Indian and Nepali food in Toronto
A city built around a bazaar, then spread across the suburbs: Gerrard Street, Scarborough, Brampton.
Illustrative dish photo, not a photo of Toronto.
The scene in Toronto
Toronto's South Asian food has a downtown anchor and a suburban majority. The Gerrard India Bazaar in the east end is a commercial strip of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan restaurants and shops. Most of the community lives further out, and the region is also unusual for two food traditions that stand out: Sri Lankan Tamil cooking and Indian-Chinese Hakka food.
How it got here
Canada replaced country-of-origin quotas with a points system in 1967. In 1972 to 1974, Gian Naaz, who had immigrated from India in 1968, bought a former cinema on Gerrard Street East and showed Hindi films there; restaurants, record stores and grocers followed, and it became the Gerrard India Bazaar. It was a commercial rather than residential centre, serving South Asians across the region. From the 1990s, South Asian shops opened in Scarborough, Mississauga and Brampton. Most Tamils in Toronto arrived as refugees after the 1983 riots in Sri Lanka, and Hakka Chinese families from India settled in Toronto in large numbers from the 1980s.
What to expect
Indian-Chinese Hakka cooking, with chili chicken as the signature dish and a Kolkata lineage, is common, especially in Scarborough. The Gerrard strip covers the whole subcontinent in one walk. In Scarborough, Markham Road is the focus of the Tamil community and its annual Tamil Fest, where Sri Lankan food such as hoppers has been served. In Brampton, where South Asians were 44.3 per cent of the population in the 2016 census, the choice is wide and local.
Where to look
- Gerrard India Bazaar — Gerrard Street East from about Greenwood to Coxwell: Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan food and shops.
- Scarborough — Home to a large Sri Lankan Tamil community around Markham Road, and a hub for Toronto's Hakka Indian-Chinese restaurants.
- Brampton and Mississauga — Where South Asian businesses spread from the 1990s onward; South Asians were 44.3 per cent of Brampton in 2016.
- Markham — South Asians were 17.8 per cent of residents in 2016, behind a Chinese-origin majority, in the northeast of the region.
Where to eat
Practical notes
Because the Gerrard bazaar was a commercial destination rather than a neighbourhood where the community lived, the community's everyday restaurants are often in Scarborough, Mississauga and Brampton instead. The street is changing as new businesses arrive and the first generation of owners nears retirement, so check that a place is still open before travelling.
What is listed in Toronto
199 restaurants in the directory, by cuisine: