Settled on Kingston Road in Toronto, ‘Masala King’ could be considered one of the hidden gems of the city, which serves authentic Bangladeshi food. We came across the quaint place randomly and decided to try it out.
As soon as we entered, our host Mr. Nazmul Haque (who we later found out, is also the Managing Director of the place) guided us to a cozy nook in the restaurant. The set up and ambience of the place is subtle and classy, which instantly helped us relax and warm up to the place. Mr. Haque returned soon with our menus – one in Bangladeshi / Bengali and another in English. We chose the English one and set about with choosing our meal for the day.
Our appetizer chosen was crusty samosas (in picture) – Fully loaded picante chicken served with coconut sauce. Now, we being Indians, are familiar with samosas. Samosas are basically deep fried cutlets with potato / veg / meat stuffings. This one was supposed to be chicken stuffings. What we received, in fact, was very oily (oil dripping out of it and pooling down on the paper below) and we did not find any chicken pieces or even taste, for that matter, in it. The samosas were not up to our expectations.
Next on our appetizers (after all who chooses only one appetizer?) was Puchka. When Mr. Haque suggested this to us, we did not know what to expect as the name was utterly unfamiliar to us. Then he explained it to be on similar lines of Gol Gappa / Pani Puri and we we decided to go ahead with it.
Puchka is a subtle mellow down version of Pani Puri. The chutney is tangy and interesting. Adding the chutney to the Puchka pieces made it a fun experience. Not as wonderful as the pani puri from Mumbai, of course, but a decent enough replication.
Our main course had two parts, one of which was Polao roast chicken. Now this was the highlight of the day. The spicy chicken curry on well-seasoned rice was an explosion in our mouths. The richness and flavor of the curry mixed well with the seasoned rice. This one was one perfect dish.
Our second main course was Moughlai Chicken which came with a platter of garlic naan. This one was another heaven in a plate. The caramelized flavored onions in the curry gave a heavy body to the dish. The curry was tantalizing. The chicken was well cooked and marinated to perfection. Garlic Naan was soft and buttery with just right texture to melt in the mouth. The combination was just too good to be true.
Our experience with Masala King can be summarized as
Ambience – 4 stars
Service and Hospitality – 5 stars
Food – 5 stars
Overall – Must try atleast once.
Restaurant website – https://www.masalaking.ca/
Address – 2286 Kingston Rd, Scarborough, ON M1N 1T9
