Top 5 Under the Radar Indian Restaurants

Published February 19, 2016 at 7:38 pm

Mississauga has some fantastic Indian restos that delight diners with their tasty menus and atmospheric charm. While the big names are a boon to the city’s food landscape, the little guys offer just as delicious a selection as their big brothers and sisters. If you look into hidden plazas, you’ll find some fantastic under the radar Indian gems.

Here are the top five under the radar Indian restaurants in Mississauga:

5) Chaska

Chaska, short for “obsession,” is India’s authentic street food restaurant. The food carts of India have inspired this place to deliver high quality, freshly prepared dishes using savoury spices, flavourful herbs, and marinades with rich and heavy sauces. The ambiance of this restaurant is lively and upbeat, generally busy around lunchtime. It is clean and well decorated with the front counter resembling a bus. The menu selection is simple and easy to follow. If you require gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options than you’re in luck, Chaska’s menu selection serves all types of dietary needs. The menu has five meat and five vegetarian options. The main options were roll, rice bowl, or salad and other Indian street foods like Bhalla papdi chaat and samosas. I ordered the rice bowl with white basmati, chicken tikka, and hot vindaloo sauce ($15). It came with four pieces of chicken and the chicken was very tender. The rice had great flavour as well. The sauce however was extremely spicy, for those that want subtle, I recommend requesting a mild to medium spice as it packs a punch. For those looking to try a unique and different Indian cuisine, Chaska will satisfy.

4) Ancila’s Indian Cuisine

This place is tucked away in the Lucy’s Seafood plaza by the Meadowvale GO station. Ancila is the personable owner and operator of this restaurant and she cares about the heat level in your food and will customize your dish to your palate. All the food here is cooked to order, and as you would expect, the food is on point and steaming hot. The best dishes were the meat samosas, as they were piping hot and accompanied by house-made sauces. Because Ancila makes everything from scratch, expect to wait a little longer for your food. Don’t eat at her resto if you’re in a rush and if you’re looking for takeout, be sure to call well in advance.

3) Guru

Located in the best building for food in the Heartland area is a place called Guru. They have Indian and Hakka food, and today we were in there for some Indian grub and they did not disappoint. We ordered the Guru’s House Special Tandoori Platter and just take a look at the picture. It was plated just as wonderfully as it tasted and we were pretty much full after that dish alone. Not to be outdone, we also ordered the butter chicken and garlic naan. All the food was delicious and the quantity was great for the price.

2) Masala Bites

Masala Bites is a cozy restaurant specializing in Indian cuisine that’s located in the Sam Woo and No Frills plaza along Mavis Rd. The resto offers an a la carte menu as well as a buffet lunch on weekdays and both buffet lunch and dinner on weekends. The walls are filled with references to Indian spices, including “masala (mixture of spices) in Hindi may be called the ‘heartbeat’ of an Indian kitchen.” The menu includes a number of appetizers including dahi bhalla and paneer pakora. You will also find a few vegetarian dishes, including aloo gobhi and dal makhn. The paneer section of the menu includes malai kofta (khoya and sultanas stuffed in minced paneer, cooked in an aromatic cashew nut sauce) and palak paneer (paneer cooked with spinach and cream in traditional Indian spices). Meat and fish dishes include mutton roganjosh, butter chicken, chicken lababdar, chilli fish (basa cooked in a chilli hot sauce) and fish curry (basa cooked in traditional Indian masala). You will also find a number of rice dishes and a variety of breads including roti, naan and parantha.

1) Udupi Madras Cafe

You’d be forgiven if you said you’d never heard of this tucked-away gem on Enfield Place, right behind the Sussex Centre. It’s not visible from the street, but its central location and unique menu brimming with Southern Indian vegetarian cuisine puts this pleasant finding high on our list of must-visit Indian restos. The cafe, intimate and decorated in dark, rich hues, offers diners the chance to sample medu vada (a sort of savory doughnut), various dosas (crepe-like wraps) and South Indian Thali, a mini five-course meal served with a pickle, pappad, yogurt, buttermilk, sambar, rasam, poriyal, dal or kootu, gravy, rice of the day, white rice, chapati or poori and the dessert of the day. The Thali is served on a round platter with rice in the center and, despite sounding overwhelming, isn’t too much for one person to finish. Diners looking for an even more authentic experience can enjoy a masala chai (tea) after their meal. The fair price point, attentive service and highly customizable menu (you can specify spice, oil and texture level for dosas) makes this inconspicuous vegetarian resto more than worth the search.

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