Herby Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

I had the pleasure of visiting this restaurant for the first time tonight. It was a great find.

Food was fresh and fantastic. We had the Sampler for 2, and the portions were more than generous.

Let's star with a couple of detractors: 1, Chef Javad came out to greet the customers during service, which is adds a very nice touch. However, he completely skipped/ignored our table. Is there a secret hand sign to wave him down? I don't know, first time here. But this made us feel less welcomed than others. Not a great experience. Minus 1 star for service. Next time I visit, I will be sure to wave him down and have a chat because his food is so good. :)

The food was excellent, but it would have been perfect if it were cooked over charcoal. Yes charcoal and "Persian" food is a bit cliché when it's overdone, but after tasting Chef Javad's food, I think it would really define perfection. Then again it may not be in the chef's vision. Atmosphere was good and light. Very cool presence of Persian culture throughout. The choice of light jazz music, however, seemed to be a bit of juxtaposition - a little out of place I found.

Now, onto the good bits: the food. Hummus was very fresh and tasty. The Kashk e Bademjan was very flavourful, rich and light at the same time - that doesn't make sense, I know, but you have to try it to understand.

Main course consisted of a couple of stews (ghormeh sabzi with beef and fesenjan with chicken), koobideh and chicken kabobs. All of these were excellent. It's amazing how one can taste the individual spices yet they all jive together so well. The koobideh was like nothing I've had before - I could actually taste the beef itself! In other restaurants, all you can taste is smoky charcoal and onions. This one was…beef. This is precisely why I said earlier that if it were to be cooked over charcoal, I trust Chef Javad would find the perfect balance of smokiness so not to overpower the meat itself. Truly a highlight. Chicken kabobs are typically very boring…not these ones. They were cooked perfectly cooked. Just cooked enough into the centre so that the meat is extremely tender and moist. You can only have this kind of chicken if it's freshly cooked and served. I wonder if this would still be the same if the place was jam packed. The subtle blend of sumac and nutmeg works like magic on the chicken. Love it!

For dessert, we had saffron pistachio ice cream. Again, what a pleasant surprise. One can clearly taste the ingredients in it: the lusciousness of saffron, the richness of pistachios, the fragrance of rose petals, and I think there were pieces of bitter almond in there too, all very exquisitely tied together. Definitely something to savour over a cup (or glass shall I say?) of Persian black tea with rose petals.

All in all, a very good meal. Very different from your typical middle Easter cuisine in a good way! I'd go again if I'm...

We ordered a platter and asked to upgrade chicken kebab to beef kebab and agreed to pay the difference. The food presentation was nice. However, the dishes were too small and the big tray didn’t fit the table size. There were no room to put the plates on the table beside the big tray. The tray platter included yogurt, kashke bademjoon, salad, and barbari nan. The best part was barbari. Yogurt and Salad were nice. But the eggplant dish was not the kashke bademjoon, it was something else made with eggplant. Rice was an acceptable basmati rice, ghorme sabzi, was nice but was not the Persian ghorme sabzi. It tasted more like a combination of beans and ghalie Mahi. The taste was not bad, but it was definitely not ghorme sabzi! We also ordered fesenjoon. I didn’t like it as the texture was too soft, and the taste of the chicken was not good. Koobideh had a nice presentation, and edible. It was a bit too spicy, but overall acceptable. The worst food was the beef kebab. It looked like a kebab that you made a week ago, put it in the freezer, and reheat it in microwave to burn. We asked the waiter to return the kebab. A few min later, the restaurant owner came to convince us they use the most expensive and highest quality ingredients and Iranian customers expect to eat only one type of food in all restaurant. He explained that their ghorme sabzi has the taste of Tabriz. We told him that we didn’t complain about any other food on the table. He tried to convince us that we don’t have an idea how a beef kebab should be and all restaurant in north York uses chemicals in their kebab to make it tender but he does not. He started accusing Iranian customer to have high expectation about food. He believed each restaurant can have their own food receipt and he believes his food is the best and so on. He explained the food is made for non Iranians and he doesn’t want Iranian customers to come to his restaurant!!! I felt so, upset. Imagine coming to a restaurant with your family and the restaurant owner say that! After his 10 min lecture finished, I told him we are sorry to came to your restaurant and we left without finishing our food or desert. The waiter kindly packed our desert. I should say, luckily the ice cream was not made by them and it tasted good. We paid for complete price of platter, tea and desert and left the restaurant with great disappointment. My hand were shaking as I was not in such conversations for long time and was shocked by his rude behaviour. I don’t know what the restaurant’s owner was trying to achieve by such nasty behaviour.

I will never go to this restaurant and ruin my weekend and not recommend anyone to waste their time and money there.

The waiter was a polite person who could not understand Persian. Apparently they had such experiences before and tried to make us happy after the owner left.

The owner clearly said he doesn’t want...

We celebrated our very last night visiting Toronto at Herby restaurant. I had read and heard about this place and wanted to try it out myself. We entered and were welcomed right away on Sunday evening. Our server was quite knowledgeable and offered his honest opinion. We ordered Sultani (king platter on menu) with Tahdig or Gazmakh (crispy rice and potatoes of the pan bottom) with Joojeh or chicken breast kebab with rice and some Ayran or Dough (fermented yogurt traditional drink). While waiting for the food, the chef/ owner came out to pleasantly welcome us. The ambiance of the restaurant is quite heartwarming with the decorative items from Iran and some abstract paintings on the wall gives it a modern look and feel. Soon, the food arrived and we started to dig in. The first bite, burning my tongue, was of the complimentary Ghormesabzi stew and Tahdig. The bite took me back to the city of Tabriz and homemade meals of my grandmother and aunts. The aroma of the herbs was nothing like I had tasted in Canada before and later on we learned that sure enough the grade A organic herbs get picked and shipped directly from the farmers of Tabriz. The koobideh and Barg (beef filet) were also by far the best I have tried in Canada. Koobideh needs a recipe that is balanced and since the main ingredient is minced beef, many restaurants add things to bring the ratio of beef as low as possible. Herby's Koobideh was tender and the ratio of spices, onion and meat was right on the dot. Unlike many places, it was not greasy, taste like onion, or so hard that you can't cut throufh. The brisket minced beef has brought the koobideh up to a new level. Barg, or the beef filet too was by far the best I have had in Canada. The AAA beef was perfectly sliced, marinated and cooked to perfection. Again, it is very disappointing to see how other restaurants try to obscure the poor quality of beef with onion, butter or imitation saffron. Herby on the other hand brought all the flavors together to build up to the true flavor of the quality beef. We ended the meal with some saffron and pistachio ice cream (also complimentary) and yes, you guessed it right, the best of its kind. It is a must. Herby's chef, as mentioned, has learned the true essence of food and wants to share the joy with the customers. If cooking, as many believe, is an art, then Herby's chef is a true artist. Thank you for our pleasant...