Four GTA halal restaurants to check out for Eid al-Fitr

Khatab Hameed opened Matari Coffee last July at the Erin Mills Centre plaza at 3465 Platinum Dr. in Mississauga. The shop, named after the Bani Matar coffee-growing region, is as yet the only non-U.S. branch of a company with headquarters in Michigan (home to some 30,000 Yemeni-Americans).

The beans here, some roasted in Michigan and some at the Mississauga shop, have a strong cocoa aroma with a tart cherry tang at the finish.

For first-timers, the pour-over coffee is the best way to taste the beans in their purest form. The san’ani is a plain cup of medium roast coffee with a hint of cardamom; the mofawar is a version with cream. The drink that’s popular with coffee farmers, says Hameed, is qishr, a nutty and light-tasting brew of coffee husks with cinnamon and ginger. 

While Yemen isn’t as big of a coffee producer today, compared to, say, Brazil and Vietnam, the country is integral to coffee’s history. The word “mocha” comes from the Yemeni city of Mokha, which served as a major port for the coffee trade dating back to the 15th century.

Due to the ongoing civil war in Yemen, getting beans over here takes a while, but Hameed says it’s worth it — not only because the brews are good, but it’s also a sign of resilience. “When the war started,” he says, “people went back to (growing) coffee and thought, ‘This is our pride; we should stick with something positive. It’s our hope.’”

Pizza Karachi

It’s hard to single out just one restaurant at the Erin Mills Centre plaza, as this sprawling complex with dozens of restaurants and takeout spots has become a major GTA food destination in the two years since it opened.

A short walk from Matari Coffee is this halal pizza joint at 3960 Eglinton Ave. W., which founder Athar Amir describes as “Italy meets Karachi.”

“Pizza is really popular, especially in Karachi (Pakistan), just like any big city with people from all walks of life, where people bring their food to share,” says Amir.

The pizzas here are akin to the thicker, doughier, American-style pies popularized globally by chains like Pizza Hut, but with milk in the dough, there’s an extra creaminess.

Since opening the first of four locations, Amir says the three most popular pies are the spicy Mirchi Sauga, topped with chicken tikka, green peppers, roasted chilies, cilantro and onions; the less-spicy Afghani Feast, with a white pepper cream sauce, chicken tikka, red onions, tomatoes, black olives, jalapenos, roasted green chili and tzatziki; and for meat lovers, the Gosht Khor, with red sauce, beef pepperoni, beef salami, chicken tikka, minced beef, hot peppers and onion. There are also cheese, chicken kebab or beef kebab stuffed-crust options.

“We wanted to make it spicier, more flavour, which is closer to our traditional food,” he says.

Amir wants people to eat in, as the pizzeria is his throwback to the glory days of pizza buffets he visited with his family as a kid in Windsor. As an added incentive to dine in, the pies are delivered to the table by a roving robot.

“Ten, 20 years ago you used to have the sit-down pizzerias, and we don’t have that anymore. So I want to bring that back.”

Crown Pastries

It was eight years ago when brothers Ismail and Rasoul Alsalha were rolling phyllo dough in the bare-bones basement kitchen of their Crown Pastries dessert shop at the Wexford Heights Plaza in Scarborough, introducing Torontonians to the delicate baklava that’s been in their family for generations (their grandfather used to have a bakery in Aleppo, Syria). 

“I remember when a customer came, we’d have to stop everything, wash our hands, cover the dough and go upstairs to help them,” recalls Rasoul. 

The baklava — which goes easy on the syrup, letting the flavours of the flaky pastries and pistachios shine through — was an immediate hit.

Around this time, in the mid-2010s, other ventures such as Soufi’s in West Queen West and Newcomer Kitchen in Brockton Village popped up, which created a bigger appetite for Syrian flavours throughout the GTA. The brothers opened a second location of Crown Pastries, then a third and a fourth. In April 2023, a flagship 14,000-square-foot production kitchen opened at 1279 Kennedy Rd., not too far from the still-standing original location.

During Ramadan, the bakery makes special items such as walnut-stuffed atayef, a folded pancake-like dessert eaten at the end of the day; ma’arouk, a date-filled sweet bread; and machabak, a crispy spiral of fried dough, dipped in syrup. 

While the brothers have locations in Vaughan, Scarborough, Oakville and Mississauga, it’s only at the flagship location where they also serve breakfast and brunch. There are Turkish pides, falafel, hearty dips like hummus and mutabal; waffles and crepes; cheesy kunafa; and bowls of foul that come with housemade pitas and pickled vegetables. The Alsalhas’ favourite is the fatteh: crispy pita chips with cashews and chickpeas, smothered in a lemony garlic tahini yogurt. 

Chachee’s Chai Cafe

Big-box stores dominate the stretch of Scarborough’s Golden Mile just east of Warden, along Eglinton Avenue East, but south of that intersection is a mini treasure trove of independent eateries. One of them is Chachee’s Chai Cafe at 69 Lebovic Ave., a chai bar run by siblings and lifelong Scarborough residents Maisara and Zubair Memon. 

The cafe, originally called Chachi’s, after their dad’s “Happy Days”-inspired childhood nickname, is becoming Chachee’s to avoid confusion with a Canadian restaurant chain called Chachi’s. 

“We felt like there was a lack of representation for the second generation of South Asians,” says Maisara. “We wanted the stuff we grew up with at home and stuff we’d find in Canada.”

For the duo, that means extra-saucy butter chicken poutine and giant masala chicken cheesesteaks sharing a menu with classic karak chai (a rich and creamy masala chai), faloodas (an ice-cream shake with basil seeds, vermicelli and jelly) and third-wave espresso drinks.

Since opening in March 2020, the cafe has grown popular with area students who needed a place to study and hang out, as well as with night owls seeking a post-dinner coffee.

“During the evenings, it’s super busy because people want to get out, try new things, and just socialize,” says Zubair.

In 2022, the Memons opened a second location in Pickering, and are working on a third in Mississauga.

“In Scarborough you’ll find more of the OG (halal restaurants) that came up in the ’80s and ’90s,” says Maisara. “Whereas Mississauga has more fusion and younger people opening up (restaurants).”

Correction – April 8, 2024

This article previously identified Chachi’s as a west coast chai bar. It is, in fact, a Canadian restaurant chain.