India's Taste is located in Brampton, the municipality kitty-corner to Toronto's northwest, at 900 Ray Lawson Blvd. and Mavis. It’s transit-accessible via the Brampton Transit 53 Ray Lawson bus which runs from the Shopper’s World terminal. We went for weekend lunch. There are two serving robots, but as it is a self-serve buffet they are used for picking up dishes instead; unfortunately they are not sent out often enough so dirty dishes accumulated. There were an excess of flies at the window where we sat, and I ended up swatting a few myself as was being annoyed by them. We also ran out of water and no one asked us if we wanted more for a while. Pop is $3 canned not AYCD but at least there is Coke Zero.
Fish pakora was excellent and well-seasoned. Mishy raved about the tandoori chicken and said it was the best she'd ever had. She also loved the lemon rice and said it was fantastic... I also liked it though not to that degree. Aachi chicken wings were excellent and I wish all wings were this good as they were moist and spicy rather than being dried out. Butter chicken was also excellent and very well spiced. Fish curry was excellent with a bit of heat. Naan bread was excellent, but beware as there was quite a lot of it, about 15 to 20 pie-size pieces in one basket.
Mishy also loved the saag paneer which is not a dish she usually tries. Aachi paneer masala was another dish that Mishy had never tried before but absolutely loved. She also said that the vegetable noodles were fantastic, which I agree. French fries were quite good, but of course they're french fries so not really the focus of this review. So-called vegetable snacks were beautifully seasoned chunks of potato and pakora which was also excellent. “Chilli” mushroom was also excellent and full of flavour, and I could have sworn the mushroom was actually chicken. Bihar kebab rice chicken was fantastic as it was so perfectly seasoned and smoky.
Sooji halwa is a sweet dessert dish that Mishy loved; I tried it as well and it was delicious and I may have had it at Anjappar Chetinnad on the breakfast menu. Sambhar vadda are the “donuts” and gravy that I definitely first had at Anjeppar Chettinad, and they were quite good. Shahi paneer is a paneer version of butter chicken, and of course was excellent with that sauce. Jeera aloo is a potato dish and was wonderfully seasoned with the spicing being different from other things. Dal makhni was simply amazing with sublime seasoning different from everything else and among the best I've had. Mushroom masala was delicious with some heat, and again excellently seasoned.
Special idli didn't seem very special as was just a slightly vinegar-flavoured pancake of dough. Soya chop was excellent and could have passed for chicken, and I loved the seasoning which again was different and custom for it. Paneer tikka was delicious and well seasoned. Chicken sukh kebab was very good and the last time I had this was at Tandoori Feast in Guildwood. Chicken Malai tikka was delicious, moist and wonderfully seasoned as expected.
For dessert, Mishy o-faced at the rasmalai which seems to have fresh chunks of mango or something equally delicious in it. I noticed that the ice creams seem to be mixed together and the little cleaning sink for the scoops was off and empty, so I had to clean them myself. Strawberry ice cream was delicious and very fresh regardless, as was cookies & cream and mango. Chocolate cream cake was something like black forest and possibly made on premises and was excellent. White cake was pretty good but somewhat dry. Chocolate brownie cake was more moist and tastier. Chocolate muffin with a cherry and whipped cream on top was delicious. Weekend lunch all-day price is $30 and there is a 10% discount to $27 currently for unknown duration. This is slightly less than usual and the food was almost universally excellent. I don’t factor in service, which is good or it would have dragged it down; there are some issues that need correcting. However we both agreed they didn’t affect the outcome and it was worth the time and effort to get there.
Rating 9.5 – 10 / 10
