Four places from our Indian food reel

We filmed a reel ranking four places to eat Indian and Caribbean food around the GTA. The list runs through Mississauga, Burlington, Cambridge, and Toronto. It is our order, from eating and arguing. It is not a trophy. After the clip, I went and read what other people have been saying for years, because a ranking only helps if you know what you are walking into.

Copper Chimney, the one we put first

Copper Chimney is a smaller room at 2050 Avenue Road in North York. It fills up, so the people who like it call ahead. The dish that keeps showing up is the butter chicken. Post City ranked it near the top of a Toronto butter chicken tasting and talked about boneless tandoori chicken in a silky sauce. A chef writing for Streets of Toronto called the chicken tender and the plate harmonious. Regulars on TripAdvisor add the garlic naan and the mixed grill.

Butter chicken is a Delhi plate with a paper trail. The story people repeat starts at Moti Mahal, where tandoori chicken met a tomato and butter sauce. London later built cafes around that softer cooking. Dishoom is the queue people know, and Indian Accent is the tasting-menu version in Delhi and New York. Avenue Road is a family room cooking the dish those places are answering. Read the Post City tasting and the Streets of Toronto note before you book, and the longer page on just this room: Copper Chimney on Avenue Road.

Read a little further and you also hear the other side. Some diners say the spice is mild and the sauce leans sweet. A few say the room feels dated. Yelp is around 3.6 from a bit more than a hundred reviews, which is a real score, not a victory lap. We still put it first because the butter chicken is the one we wanted again, and because it feels like a family table. If you want heat, ask for it.

The menu and the phone number live on their site. The pin is the Google listing on Avenue Road. There is a longer note on just this place if you want the reservation stuff: Copper Chimney on Avenue Road.

Lena's, the one we put second

Lena's Roti and Doubles is not an Indian restaurant, and we still put it second, because the reel was about food we crave on a weekday. It is a Trinidadian counter. The thing people write home about is the doubles. Goat, shrimp, or veg, with tamarind if you ask. Roti is the other half, dhalpuri with boneless chicken or lamb, and the jerk chicken gets mentioned by people who have been going for years. One regular on Tripadvisor said they have been in since 2008.

Doubles are Trinidad's street breakfast. Two pieces of fried bara, curried channa, and pepper or tamarind if you want them. Food writers usually trace the snack to Princes Town, and the argument about the best stall is a national sport, the way this city argues about pizza. A roti is the other portable meal, a soft wrap with a stew inside, and dhalpuri is the one with ground split peas in the skin. Lena's is cooking that weekday food for the suburbs. If the afternoon starts with a walk, the parks reel is the piece about where to go before you are hungry.

The notes are warm and practical. Friendly, fast, clean, and there is usually a line. Yelp sits around 4 from a smaller pile of reviews, and a bigger ratings site sits a little above that. Nobody is writing poetry. They are writing that the doubles were good and the roti was soft and they will be back on the way home from work. That is a better review than a speech.

They started as a tiny shop at Albion and Islington and now list rooms in Mississauga, Burlington, Brampton, and Ajax. Hours on lenasroti.ca are Monday to Saturday, morning through late afternoon, and closed Sunday. The Google listing for the Financial Drive shop is a solid place to start if you are in Mississauga. The Mississauga shop is on 1Mint too. Check the location you actually mean before you drive, because the hours on a maps app do not always match the site.

Butt Karahi, the one we put third

Butt Karahi is the review monster of this list. Google sits around 4.7, and the count is in the thousands. People talk about goat karahi like it is the reason they drove across the city. Chicken karahi, fresh naan, fried fish, seekh. The meat gets called generous. The gravy gets called the kind that cooked for a long time. It is halal Pakistani food, Lahori style, and the menu is built around that pan.

A karahi is the pot as much as the recipe. Round, two-handled, closer to a wok, used across Peshawar and Lahore for goat or chicken cooked down with tomato, ginger, and chile. Cream belongs to a different cuisine. Butter chicken, the Delhi dish associated with Moti Mahal, is the plate Copper Chimney is for. Standing in a loud room for goat gravy is the plate this shop is for.

The catch is the room. It is packed. It is loud. Weekend waits get long, and some people say the bill feels high after they have been standing there. A few dishes miss on a slammed night. We put it third because the reel was a spread of meals, and because a line that long is part of the decision. If you can live with the wait, the reviews say the karahi is the one to order. The longer version is Butt Karahi, and why people wait.

The shop most of those reviews mean is on Winston Churchill Boulevard in Mississauga, with other rooms in Ridgeway Plaza and in Pickering. buttkarahi.com lists them. The Google listing is where the big review pile lives. The Mississauga shop is also on 1Mint.

Amaya, the one we put fourth

Amaya is a group, not one dining room. There are counters in malls across the GTA, from the Eaton Centre and Square One out to Burlington and beyond, plus a few fuller restaurants. The reel did not pin one address, so this is about the brand people mean when they say the name.

Food-hall Indian is its own format. You watch the naan, you order a wrap, and you eat it near a skylight. That is a different job from a reservation room, and a different job from a karahi line. The famous sit-down versions of modern Indian cooking, Dishoom in London and Indian Accent in Delhi and New York, ask you to plan the night. Amaya asks you to already be in the mall. Judge it as a counter, because that is what most of the reviews are judging.

The reviews split, which is why it landed fourth. A lot of people like the naan, because you can watch it get made, and they like a butter chicken wrap or the Amritsari chicken when they are already in the mall. Staff at the food-court counters get named in a kind way. The other half of the notes say the portions feel small for the price, the curry can taste mild and tomato-heavy, and the biryani is not the same every time. Scores on the Eaton Centre counter sit in the mid 3s. That is a lunch you are happy to have upstairs from the subway, and a different decision from driving to Avenue Road or standing in the Butt Karahi line.

Every address is on the Amaya locations page. If you want the pin people review most often, start with the Google listing for the Eaton Centre counter, and pick the mall you are actually in.

Then go back on purpose

A list of four cannot cover the GTA. If your place is missing, keep it. The useful part is knowing what each room is for. Copper Chimney when you want to sit down. Lena's when you want doubles before the shop closes. Butt Karahi when you are ready to wait. Amaya when you are already in the mall.

The second visit is where a loyalty program starts to matter. Look the spot up on places, check offers, and search the neighbourhood on search if you are already out. Points from the visit show up in the wallet. If the points stuff still feels fuzzy, start with what a loyalty program is, then how points add up. The outdoor version of this same habit is the parks reel.