MTR 1924 — Restaurant in Mississauga

I have never been more disappointed by a restaurant in my life. Being an ardent MTR fan, I was really wanting to try this restaurant out. I visited on 2 separate days and both dimes were a disaster. The first time I visited on November 10. They opened doors first in September, so they had about 2 months. yet, I decided to give them benefit of doubt. we arrived around 7:30pm for dinner and already many many items were sold out. we saw the adjacent table get up and leave because the orders were taking too long. The Service could not be worse. they take way too long to come take the order and the food was palatable the first time we went. However at 8:00pm, they ran out of many items and we were getting replacements that we did not ask for.

Fast forward January 1, 2025 - I wanted to give MTR a second chance, but I am so very disappointed by your restaurant, I hope to never ever come back. I'd rather take a flight back to india and eat there than come to this Mississauga location. We specifically called and asked if it was busy or we will get seated soon. we were a party of 16 along with very hungry kids but they assured us over the phone that it was not busy and we can get seated. Yet, when we arrived we had to wait 50 minutes before we got seated, that too, different parts of the restaurant and not together. People that got seated after us had their order taken. Yet another 20 minutes passed by before anyone comes to take our order, that too after I got up, walked to the host person who was taking orders and requested them to kindly come take our order. Of course as usual by 8:30pm, they had nothing left on the menu except some limited items - no Bisi Belle bath, no thali. They didn't even have Benne masala dose. they had regular masala dosa, but no Benne Masala dosa ? How don't you have some Ghee lying around by 8:30 in this restaurant? I finally ordered Bengaluru Sev Puri and a Puri combo meal since that was the only thing available.

The SEV Puri: OMG - the worst. it was one plate of watery stuff, looked like he brought me the leftovers of someone else's table. when I said this does not look appropriate, he took the same plate, didn't even wipe the sides, returned with more watery stuff, and soggy puri. you can see the picture vs what I actually got. each item did not come for at least half an hour or more. the chutney had no salt and was tasteless. Sagu for poori was watery and bland as well. Yet, somehow as part of the combo, they served Bisi Belle Baath. (remember Bisi Belle Baath was sold out?).

They only had dosa varieties and some of our friends and kids ordered Dosa. to be honest - the kids dosa was the same size as the adults dosa, yet, we were paying almost $5-$7 more for the adult version. Despite ordering an adult size dosa for the kids (8 and 10) year old, they were still hungry because the Dosa was so SMALL.

after 2.5 hours, our orders still had not come in entirely - kids missing ice cream, more dosa and vada did not get served at all. It was so late, we just had no choice to get up and leave the restaurant still quite hungry because the tiny dosa was not sufficient.

MTR - please do not ruin your reputation by running this branch like this. I had some respect for the origins of MTR but thanks to the VERY DISAPPOINTING experiences, not once, but TWICE, I will never be visiting and also request you all to save your money and go to Saravana Bhavan or Magadhi, where the food is infinitely better compared to this MTR.

Photos in order: 1 picture, January 1 - Sev Puri 2 picture January 1 - Same Sev Puri 3 picture January 1 - Website picture vs Reality. 4 picture November 10 - Dosa for reference. they add some green paste to all plain Dosas as well, which is so strange. 5 picture November 10 - Bisi Belle bath with meal 6 picture November 10 - Meal 1 7 picture November 10 - Meal 2, they already ran out of portal and gave some fried bajji instead.

Anyway to end my review, save your money and go elsewhere. you will be disappointed if you visit...

I was extremely excited that MTR was opening in GTA but was thoroughly disappointed when I visited it last weekend. MTR Mississauga is nowhere close to the MTR Lalbagh standards.

The dose batter was not fermented enough and had no salt in it. I eat very little salt and usually find restaurant food salty but these dose were bland.

Food was brought out of order. This isn't an offense but when you are served the dose first, coffee next and the idli vada in the end, you know you are not in an authentic South Indian restaurant.

The benne dose was nothing like authentic benne dose and the set dose were nothing like set dose should be. Having eaten at multiple MTRs in Bangalore, you can tell the difference.

The vadas were just barely cooked. They needed to be cooked for another 30 - 60 secs. I also do the "sogginess test" in all the South Indian restaurants with my vadas by dipping them in sambar for 1-2 minutes. If it still comes out even a little crispiness, it passes my test with flying colours. MTR in Bangalore was the only one that had passed this test in the last 10 years. The dipped vadas in Mississauga MTR unfortunately were super soggy. I tried with the vada from the idli vada plate too and it failed as well.

The quintessential boondi was missing from the bisi bele bath. I don't know whether MTR in Bangalore provides it but bisi bele bath feels incomplete without it.

The sagu was very watery and it lacked flavour whereas the sambar was overdone and salty.

When serving 2 cups of coffee, at least provide 3 spoons. 2 for the individual cups and 1 for adding sugar so that people don't use the same spoon for stirring and put it back in the sugar bowl.

From the conversations happening with waiters all around us, it appears that a few of your waiters/waitresses don't even know what is on the menu. They were getting confused between idli and button idli, idli and idli vada etc. We got served idlis at first but our waitress was attentive and sent the person back saying that our order was for idli vada and not idli. Then we got the idli vada 25 minutes later.

We went at the start of the shift before they even started taking orders. Even with that, our food came out very late and it came out cold. The food must have been sitting in the kitchen for a while because the ghee that came with the bisi bele bath has turned solid.

The waitress who checked us out in the end (not the one who took our order) was having some trouble using the machine as well.

The only two positives were the pachadi that was served with the bisi bele bath, and the waitress who took our order. She knew what was what and sounded like someone who has worked in this field. Hence, the 2 stars.

The owners of this location need to step up to match the same standards as MTR Lalbagh and probably work on your soft launch for longer until your kitchen staff and wait staff understand what they are cooking and serving. I would like to have a better experience here in the future so I will visit again in a few months to see if these teething...

Great to have a Bangalore restaurant in GTA. We were missing some of the quintessential South Indian dishes here like Rava Idly, Chow Chow Baath, Bisi Bele Baath in other restaurants here but now that gap has been filled by MTR. Overall, the experience was pleasant, the food was simple yet quite nostalgic.

The experience on the opening night was okay, I may visit again perhaps months later to see if they truly stand the test of time. The food was as expected, good flavours and tasted fresh. We ordered Rava Idly, Bisi Bele Baath, Rice Idly, Masala Dose. I was definitely missing the Bangalore-style sambhar and was not disappointed here. They operated on a limited menu, so a next visit is very much warranted to see if they're actually good or if it was the opening night hype. Also, add prices to your limited menu for customers to make decisions based on price, too.

What can improve here are the ambience and the service. The ambience felt a bit chaotic with a lot of people moving around all the time and was very loud. Now, coming to the service, while our service was mostly good, in general, it was quite the opposite - need a lot of work to be done here. I could see a lot of customers frustrated waiting for their orders or not getting the attention of the wait staff. The table next to us had been waiting for quite some time (45+ mins) for their dishes while we received it soon after we ordered. And if we asked for water, for example, we had to ask 2-3 people before we got it from someone. Special shoutout to our server, Navneet. She was consistent and ensured we were served well and soon. As I said, it could just be the opening night chaos. Hopefully this improves soon as we want them to succeed.

For the owners - Please rework on the pricing - this could be an area you could lose customers over time especially with cheaper options close by. $17 for 1 Masala Dose is a lot in comparison to your competitors, given your smaller size dose.

For future customers - Don't expect this to be like the other South Indian restaurants in GTA in terms of quantity and variety of dishes. This is a Bangalore-style restaurant and it comes with its nuances. Come with an open mind...