Mantra by Host — Restaurant in Toronto

The Good : -Service is great.The server Amrit is quite patient and attentive to customers. -The food is delicious and authentic. -Pani Puri(a little sour but good) .The pani puri has zinger and full of flavors. -Tandoori Chicken (Sizzling) is served on hot pan sizzling and it tasted so flavourful with green sauce. -Chicken 65 is sucrumptious and has tangy-spicy taste with great texture . -Rogan Josh was a good addition and worked great as contrast for 65.Mild spicy flavors with chewy lamb. -Naan tastes fresh and compliments with everything that is served. -Portions are decent but not too big. -A little expensive but worth the buck as it is classy.

The Bad:-(THIS IS A RANT ABOUT CHAI)

We ordered 3 cups of Masala Chai after i read that the Tea is made with their house made masala. Now i am an absolute Tea Lover and i take Tea very seriously. The tea was possibly the worst one i have had at an Indian Place. I like my tea Boiling Hot but i can drink regular hot as well.Their tea was lukewarm which tasted so bad in cold temperature outside. My bro was saying that it is the teabag dipping one not loose leaf . There was no taste of Masala of any kind. I brew my own tea everyday by crushing Cinnamon,Cardamom (Green or Black),Clove and Ginger in morter and pestel. I have brewed masala tea too many times to know how it tastes. When the Chai is reheated or re-boiled ,the taste changes or when it is stored in a Thermal Contrainer for 6-8 hours .

This tea had the same taste with no masala flavor and it was cold which kinda ruined my expectations after a yummy meal and closure to great Diwali Dinner.

Amrit ,the awesome server offered to boil the tea for us or bring us new fresh order but she also claimed that it is freshly made which i do not believe .(Sorry Amrit :)) She did not include the tea in our bill. I will try the tea once more in future and may change my rating. We also received a Diwali Lamp from Mantra which looks so festive.

Suggestion :-

In the times of COVID ,this place has set up heated patio for dine in . The setup outisde the tent is not good for more than 2 people. We were 3 and the person away from heat lamp pole did not get heat at all and direct cold wind starts and it gets worse while waiting .There should be more heat sources outside in the open or the tented area should be bigger to accommodate more guests for a comfortable and warm dine in.

Reply to Owner:

I believe you that the tea is made freshly with every order but it wasn't surely made fresh for us and i would not lie about it as i have praised your food and service a lot. It was surely a blemish on that perfect meal. It was lukewarm and stale with no flavor or masala.I hope i do get the real fresh one when i...

Went to Mantra for the first time as part of Summerlicious 2025 for a late lunch. The restaurant was hosting a baby shower but it looks like they were there for awhile already so the servers weren't busy and were able to check our reservation quickly.

The restaurant itself was decorated nicely and had a nice atmosphere. And would be good for a date.

However we noticed the Summerlicious menu they provided us didn't match the menu provided on the Summerlicious website. Some dishes that were offered online were not being offered in person. Not a big issue since the items we wanted were still on the menu.

We also found that the in-person menu stated that a house salad was part of the main entree (more on this later) so we decided to choose non-salad options for our appetizers. We chose the Chili Chicken Bao and the Calamari 65. And both were great.

The Bao was very flavourful with a good balance of spicy and sweetness. While the calamari was tender even while having a nice crispy batter. Both arrived quickly after we placed our orders which was good.

But that would be the best part of the lunch, once our appetizer plates were cleared, it would take over 30 minutes before our main entrees would arrive. We ordered the Butter Chicken Bowl and the Lamb Curry Bowl along with some garlic naan. It would be too hard to imagine that they would take over 30 minutes to prepare the bowls. Instead we believe it was the naan that took the longest time as it was made fresh. This wait would've been fine if the previously mentioned house salad was given to us to help make the wait more tolerable. But they never came. Despite being explicitly stated to be included with our entrees on their Summerlicious menu, we were never served any salad.

That was definitely the biggest disappointment of the lunch.

Outside of that, the fresh naan was actually very tasty and the butter chicken was creamy with a nice citrus touch to it. However the lamb curry bowl wasn't the best. It was very watery and not consistent with what you would expect for a curry.

Dessert consisted of the Tiramisu and Halwa Cheesecake. The cheesecake and tiramisu tasted alright but it is worth noting that the tiramisu was a bit too soggy as they cover it with cream for their take of it.

Overall the food had some hits and misses. For the $27 Summerlicious price it was ok. But we are still wondering what happened to our house salads as the staff was not busy (we even saw them start their own lunch break) and they never checked in on us outside of giving...

I will give zero star.

I was a very regular customer at this restaurant and had very bad experience on July 10, 2022. I had a special occasion to celebrate with my friend and her kids and had arranged to take them to dinner.

The wait staff were friendly, but it took over an hour to get served. My friend was disappointed because her daughter was hungry. I asked our server where our food was, the server apologized for the wait and told me they would check on it.

Almost immediately, a female approached me and yelled at me stating that I should not bother her staff. I tried to explain that I was just asking about the delay of our food. She continued to yell at me and told me not to talk to them. I asked to speak to the owner, she told me she was the owner and to speak to her and then she said she is the owner’s wife.

Her yelling was causing a scene in the restaurant, and everyone was looking at us. Just then the owner passed by and I asked to speak to him. He was extremely rude and said that we can leave the restaurant as they had pressure. We all were in a shock. we had had enough and left.

When you can not handle the pressure, it makes no sense to treat the customer so rudely. I was not looking for anything special, even though I have gone many times to this restaurant and refer to all my friends and family members. All I was asking about was the delay in getting served in a polite way.

I have never been treated so rudely before. I was disappointed, upset, and embarrassed. What should have been a happy celebration was ruined by the owner and his wife.

I will never, ever go there again and also not to refer to anyone else.

Nobody, whether a regular customer or a first-time customer should be...