I first heard about Kothur in the most unexpected way--while trying to switch to a cheaper data plan at a Fido store. Midway through the painfully slow setup process, the entire store started filling with the scent of something glorious. Rich spices, buttery warmth... it was the kind of smell that stops conversations. Everyone working there was Indian, and they were all clearly just trying to wrap up my account so they could dig into whatever just got delivered. I had to ask--where's that food from? "Kothur," they said, almost in unison. That was the recommendation, and it stuck with me. I walked by the place once. The exterior didn't scream "hidden gem." Thought about ordering delivery a few times but never followed through. Life, you know? Today, I finally went. From the outside, still nothing to write home about. But walk in, and it's a different story. Clean, cozy, and exactly the kind of no-fuss Indian spot you'd expect to stumble upon in the heart of a big city. The food? Solid. Spices landed right. Everything was warm, comforting, and satisfying. It's not trying to reinvent Indian cuisine--it's just doing it well. If you ever find yourself sniffing the air near a phone shop and wondering what that divine smell is--it might just be Kothur. TL;DR Not flashy. Surprisingly good. Smelled it before I tasted it. Worth it. read more

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The food was very mid. We got the Bhel Puri, the Chicken Tikka Masala, and the Goat Xacutti. I love indian food so I was excited to try the Goat Xacutti as it's something new but it ended up tasting exactly like the Chicken Tikka. And the Chicken Tikka didn't taste like what Chicken Tikka usually tastes like. They both tasted like and amalgamation of every curry all mixed together. It was flavorful, but there was no distinct flavor. The Bhel Puri was yummy, but they served us wayyyy too much for only a party of 2. The garlic naan was fine. I also ordered the sweet lassi, which was tasty. The seating was fine and they had a coat rack which was nice. It's open late (till 11pm) which is convenient and why I might come here again, but otherwise the food did not stand out to me at all. read more

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Wow it's been 10 years since I worked in the area and this was one of our lunch spots and it's still here!! Glad they are still standing and survived Covid times. Food is still great. Place filled up quick on a Tuesday nite which was good too. Service is quick. Decent prices. Good spot to check out read more

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Honestly, this is the second time coming and this spot's Indian dishes are fantastic! I love the authentic flavours. The staffs are super nice and really fast as well. I always get their beef masala with their garlic naan. It comes out piping hot and packing with flavours and meat. I would recommend this spot if you live downtown and you crave good Indian curry. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Party of 3. We ordered garlic naan, Chicken tikka masala, Goat xacuti , and Tandoori fish- all were cooked to tender flavorful perfection. The server was very kind and attentive. Highly recommend. read more

Great location, the storefront doesn't make it seem like there's much capacity, but once inside there's a decent amount of space as there's tables that run a ways back from the entrance. The menu has all the conventional dishes you'd expect in another Indian restaurant that's not cuisine focused, so it runs the gamut of most popular dishes from cuisines of the North and South of India. They do a good Kerala style parotta (flakey bread from Southern India made with refined flour), but the saucy dishes you'd normally order to go with it aren't from the same region, so you'd have to mix it up. The chicken 65 is another spicy appetizer I'd recommend that comes with plenty of curry leaf kick. The rasam soup was a bit disappointing since it was too watery for my taste, and the vegetable cutlets lacking in crispy edge and a bit boring. read more

went for sam birthday shoutout. i especially liked the butter chicken and garlic naan

Curries are pretty good. Excellent appetizers. Central location. Service wasn't that attentive, even though it was empty.

Korhur is my go-to Indian in Toronto. Lovely, authentic preparation with fresh ingredients and rich spices. As a White dude, I can definitely handle the hot, so as mentioned in other reviews, don't be shy when asking for your desired spice level. The curry here is one of my favorites ever. A rich, aromatic gravy, just the right amount of cooked-down veg, and the chicken I ordered was tender and juicy. The breads also bang. The naan is fluffy and has just a touch of char to make it perfect. Another thing you should try is the super authentic Indian chai. It's spicy and creamy and not sweet in the least. Service is always kind and quick. So good! read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Veg pakoras to start! - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

They make some of the best Indian dishes in the city. Truly a hidden gem and first impressions can be really deceiving. They might not have the fanciest shop but the food is second to none. We moved but I would still travel across the city just to get Indian food at this location. read more

Best butter chicken, samosas and paratha in the city! The Yonge st location is small and quaint. Give it a whirl!

Good food. I had the butter chicken Container was pretty bad though, not leak proof at all read more

I went to their lakeshore location in Etobicoke on Sept 7th. It was the worst experience. I ordered Butter Chicken and Chicken Korma. They don't know how to cook curries. There are some spices to add ground and some spices as whole. Cloves, Cinnamon, etc. which are very spicy must be added as whole. They grind everything and probably make a sauce out of it and cook the curries. This is very bad. My stomach hurt. Constipation for more than 5 days and body aches all over. This is not at all traditional cooking. To make people addicted and come again and again so that they keep spending 20 dollars a curry. Avoid this place. You could be getting diseased. read more

Pathetic food quality. Ive been a regular customer and they failed to respect my business in spite of ordering food regularly. Abysmal food quality and it caused an upset stomach and stomach cramps. Standards have come down greatly. Not ordering/ going here again read more

Honestly, I was skeptical of this place because their Yelp review was pretty low but read through them and decided to try them away and I was so glad I did! My friend and I came by for lunch with reservations which I'm glad I made because they were busy! They have a $10.99 lunch special which comes with a soup, chickpea side, vegetable pakora, naan, rice, a main dish and dessert! I got the lamb rogan josh and it was delicious! Would definitely return and recommend them to anyone looking for a great Indian lunch deal! read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Bhendi Masala - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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I would like to give this a 4.5-star, but there is not that option. I had a mango lassi, chicken korma (medium spice), mango lassi, garlic naan, raita, and peas pulav rice. Everything was absolutely delicious. They had very good sized portions and served appealing to the eyes as well as the taste buds. The service was OK but not very fast. But all in all, if I needed anything, all I had to do was ask. The food more than made up for the service. When I come back to Toronto, I will be back to this restaurant. read more

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Food is always amazing. Butter chicken is some of the best I've ever had. Service is great. Quaint little restaurant on Yonge Street. Very inexpensive great value for money. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Paneer pakora - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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We are moving to Thorold and my last meal in Mimico should be sitting down at Kothur. As it is, I am picking up the food and eating it at home. First-best food, second-best ambiance (moving makes a big mess). I will miss the great food and service at Kothur. read more

Highly suggest the lunch specials. Fantastic butter and curry chicken. Accompanying soup also very good... Good find. read more

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Have been coming here since the 90's and it's always a winner. Butter chicken was great today. Warm, friendly service too.

We ordered through Uber last week when we were in Toronto. We were 8 people and ordered a lot of food. The food was prepared well. It tasted delicious and was still warm when it arrived. The spices weren't too spicy and as an Indian person, I thought the flavors were spot on. Good authentic flavor, good portions and arrived quickly. read more

Good taste and variety. Service is a bit slow. Ambiance is ok. Convenient location of the restaurant

This is a small Indian restaurant in Yonge St, and is probably the best one in the area. I actually saw customers turned away due to lack of seating so you should try to come earlier rather than later. I had the lunch special with chana masala. It includes muligutawny, one pakora piece, rice, naan, and kheer. The food was spicy and flavorful without being overly greasy. The lunch portion sizes are not very large though, so if you are very hungry you may want to order more than the standard serving. If you come as a large group, be prepared to have cash or pick someone to pay with only 1 card. read more

Time after time, amazing quality food... Fast and polite service... Whole in the wall place off Yonge St. Quality and portions are great. Must visit at least once a week. read more

3.5 for the food. 2.5 for the service Got some take away from here after working up an appetite for Indian by watching the Great British Family cook-off on Netflix. Susksur Briyani up the street was closed so I ventured to Kothur. The staff seemed a bit disorganized but I still got my order for chicken tikka, aloo Gobi, naan and onion bhajis. The server told me to come back in 30. 30 minutes later I arrived, only to see my take out bag being hustled back into the kitchen. Someone had forgotten part of my order. 10 more minutes of waiting and I got my food. No apology for the long wait. The food was a saving grace though. The tikka and aloo Gobi were great as was the naan. I may try an eat in experience next time as the food for customers sitting down seemed to be coming faster. read more

We discovered this place about 10 years ago! WE live 2 hours away but every time we get to Toronto - this is the place we love to come for dinner!!! The flavour- AMAZING!!! read more

This place was fantastic. Went hear for lunch and got the Chicken Tikka Masala. Everything that came with the lunch was delicious from the Naan to the dessert. The server was lovely too. This is some of the best Indian food I've had in a long time. The lunch came in little bowls which looked small, but we're in fact just the right portion size. I left feeling stuffed. And I didn't have any of the typical stomach issues afterwards - the food was fresh and made from scratch. The restaurant is not too big, but the decor is great and there is lots of seating. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - a plate of food on a table - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

we just had dinner at Kothur and I can say without a doubt one of the best Indian meals I've ever had in Toronto, we had the chicken vindaloo with garlic naan. I highly recommend this place and a shout out to our server whose name is Muskan, she was great, a pleasure to deal with and we will definitely be back. read more

The set lunch price is around $11 tax included it comes with soup, rice, naan and the choice of main u choose. For these price in the area is not bad and their food is pretty decent. But don't hope for any services if you come here for lunch. Cause is like a one man show for the waiter. If you are in rush for a quick lunch here is not recommended. I would say around 3 stars for the decent food and price. Could give it a try if in area and craving for Indian food. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Food was great (not amazing, but great). Everything for the most part tasted very good, despite maybe not matching my experiences with that dish. For example - the tandoori chicken had no char/smokiness from the tandoor and was quite dry, but lamb karahi, paneer makhni etc all tasted pretty good. If you want a decent north Indian food experience, the quality here is fine. HOWEVER... The service is absolutely horrible. There were these two bumbling idiots trying to serve everyone and cleaning up - and failing miserably at both. The restaurant wasn't even full! There were tables next to us that weren't cleaned hours after the patrons left. While the food came reasonably quickly, we had to wait almost half an hour to get our plates + dishes removed from our table since notifiying the server we were done and wanted to order dessert. Then we ordered dessert. It took 20 minutes for us to get it. You could tell that the server had forgotten to notify the kitchen after he muttered "oh s***" under his breath when I had reminded him again. To add, the dessert was absolutely trash. Ras Malai is not supposed to be warm - it should be cold, have some sort of cardamom flavoring and have nuts. Worst $4.50 spent. The Gulab Jamun was alright. I had to make decision to just pay for the entire table myself because I knew their incompetence would have resulted in us waiting an hour or more just to pay. After going up and paying, I made a comment that they should be more dilligent and get their s*** together - to which the server apologized insincerely and said it was "very busy" today. This didn't make any sense to me. Even I know any restaurant on a Friday would make provisions to have the floor adequately staffed. You don't need a crystal ball to know that Friday evening for a restaurant is going to be busy. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Chicken Vindaloo, Lamb Karahi, Paneer Makhni, Tandoori Chicken - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Amazing spot, it's an hidden gem in downtown. Amazing recommendation from the host. The Sheek Kabab was so tender and deliciou it almost just melted in your mouth. will definitely be back. read more

This is the best Indian food I have ever tasted. We did not have much time as we got there a bit late and were going to a show next door (CAA theatre) and they accommodated us wonderfully. I had their DELICIOUS tomato soup and some naan bread - heaven on both counts - and a glass of wine. my entire bill with Tip and tax was $20 and I was full! My friend had the butter chicken which I tasted and it was amazing. We were at the Yonge location and Sandi - our server - was delightful and so accommodating to our needs. read more

I wouldn't have known this place was any good until I bought a couple deal vouchers online, but I'm glad I took the chance. I pass by this restaurant all the time and never really noticed it, but now I've been there a few times and it's safe to say that this is my favourite Indian restaurant. The decor isn't to be desired but it does have a homey kind of feel to it. One complaint is that it gets pretty cold in the winter time, but the spiciness of Indian food can help that :) The service is great, everyone is so nice and very accommodating with the various levels of spiciness for each dish that you order. You get complimentary poppadoms with sauce at the beginning of the meal, and I even got complimentary rice pudding one time - I guess they were very excited with my reactions to their food :P I'm not sure if the food is absolutely authentic, but it's great. Ordering the mango lassi, vegetable pakoras, and garlic naan every time is a must. I try to order new entrees every time I go, and I am never disappointed. Everything I've ordered so far on the menu has been amazing. The portions are quite big even though its usually shared, but I always take left overs home to enjoy the next day. With an appetizer, extra garlic naan, mango lassis, and 2 shared entrees may sound pricey, but the bill came up to around $40! Every time I eat the food here, I get so happy - it gets pretty ridiculous at times. I can't stop telling my friends about this place and I would not want this restaurant to go unnoticed. Go check it out! read more

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The hubby has been raving about this place for months and I finally got a chance to try it with him for lunch. Around 12pm it was unusually empty but we were seating and served quickly. The lunch special is $7.99 and comes with soup, a veggie fried thing, another lentil soupy dish I don't know what it is, naan, rice, your choice of entree and a dessert (today a small bowl of coconut milk and tapioca thing). Tons of food! Entrees the list goes on from veggie options, chicken lamb and beef dishes. Had the butter chicken and it's one of the best I've ever had! It was a great meal which I could barely finish for an excellent price. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Yummy, Indian, and veg-friendly. Walking in, you are at once fearful and hopeful: fearful that, as the narrow space and mostly empty tables suggest, the food may be as questionable as the setting; and hopeful that, since it is clearly a hole-in-the-wall, perhaps you have found a hidden gem. I would say that Kothur is the latter - a hidden gem. Most entrees are priced around $10-11, give or take a couple dollars (veg dishes tend to be on the cheaper side). Both my friend and I loved the Vegetable Kurma, and I really enjoyed (her) Lamb Xacutti. The garlic naan was also everything I hoped it would be. However, as people have said, the appetizer platter is completely meh. If you want apps, go for the onion pakoras. My friend also liked the cutlets. Overall, this is a pretty great hole in the wall, and it gets bonus points for having so many delicious vegetarian entrees. I will be back for yummy Indian food (with good vegetarian options, too!) when I'm in the area. read more

Came here with coworkers for lunch and was pleasantly surprised. They feature a special lunch menu that is not featured in detail on their website (Photos of menu provided), which has a wide array of entrees that come with a soup, vegetable pakora, puvlav rice, naan bread, and a dessert of the day. This combo is $8.99 +tax, a great price for what you get. The Channa Masala entree was very flavourful. From first glance the portion looks small, but I assure you that your hunger will be satisfied. I asked for the medium spice level and it gave a good kicker, so choose your spice level wisely. The chickpeas were not too firm and not too mushy, the way channa masala is meant to be. I mentioned to the waiter that I was vegan, and when the chef (yes, chef, not the waiter) came to deliver the entrees, he put an individual bowl of rice on my plate because the puvlav rice contained butter. Even though I didn't ask about the rice, they took the initiative to make this change which I very much appreciate. The water is served out of a copper ewer and copper cups. It may look like drinking out of the cup will give you tetanus, but rest assured you're A-Okay. Drinking out of copper vessels have been proven to have many health benefits (go look it up!), so don't be alarmed. The only thing I'd say can be improved is the service. They should definitely hire more staff during the lunch rush hour. It was hard for us to get hold of our waiter when we wanted to pay our bill, so we ended up walking to the counter to pay. Overall, a satisfying experience with tasty food at a great price despite the lack of staff available. Would recommend if you're looking for some authentic Indian cuisine. read more

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Food comes slowly. Paneer Kothur is highly recommended, perfect with naan bread. read more

Kothur Indian Cuisine - Indian Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Order a veg sizzler and it was the worst sizzler I ever had. In name of veggies, it only had big peices of cauliflower with very little other veggies. It had too much mustard in it and very dry. I would not recommend that to anyone. I'm giving one extra star as the other dish - veg kurma was good. Would not go back again. read more

Good quality Indian food in the heart of DT Toronto. I've picked up from this place a handful of times now. The workers are always so kind and helpful, even quite chatty (in the best way). I got saffron rice, butter chicken, garlic naan and chicken biryani. Only reason why I won't give 5 stars is because the biryani was a little overpowering in flavor for my liking and the naan didn't taste quite as fresh as I remembered the last time I ordered it. Over all clearly quality food and I will definitely continue to support this local business! read more

Updating my review... Their food was delicious and inexpensive but now they failed their health inspection and their service has gone so downhill. They always seem to be understaffed and don't allow groups to pay individually, raised their prices twice and have a conditional pass. No longer coming here...  read more