There isn't much question when it comes to Indian food in Toronto - most locals will tell you that Banjara is the best. Located practically in Christie Pits Park, this Bloorcourt Village restaurant has been around since 2003 with Chef Raj Veerella at the helm. They've even expanded into two locations. It was a done deal for me when I saw that NOW Toronto voted them #1 Best Indian Restaurant 2018, and of course that blogTO has them listed as the #1 Best Butter Chicken and #1 Best Indian Restaurant in Toronto. I was very excited to experience it all for myself and visited on a Saturday evening. They don't take reservations for parties smaller than five people but due to the restaurant's specious dining areas they often have plenty of room to seat everyone. I also appreciated the fact that they have their own dedicated parking lot, something very rare for restaurants located in the core areas of the city.
As previously mentioned, the space is quite large and you will immediately be met with a buzzing restaurant and tantalizing aromas upon entry. There are several dining rooms, including an enclosed patio area that allows for a lot of beautiful natural light. The overall decor is fairly modest but you will find colourful sari-style curtains and brightly painted walls. The room is full of busy servers moving plates back and forth. I was happy to be seated in the patio area, right next to the window.
The menu is very long and involves many different categories. I would almost advise to look at the menu online in advance so that you can arrive prepared! We were immediately delivered a basket of Papadum along with two sauces; a sweet tamarind chutney and a green chutney made with mint and cilantro. Papadum is a type of thin cracker. Light and crispy, this one was delightful to munch on as we waited for our order to arrive.
The next thing that I always take care of right away in Indian restaurants is ordering a Masala Chai (Indian milk black tea infused with ginger and cardamom - $3.99), quite possibly my favourite beverage of all-time. Or at least one of them. There is nothing quite like a proper Indian restaurant chai. It's not at all like what you get in coffee shops. This one was exactly the way that I like it, not too sweet and full of warm spice. Chai often gets served with sugar on the side but I never use it. I find that the perfect blend of spices is usually great just the way that it is.
There is also a rose lassi on the menu that I absolutely want to try next time!!
Back to the food menu, you'll find sections for; appetizers, soups & salads, tandoori sizzlers, chicken, meat delights, seafood delights, vegetarian dishes, rice dishes, breads, side orders, and desserts. Like I said, there's a lot. We decided to begin with a starter and zeroed in on the list of pakoras. With six types available, it had to be the Fish Pakoras (Rolled in chickpea batter and deep fried - $7.99 for six). We had ordered these from the starters section in hopes of having them as an appetizer, IE: before the rest of our food. However, these arrived after the rest of our food. This kinda defeats the purpose of a "starter," doesn't it? Regardless, they were enjoyable and I found them to be unique among all other fish pakoras that I have had in the past. I'm accustomed to my fish pakoras being mostly akin to a fishstick, with a pretty indiscernible "fish item" on the inside. This is not the case at Banjara. The fish inside of these pakoras was REAL. I could clearly see that it was a large, juicy piece of pink fish (possibly trout) with the skin still on. I appreciated this a lot! Pakoras always taste amazing dipped in tamarind chutney and these golden-brown, perfectly fried and crispy fish babies were no different.
Our food came out extremely quickly upon ordering it (apart from the pakoras, which took longer). Our friendly server recorded our order efficiently and a parade of various servers delivered our array of bowls and plates soon after. Of course we ordered the Butter Chicken (Banjara's most famous dish - chicken tikka (white meat) cooked in the tandoor, then simmered in a creamy tomato gravy - $15.99) given its reputation of being the best in the city. I loved this. The hype is real. The pieces of chicken were large and juicy. The sauce was a gorgeous velvety bath of richness. There was a slight smokey flavour to the dish that really made it deliciously unique. A delicate mix of spices played in the smoke. Up until this point the best curry dishes that I'd ever tasted were from Lahore Karahi in London, England. This butter chicken totally compares and is worth visiting Banjara for. I will be dreaming about it.
Next, from the Vegetarian Dishes section, we ordered the Navratan Korma (Potato, baby corn, paneer, peas, beans, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower & mushrooms in a creamy cashew gravy - $12.99), another favourite dish of ours. Otherwise known as "vegetable korma," the word navratan refers to the nine key ingredients that make up the dish. We were asked about our spiciness preference for this one and selected for it to be "medium" in spice. I enjoyed all of the big pieces of vegetables and the creamy cashew gravy was nice. Overall, it wasn't my favourite dish of the night (see butter chicken, above) but it was a nice way to get more veggies into the meal.
Next are the items that are musts when dining Indian. If you don't order naan and rice with your Indian food then you have made a big mistake and are doing it wrong. Banjara has eight different types of naan to choose from but we stayed pretty classic and ordered the Butter Naan (Traditional north Indian bread made from organic white flour, eggs, milk & honey, baked in the tandoor oven. Leavened with yeast - $2.75). Although the cheese naan sounds like a party that I would like to be invited to. Note that this price is for ONE naan. Not a "basket" of naan or anything like that. I would recommend at least one naan per person. Like the chicken tikka (used in the butter chicken), naan is prepared in the tandoor, a cylindrical-shaped oven. In Indian cuisine, naan is used in place of a knife and fork. This is why the pieces of meat or vegetables within curry dishes are always bite-sized. The idea is to rip sections of the naan off and to use it to pick up pieces of meat, all while sopping up some of the sauce at the same time. This creates a unique and interesting hands-on experience that I always enjoy about dining Indian. This naan was decently good, however I did find it a little bit dry and not as warm and chewy as I would have liked. I also didn't find it very buttery even though we specifically ordered the butter naan.
As for rice, Banjara has six different rice dishes to choose from. It might have been one of the most expensive, but I definitely wanted to try the Saffron Rice (Saffron infused rice with a touch of cream - $5.99). I am so glad that we went all-in on the rice because this rice was exceptional! I often order rice practically due to obligation but this rice was something very special. Used as a base for the various curry dishes, one typically puts some rice down on the plate and then ladles the other dishes on top. However this rice was so delicious that it was almost a shame to cover it up with something else! I found myself eating it completely bare! The combination of floral, aromatic saffron and light creaminess made this some of the best rice that I've ever tasted.
One unfortunate thing is that we ordered the homemade original yogurt as a side order because I often like to drizzle a little bit atop my dishes for some added cooling creaminess. However this dish failed to arrive and never showed up at our table. We weren't charged for it, of course.
I couldn't miss out on dessert and wanted to try Banjara's Rice Pudding (Rice and milk simmered to perfection with saffron, carrot & cardamom - $4.99). I found this dessert to be curious. It was almost all liquid with very little rice. I'm used to a more creamy rice pudding, whereas this one was more of a sweet soup with a small amount of rice floating around at the bottom. It still tasted quite nice, very aromatic, but it seemed to be missing the body of the dish.
Overall, I really enjoyed the meal that I ate at Banjara. While there were a few items that were only so-so, the dishes that were great were truly exceptional. I would love to try their lamb curry and will surely return the next time that I get hit by an Indian food craving.
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