Saffron Spice Kitchen — Restaurant in Toronto

Used to be one of my go-to spots downtown when I needed my South Asian food fix with good customer service, and I have recommended several colleagues here in the past, but both the service and food quality have declined significantly over the past year. The kothu roti seems to be the only thing still worth getting in my opinion. I hate to give a lousy review, especially when restaurants have been hurting due to COVID and for a restaurant I used to like, but I recently had a biryani takeout which was obviously left out for hours (or even leftovers, as I visited just past noon and the restaurant opens at 11am) - the food was cold, cooled condensation could be seen inside the container, the eggplant was insipid and not chewy like a freshly prepared eggplant should be, the chicken tasted old and leathery, the egg white was rubbery and disintegrated easily instead of being springy, the egg white was thoroughly purple in colour (the colour transfer from the eggplant and the depth of permeation showed how long the egg had been in contact with the eggplant before I received my food, which should usually take hours) and the egg yolk was chalky and grey instead of the usual bright yellow. Food safety and hygiene are paramount, and for the good money customers are paying, we...

First of all it’s not an Sri Lankan Restuarant! Having a One of the common language speaking Sri Lankan cook doesn’t make it or gives a right to announce as a Sri Lankan Restuarant, to be a categorised or named you need to have at least 95% of flavours from those announced category then remaining 5% should be a fusion of but flavour of originated It’s a Indian restaurant with Indian food, Food is very average and there’s lot more better quality Indian restaurants compared to this place, at better prices, certainly not a second return! I totally agreed with few people comments regarding kotthu ( taste like roti chopped in extra spicy marinated onions and curry then added chicken or mutton) and I believe they know by all means how’s food taste and what’s their commenting about, People who rated high and says best I’m sorry honestly they need to know what’s Kotthu roti and taste a real flavour. After all it’s a total individual choice as we do not entertain or pays each other’s bills, you pay and you eat or entertain yourself, This is a comment as a visited customer so no hard feelings. Honest and sincere comment with over two decades of being a qualified Chef! Good...

I will start off by saying I was born in Sri Lanka and have eaten A LOT of kothu roti. There are some great spots in the GTA (mainly Scarborough), but sadly this isn't one of them.

I ordered the lamb kothu roti and although it smelled nice, there was barely any flavour to it. Very much a far cry from the delicious dishes served in Scarborough. Plus the price was way more than I am used to paying for Sri Lankan food. Hopper Hut for example has mutton kothu priced at $7.00 (compared to $11.50 here) and it's absolutely delicious. I understand it's downtown and prices have to reflect that, so I can't complain too much there. I just wish the flavour was there, as I was left very disappointed.

Also one other major factor was the spice. Sri Lankan food is known to be very spicy. I asked for it to be made spicy, but there was barely enough spice to give my tongue a tingle. Sri Lankan food should be spicy!!!

I just want to make sure people who are trying kothu roti for the first time don't use the kothu from here as their basis for whether its tasty or not. I will say though, the portion sizes were generous, so there's that!

Here's hoping they get better and...