I have tried the HOST at the Mississaga location long long time ago but it was just regular dinner plate. It was during lunch time and it was packed so it is popular place for Saturday afternoon. There were quite a selection of both meat dishes and veggie dishes. My favourite of course is butter chicken.

Puri Chaat is simply wafers with Indian ingredients and is a delicious spicy treat you have to try.

We were in the Richmond Hill area and looking for something different to eat. We were originally looking for a Thai restaurant but we couldn't find it so we opt'ed for The Host since it was different and we heard from friends that it was good.

When my grandparents came to visit, my mom suggested we go to The Host after having gone for the dinner buffet before. We went to the Richmond Hill location, conveniently situated in a Sheraton hotel with lots of parking and a shopping centre attached.<br/><br/>I don’t eat Indian food that much, so this would probably be the third Indian buffet I’ve been to. I’ll try my best to give a helpful review of this restaurant compared to the others I’ve eaten at.<br/><br/>So, for my first plate… Tandoori Chicken: Bhindi Amchuri (okra), papadum with mint yogurt sauce, samosa with tamarind sauce, potato wedges with tamarind sauce, Kaju Matar Paneer (looks like tofu), Amritsari Choley (with chickpeas). Back: Rice cakes with lentil sauce<br/> This restaurant definitely has the most plentiful selection of curries compared to other places I’ve been. This was probably my first time seeing rice cakes and the crispy Papadum at an Indian buffet before.On the website, the Butter Chicken/ Murgh Makhni is considered award winning and I thought it was quite good. The sauce had a strong tomato taste and the chicken wasn’t too dry. I ate this with the Naan, though I thought that the Naan here wasn’t as soft as the kind I tried in Vancouver because it was sitting at the buffet for a while after it was freshly made.One thing I would definitely recommend getting seconds is the Rice Pudding. I think they add rose water to it which gives the milk a very distinct, fragrant taste. There are also raisins and pistachios inside. This would be my favourite dessert.Standing in the back corner of the buffet are two cooks who made these appetizers in front of you. This was my first time trying Bhalla Chaat Papri, which tasted like biscuits covered in tamarind, mint, and yogurt sauce. I liked this more than the Pani Puri, which were these thin crispy, hollow bulb-shaped snacks that had beans and chickpeas inside, and were soaked in mint water. The taste was certainly interesting, I’m not quite sure if it was good or bad, but I would definitely recommend you to try these Indian street eats for yourself!Alongside my second or third bowl of rice pudding, I also ate more than one Gulab Jamun. I’ve tried these popular Indian desserts at other restaurants before and they are really sweet but delicious. Gulab Jamun is a dumpling made from curdled milk and deep-fried, then soaked in some sweet syrup water.<br/><br/>The Jalebi was prepared on the spot by another chef in the corner and I watched him squeeze batter into spiral shapes in a pan filled with oil. When taken out, he placed them in sugar or honey water. I was surprised to learn that these were an Indian dessert too because my Iranian friend had brought a box of these at the end of Ramadan (they are called Zulbia in Iran). These tasted chewy and really sweet as well.Overall, I enjoyed my experience very much here. While eating, I had no idea how to pronounce anything and I was trying a lot of things for the first time, so writing this blog post led me to search up what all the menu items were and research their origins. The selection of Indian food offered by The Host was not only gastronomically pleasing, but gave me a lesson on culture as well!<br/><br/>Until next time.

The Host is one of the finest restaurants for Fine North Indian Cuisine. I personally prefer the buffet better because there are many options to choose from. I would definitely recommend trying out chaat papri, the daal, spice kebob and naan bread. Simply delicious and if you visit once, this will become one of your top options for North Indian cuisine in Toronto.