Copper Chimney still tastes like a family table
Copper Chimney came first on our reel of Indian restaurants in the GTA. It sits at 2050 Avenue Road in North York, a smaller room that fills up on a normal weeknight, so people call before they drive. It feels like a family place more than a scene. That is the whole point of putting it first.
Where butter chicken comes from
Butter chicken is the dish this room is judged on, and it is a Delhi dish with a paper trail. The story people repeat starts at Moti Mahal, where tandoori chicken was folded into a tomato and butter sauce. The restaurant is still there, at motimahal.in. From that plate, the dish went everywhere. In London, Dishoom turned the same family of flavors into all-day cafes that people queue for. Indian Accent took Indian cooking into a tasting-menu room, in Delhi and later in New York. Avenue Road is neither a queue in Covent Garden nor a tasting menu. It is a neighbourhood table that happens to cook the dish those places are answering.
Toronto has argued about butter chicken in print. Post City put this kitchen near the top of a city tasting and wrote about boneless tandoori chicken in a silky sauce. A chef tasting it for Streets of Toronto called the chicken tender and the plate harmonious. Those are outside write-ups, not our reel talking to itself. Read them if you want a second opinion before you book.
The butter chicken is the dish
Diners say the same thing in plainer words. Garlic naan, the mixed grill, and the butter chicken again. Put that plate next to a karahi and the difference is the fat and the heat. Butt Karahi cooks goat in a pan until the gravy is the reason you drove over, and people wait for it. Copper Chimney is the milder sauce you mop with bread. Put it next to a mall counter and the difference is the room. Amaya is a place you eat between errands. This is a table you book. Both of those comparisons are spelled out in the full ranking.
It is a milder curry. Some people love that. A few reviews say it runs sweet, closer to a gentle tomato sauce than to a hot one, and that the room itself feels a bit dated. Yelp sits around 3.6 from a little over a hundred reviews, so this is not a perfect score. The people who go back are the ones who wanted the butter chicken and the naan, and who like being looked after by the same staff. If you want it spicier, say so when you order.
Call before you go
The room is not huge, and reviews mention waits when people just show up. The phone number on their site is 647-436-2538. Takeout gets praised for being quick, which is the move if you do not want to sit. Parking is the usual Avenue Road hunt, so leave a few extra minutes.
Their site is the-copper-chimney.com. The Google listing is the Avenue Road pin. The other three places from the reel are in the full ranking. Butt Karahi is the one people wait an hour for, if you want the louder end of the same list.
The second visit
A first dinner tells you if the butter chicken is your butter chicken. The second dinner is where a loyalty program starts to matter. Look the room up on places and check offers before you call. Points from a visit land in the wallet. If that loop is still fuzzy, how points add up follows one normal trip, and what a loyalty program is is the longer version, next to programs like PC Optimum and Aeroplan that trained Canadians to expect a balance.