Best Persian Food Places near Downtown Toronto

Photo by: Owner/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on Yonge St near Downtown Toronto, Darvish Restaurant is a Persian restaurant and is mainly famous for its outstanding customer service. This is the place for those who desire to have a nice meal and go back to the nostalgic feelings of a home-cooked meal. The restaurant is filled with little treasures and trophies from Iran, and its simple menu offers a beginner’s guide to Persian cuisine. The dishes are all very delicious and tasteful, but the most famous food item at Darvish Persian Restaurant is the Zeytoon Parvardeh. The dish includes green olives, which are marinated in a special walnut and pomegranate sauce. This dish makes a fantastic appetizer.
The Mast-o-Moosir is another brilliant appetizer, including yogurt with diced shallots. Moving on to the main course, the Koobideh Kebab is a favourite dish. It includes skewers of perfectly spicy beef mince, served with rice and grilled tomato. The Darvish Kebab Platter is also extremely popular, including a variety of kebabs served with rice and grilled tomatoes. The staff is very professional, hardworking and passionate about the work they do. Moreover, the ambiance of the restaurant is welcoming. The pleasant lights, fancy decorations, and comfortable seating space catch the attention of customers.

Photo by: Owner/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google

If you are looking for the best restaurant near Downtown Toronto, you’d better stop searching and check out Haida Sandwich’s online menu to choose from some of the best Persian fast foods and eat them with great relish. If you want to have a delicious Persian-style pizza, you can find it at Haida and enjoy the great taste. The Persian-style pizzas layering begins with tomato sauce, cheese, different kinds of meat, and then it’s topped off with more cheese, a wide assortment of veggies and special sauce.
Haida Sandwich in Toronto prepares the best Persian-style food based on Canadian standards. Big-sized sandwiches and pizzas will blow you away as they are enough to full two people, offered at attractive prices. Their large sandwiches filled with beef and chicken, crispy chips and delicious pickles dipped in a sauce are the best option. Just call and let them make your day memorable with the food and also delivery service. They offer a delivery service near Downtown Toronto so you can place an online order, and your food will be delivered as fast as it is possible.

Photo by: Azadeh Babali/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on Bay St near Downtown Toronto, Tabriz Persian Cookhouse offers amazing Persian food, with a comforting ambiance and modern interior decorated in grey and white. Together with free Wi-Fi and an outdoor patio, it’s the perfect place for a quick coffee or a power lunch. The restaurant’s great location makes it easy to drop by, even in rush hours. They offer some of the best and tastiest desserts you may find in Downtown Toronto such as the Faloodeh – an icy treat made with sweet vermicelli, rose water and fruit juice, and Persian ice cream served in saffron and pistachio flavours.
Tabriz Persian cookhouse uses fresh ingredients, making their food an authentic and unique one. The flavorful, tasty, and mouth-watering foods in decent-sized portions make you feel like you are eating homemade food. You can have the Lamb shank, which melts in your mouth, while the traditional soup revives the words “traditional” and “authentic.” Also, a fantastic patio with comfortable seats can be a cozy place to have your meal. Lastly, with its delicious food, Tabriz cookhouse can cater to your events perfectly with Middle Eastern food, which certainly would be a memorable experience.

Photo by: Mehran Karimzadeh/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on Dundas St W near Downtown Toronto, Sumac Kebab Kitchen serves a variety of kebabs with different sauces, tender and juicy meat and fresh comfort food. At this place, you’ll be offered various chicken and beef kebab options, as well as shrimp, served in two ways: on a plate with salad, rice or yogurt, or in a sub sans sides. The beef kebab is also recommended, as the meat is hearty but tender, juicy with big beef flavour; it comes with fragrant jasmine rice and a meaty roasted tomato. This dish is worth a try, and its presentation is Instagrammable.
The chicken mix sandwich, which comes in white or dark meat, is a little more exciting, topped with tomato, pickle, onions, mayo and parsley. Once again, the meat is tender, brimming with spice and a faint but pleasant char, and a deal at seven bucks. Better than either of the dishes mentioned above is the eggplant stew, served with rice and yogurt. It’s the kind of dish you would serve an unruly child to trick them into eating their vegetables. The meaty eggplant is cooked down to a thick, dip-like consistency, then topped with yogurt and herb tapenade and studded with caramelized onion.

Photo by: Owner/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on Queen St W near Downtown Toronto, Banu is a family-run restaurant where offers authentic Persian cuisine in a cozy, family-oriented atmosphere. For more than a decade, Banu has been serving up the very best of Persian-inspired cocktails and cuisines. Banu has an impressive menu that boasts a variety of Persian bar foods. The centrepiece of Banu’s beautifully designed interior pays homage to Tehran of the 1970s, and its menu boasts offerings of kebabs which are skewered with sizzling sirloin, beef ribs and chicken wings.
The first thing you may want to try is a cocktail. You can drink Safka, which is made with house-infused saffron vodka, sour cherry juice and pomegranate seeds. It is served with a small bowl of pistachios. The cocktail is just perfect. Nothing is more overpowering. For the main meal, go for the Murgh (chicken breast in a saffron citrus glaze) or the Torsh (beef tenderloin in a pomegranate walnut marinade). Both come with the traditional broiled tomatoes, a yogurt-cucumber sauce sprinkled with ground rose petals, a bowl of sumac to sprinkle on your meats, mint and basil leaves and a flatbread.

Photo by: Owner/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located near downtown’s Little Italy, Pomegranate Restaurant has been serving Persian cuisine since 2004. This cozy restaurant features handmade tablecloths, Minakari, textiles – all of which accentuate Persian culture. The paintings decorated inside the restaurant display Iranian heroes and legends to take you back to the past, while the walls are also adorned by calligraphy and poetry. The only thing that is more authentic than Pomegranate’s design is possibly its food, consisting of a large variety of meat stews, rice platters and vegetarian entrées.
The menu at the Pomegranate includes both food and drinks, with a focus on wines from around the world. The appetizer choices range from the Mast-e Saadeh, creamy yogurt with mint and rose petals, to pickled gherkins with shallots and garlic. There is a choice of salad before heading down to the entrees. The entrees are served with basmati rice, yogurt, salad and mixed greens. Choose from the Aloo Gheysi, a stew of plums and apricots with chicken and be sure to try the restaurant’s polo dishes; Fragrant jasmine rice interlaced with the sweetness of dried fruits and nuts, served on its own or with a tender mouth-watering lamb shank.

Photo by: Majid Tabesh/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on College St near Downtown Toronto, Takht-e Tavoos Restaurant has been serving unique mouth-watering Persian dishes to Torontonians for quite a few years. This cozy Persian restaurant is best known for its range of delicious Paneer Boroshteh and Kalleh Pacheh dishes. Regulars of Persian cuisine in the city won’t be surprised to find out Tavoos is the second branch of Pomegranate. The decor of Takht-e Tavoos, which translates as “Peacock Throne,” displays all the crisp and lively turquoises, walnut-golds, amethysts, moonstone greens, and royal blues.
You can also drop into this restaurant for brunch. The spinach Narguesi, for instance, gets you two eggs your style perched atop a bed of sautéed spinach, matched with creamy feta cheese, olive marinade, grape tomatoes, and spiced potatoes. Moreover, all brunches come with a house salad, a hot batch of Barbari-style flatbread, and beverage choice. In any case, make sure you try their house chai at least once. They also serve the Kalleh Pacheh, a stew that may intimidate even the gutsier carnivore. This house specialty’s broth draws its bold flavours from sheep tongue and hooves, while lemon juice, cinnamon, and chillies cut some of the gamey aroma and flavour.

Photo by: Rex Liu/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on Queens Quay W near Downtown Toronto, Shatter Abbas Queens Quay has been serving a range of traditional Persian dishes since 2011. Their menu includes Fesenjoon & saffron rice, Zereskh Polow and a whole variety of kebabs. This family-owned restaurant successfully attracted food lovers with its delicious and healthy Persian dishes. At Shatter Abbas, patrons have tasty Persian stews like Ghormeh Sabzi & Gheimeh, and they enjoy the real taste of Koobideh, Barg, and Torsh Kebab.
If you are extremely picky with the quality of food from Persian restaurants and how authentic they taste, Shatter Abbas will not disappoint you. Nothing beats the flavour of meat grilled on charcoal. You cannot get that flavour from any other BBQ type, which makes Persian kebabs different; this subtle smokiness that blends in perfectly with the meaty flavour of the beef. Shatter Abbas does a great job with their grill, as you can taste the charcoaled flavour without it being too overpowering. The portions are also huge. Two skewers of Koobideh with rice and two extra tomatoes are enough to fill up two people fully. This is the case with all authentic Persian restaurants/take-outs.

Photo by: Daniel A. Cooper/ Google Maps

Maps Data: Google
Located on College St near Downtown Toronto, Anoush Middle Eastern Cuisine is a fast take-out food restaurant offering unique Middle Eastern cuisine. They offer a fusion of Persian and Turkish food. Kofte kebab and doner kebab are the twists of their well-known shawarma sandwiches. So if you’re looking for a quick bite, a decent flavour, a fast shawarma wrap, this is the place for you. They have a limited menu, but there are lots of toppings to choose from. Give it a shot, and it’s a decent bite.
They also offer lots of salads and vegetarian options. You can, for example, go for fresh, hand-rolled falafels served in a warm pita wrap. Top it off with your favourite toppings and sauces. You can also opt for the Lamb Kefta Kebab Wrap, ground lamb with herbs and spices grilled to perfection. One piece of Anoush’s Kefta kebab in a pita wrap is perfect for a quick lunch. Another delicacy to order is the Chicken Breast Kebab Platter, and the chicken breast kebab is grilled fresh right when you order. The platter comes with rice, potatoes, and house salad.