I love indian food but have never gone to a South Indian restaurant so a friend and myself tried it out. Everything was great - food and service. Since we weren't completely familiar with the menu our server helped us out a great deal. Although when we were ready to leave it took a while for us to get the server's attention again to grab the bill, we were happy that we got to sit a bit longer. As many people have said their dosas are great. We will definitely be back! read more

Popped in here on New Year's when I was craving dosa and South Indian Dosa Mahal was closed due to the holiday. Very glad I did; restaurant was crowded but the food was tasty and fresh and portions were ginormous--more than enough for lunch the next day. I was leaving for NYC in the morning and trying to use up my Canadian money so the waitress even shaved a little off my bill to make it work. Keep giving that dosa love to the starving masses, guys! read more

The food tastes awesome. They have a dedicated team of staff who are running around taking orders from the customers. There is a constant stream of customers pouring in everyday! They also have take-out and delivery options. I tried almost all their south Indian dishes. I can safely assure prospective customers that the foods served here are as authentic as South Indian food can get. I was pretty surprised by the fact that so many Canadians love Indian food as they kept coming in droves to this restaurant. If you live/stay in the Little Italy locality in Toronto, this place is a must-go. Its worth it! read more

wonderful restaurant!! The food is exeptional. If you like spicy indian food you'll love this place. The staff is super friendly, fast, and curtious. Their curry platters as well as their eggplant is quite good. I was a huge fan of their naan bread. I think I ended up taking a whole bunch home. The ambiance of the restaurant isn't the best.....but their food makes up for that all the way. The best part is they are close to my house and they deliver now too!! read more

Upping to five stars. Everything on return visits has been equally good. Madras chicken is a great non-vegitarian entree.

I love Indian food, and I'm always trying to find the best Indian restaurant in Toronto. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants I've tried aren't that good. The best options are available outside the downtown core (in Mississauga and Brampton), but since I live downtown, I try to make do with what's available locally. I've eaten at Madras Masala three times, and ordered takeout at least half a dozen times. Each time, the food was consistently tasty, and usually well-made. Note that they use whole spices in their curries, so you may end up with a few bites filled with the over-spiced flavours of cardamom, cloves or curry leaf. They also use dark meat for their chicken dishes, so don't order chicken if you prefer white meat. Their lamb is really tender, so I usually order lamb instead of chicken. Here are the items I usually order: Chicken hyderabadi: this dish is delicious, and served with DARK meat chicken. It's a savoury blend of saffron and yogurt, and it can be made spicy to order. I think the spicing goes better with chicken than lamb, but they also offer it as a lamb dish. Lamb pasantha: the lamb is super tender, and the dish is tasty and aromatic. It's lightly sweet, but the sweetness is balanced by fresh fenugreek leaves. Lamb chettinad: this dish is very well-spiced. It's a dark, rich curry that tastes heavily of cardamom, cloves and mace. Gunpowder dosa: their dosas are delicious! If you're getting takeout/delivery, ask them to wrap it in aluminum foil so the dosa doesn't get soggy on your way home. The gunpowder dosa is nice and spicy. Sag paneer: this isn't on their menu, but you can actually order anything from BANJARA's menu through Madras Masala, so you can get both types of dishes in one order. I've ordered channa masala and aloo gobi this way as well! I'd recommend against ordering the paneer shahi. It's bland and just tastes like a bowl of semi-spiced yogurt with cubes of paneer (every bite made my mouth scream "OMG TOO MUCH DAIRY"). It was the worst dish I've ever ordered from Madras Masala. read more

Not even worth a star but because yelp requires atleast one hence giving it. My family and I went for dinner on Boxing Day and the food was PATHETIC. My entire family fell sick. Each and everyone vomited the whole night with stomach flu for 3 days until we felt better. Even if you are starving and these guys give you free food please AVOID!! read more

I found the thali nice but not very authentic. Still enjoyed it but wouldn't go back.

I love South Indian food and wanted to give this place a try because of the amazing Yelp ratings. This place exceeded my expectations! I went there for lunch (around 2pm) and ordered a Masala Dosa and salty lassi. The dosa was HUGE! (only $9.99) The dosa was fresh, crisp and came with sambhar, red chutney and white coconut chutney. The lassi was pretty good too ($2.50)! The ambience was great! They were playing the latest Bollywood music :) If you live in Toronto, give this place a try instead of commuting all the way to Gurulakshmi in Mississauga (which is overrated in my opinion). read more

I don't remember what I had because my bf's food was too enticing so I was busily stealing his food. He had the cheese dosa which was so damn delicious! It was crispy and the cheese was like the kind u see in pizza commercials... it stretches for miles (okay maybe just centimeters). I will definitely be back to order that! read more

The food was pretty much as expected. We ordered podi masala dosa and rava dosa. Rova dosa tasted really nice just that it was very oily. Podi masala dosa's masala was really bland. the red chutney is very tasty though. Service is a little sloppy as we had to ask for napkins and cutlery even after waiting for sometime after the food was served. read more

Go to this place when we are in a hurry and can't really decide where else to go. The special Rava masala dosa is my favourite. The serving size is huge. Usually can't finish one by myself if combined with idli or dahi vada. They are both nice to try. Next time plan on trying the kuttu paranthas read more

Good and Bad. Awesome Dosa. I wanted to have some good south Indian food and it served me well. Even Indian Masala Tea was good. Though Dahi Puri was sub standard, no complaints as I had gone for Dosa which was good read more

Simply the best dosa I've ever had and I'm from South India. The dosas are crispy if you get the paper version and their molagapodi (aka Gunpowder) is spicy and full of flavour. Service is great with the servers greeting us by name by our third visit and always treating us like VIP customers. Make sure you finish your meal with the Madras coffee. Though they use brew brand coffee powder to make, it rounds off the meal perfectly. The place is a bit of a dive but it's easily forgivable because it has confidence and authenticity. This is how a roadside dosa place would be like in India and you get a free trip there if just for an hour. read more

This is my go-to place for dosas west of Yonge. Prompt, courteous service. Great chicken and fish masala dosas -- my 3 year-old loves the cheese cone dosas. Laid-back, welcoming atmosphere. What's not to love. read more

I have been to Madras Masal many times, and have had great food each time. I recommend the dosas especially. I find it reasonable, not fancy dining by any means, but delicious and complex in their spicing. read more

The Dosa here is fantastic! The service a little slow. The male servers seem more interested in giving you a smile and checking up on you. But the female here could give less of a Crap. I will return but only because there's only one other place to get dosa nearby and the service there is basically non existent! read more

We had gone there to eat masala dosa ... But then we eat Pani puri which was extremely delicious.. we could not resist to eat just one. So we had to order 8 more plates read more

Delicious butter chicken and naan. Its not on the menu, just ask for it. Also friendly customer service!

We tried a couple of chaat and dosas. The chaat were good. We had cheese Mysore masala dosa and ghee masala dosa. The size of the dosas were huge compared to the restaurants we have had earlier but tasted just okay. Dosas were crispy but I felt they were little less tastier. For the size of the dosas, the chutney and sambar is not enough. The sambar and chutneys tasted good. read more

Not very good ambience. Doesn't leave a good impression of India. Food tasted good though however the mysore masala didn't have the special mysore chatni. Also the malai kulfi was a big expectations breaker ! Worth a visit if you are in Toronto and wish to dive in some South Indian specilities read more

Closer to 3.5 stars. Love the dosas here. They are about 20% over priced. 4 star food an service. 3 star ambience and pricing read more

My favourite restaurant in all of Toronto. Food is always delicious and they have beer on tap. Came here before I was a parent and now bring my kid here as they have a kids menu and are very kid friendly. Highly recommended. read more

This place is our local and we're never disappointed. Service is great and the food is fantastic. read more

Love this place - especially the Rasam soup. Yum. Friendly and attentive to our kids too who enjoy eating up the Naan bread. They also do have kids' options on the menu which is quite unusual, in my experience, in an Indian restaurant. read more

This by far the best South Indian restaurant I haven to outside of India. We were two of us and we ordered a mutton masala dosa, Hyderabadi mutton dum biryani, mutton chettinad. Each dish was absolutely delicious! I love the idea of mutton masala stuffing for the dosa. Every thing was presented well also. The waiter was extremely friendly. The place is not big nor well decorated, but the food makes overlook any flaw they may have! If you are in Toronto, this is a must restaurant to try. read more

This place is over priced and has rude waiters with no customer service. Not recommended at all.

Sorry guys if you need upset stomach then go here. Doaa full of baking soda. Masala was very spicy.

The service is not good. Do NOT order Biriyani here. It's garbage. Dosa and other stuff are ok. read more

The food was delicious and not overly spicy. The service was very friendly. Would definitely recommend this place.

Came here last night with a friend after work. Location is really convenient, just a stone's throw from Christie station. It's a bit of a hole in the wall, at least compared to it's neighbour which I suspect is owned by the same people but I don't know for sure. I ordered the lamb xacutti, homestyle paratha, and garlic naan for myself. Split an order of calamari pakoras and my friend ordered the chicken chettinad and rice. Calamari pakoras were good! But for $5.50 I expected a bit more of them. The lamb xacutti was excellent. The lamb was cooked to perfection and the flavours of the dish were on point. The curries come in these small silver pots which are very deceiving. You think it's not a lot of food but it most definitely is! The paratha was really good, a little on the burnt side but was still delicious as was the garlic naan. If you like garlic and you like naan, get their garlic naan. It is probably some of the best garlic naan I've ever eaten and I've eaten garlic naan in a number of restaurants. When you order the paratha or naan, it's a single order of bread just fyi. In my books, still definitely worth it. The chicken chettinad was also very good. My friend got it medium spicy but after tasting it she wishes she got it full spice. It came with good sized chunks of tender chicken. Our bill came to $45 after tax and we were positively stuffed. The waiters were friendly and to be honest, in places like this I don't care much for service if the food is amazing and cheap. My barometer for eating food from a certain culture is if people from that culture eat there and let me tell you there were a number of people from that part of south Asia who were eating there. Will definitely come back again. Food is just too good not to! read more

Great food. Delicious dosa (a nice thin rice and lentils crepe). The sweet lassi (yogourt drink) is frothy and yummy. Order a thali (not necessarily written on the menu) and you won't regret it. Decor is simple, basic, not pretentious. Washroom experience could be a bit better. read more

Best dosa place in Toronto. It tastes authentic, with actual flavor and spice, unlike a lot of other dosa places that try to cater to the western palate. read more

Dynamite dosas!!!! That s the review we found when we were looking at this place. True to its review, dosas were dynamites in portion and taste. Sambhar vada was good. Although gun powder dint blend well with dosa batter, the dosa as such was good and huge enough to fill your tummy. The thali was good as well. The coffee, though instant coffee-not the classic filter coffee, was pretty good. A pretty decent place for a dinner and relatively easy on wallet. read more

Be careful of the chicken, they don't know how to cook it. I ordered the Xacuti chicken and found it to be undercooked. I wasn't going to say anything, and was patiently eating around the uncooked centres of the chicken pieces, but when the waitress asked me how my meal was, I wasn't going to lie. I told her the chicken was undercooked. Just to be clear, the chicken wasn't pink on the outside where a marinade would change the colouring. No. The chicken was pink and gummy in the *centre*. She took my chicken away, then came back and asked if I wanted butter chicken instead (which isn't on the menu). She said I wouldn't have to pay for it. She couldn't explain why she was offering me a different meal, and couldn't answer when I asked if the butter chicken would be properly cooked. I asked for the Xacuti chicken again. She came back with the Xacuti chicken. I think they simply warmed it up in the microwave or something, because it was drier, but still undercooked. I had run out of time for another do-over by then, so I pushed it aside and didn't eat it. So she brought the bill which was $18.05 for undercooked chicken, plain rice, and a mild chai tea. She explained to me that their chicken doesn't have bones. ????? She acted like that explained everything somehow. Although I realize that that recipe can be made with bone-in chicken, I wasn't upset about the lack of chicken bones. I was concerned about food poisoning. Now I wonder what she told the cook. Who was talking about bones? And why did she offer me off-the-menu butter chicken? Does she think I don't understand Indian cooking and can only accept mass-appeal butter chicken? Should I be insulted? In retrospect, I regret paying the full bill without arguing it further, and regret giving the girl a full 15% tip. If she thinks serving potential food poisoning is reasonable, she needs training in basic food safety. As does the cook. read more

Absolutely love this place! Wanted Indian food on a whim and we were in the Bloor area. Indian food at its best!!!

sambar and chutney is tasteless and ridiculous...the dosas are good but even for someone who loves butter there was way too much oil on them...i wouldnt repeat coz of the subpar sambhar and chutney read more

Your stomach might hurt the next day but it's well worth the minor discomfort to try Madras Masala. I heard about the dosas here and wanted to try it since I've never experienced a "dosa" before (the closest being a thicker, spongier pancake at a restaurant in Little India which the name eludes me right now). I tried the "Chilly Cheese Masala Dosa", "Kadhai Paneer" and "Gobi Manchurian" while my meateating friends ordered a lamb dish and the mysore (might want to reconsider a namechange) masala dosa. There were four of us and that was plenty of food. Don't be alarmed at the size of the dosa. It is after all as thin as a crepe. You could see the red chili flake specks in the dosa. It was crispy, greasy, and holy crap! spicy! (I'm not prone to select "white" whenever there's a chili meter option either). The dosa comes in a triangular shape on a metal platter with some dipping sauces. In one of the corners, it's filled with potato mash. The Kadhai Paneer was not as memorable but maybe because I was so enamoured with the "Gobi Manchurian". it's what I imagine General Tsao Chicken tastes like if I ate meat. It was cauliflower coated in this thick, crispy batter and a gingery sauce sticking to it. Very delicious! As for service, I think we annoyed the waiter with our presence. My friend ordered a bottle of beer but he brought a draft beer and the look on his face indicated that we shouldn't bother putting up a fuss about it. We're easily intimidated people. Other than that, the price was very good (rice, 2 dosas, 3 dishes and a beer each split amongst 4 people came to around $22 with tip & tax). I love Madras Masala's neighbour, Banjara but if I crave a dosa, this is definitely the place to go (even if you have to pop a few peptos later). read more

My first time eating dosa. I tried the chilli cheese one and it was great. I really enjoyed the coconut chutney; the tomato chutney was good too. The dahi vada was a very appetizer too. Big servings and not pricey. read more

Great idlis and good food overall. Great service as well with very courteous people. Will definitely go there again !