Toshka Grill & Lounge

Address: 3900 Grand Park Dr. #1

Phone Number: (905) 848-4141

Website: https://toshkagrillandlounge.ca/

City: Mississauga

Category: Pakistani

Toshka Grill & Lounge serves up authentic Pakistani and Middle Eastern food in the heart of Mississauga. Along with a massive space seating 400, Toskha also has a dedicated event space and shisha. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable, whether you grew up eating Pakistani food or whether (like us) you’re new to this particular cuisine. Like the physical space of Toshka, the menu is quite sizable, offering many different appetizers, mains, desserts, and beverages – all of which are Halal.

For starters, Toshka offers various familiar Middle Eastern dips like hummus, salads topped with fattoush or tabbulai, lentil soup, falafel, samosas, pani puri, and more. You can also get “Canadian” dishes like poutine, fried shrimp, and nachos. Since this was our first experience with Pakistani cuisine, we asked our server for two of her recommendations. The first of these was one of the best things we had there, the Pani Puri. For anyone who’s never had it, the dish is comprised of crispy shells (they look like tiny, puffed up, crispy naan) served with a mixture of chickpeas and veg along with tamarind water. You eat them by cracking a hole in the top of the shells, scooping in some of the chickpea mixture and pouring in the flavorful and spicy tamarind water. Biting into the Pani Puri is savory, refreshing, and spicy, and eating it was lots of fun. We highly recommend this dish for anyone looking to try something new or for anyone after some good Pani Puri.

In addition to the Pani Puri, we also got the Shrimp Delight, which is six pieces of breaded, fried shrimp served with Toshka’s sweet and sour sauce. The latter had a slight kick with a subtly sweet flavoring, and the shrimp was perfectly crispy. It was certainly a good dish, but we think that if you’re dining at Toshka, you’d be remiss not to choose the delicious Pakistani and Middle Eastern options over the more American-ized dishes.

Similar to the appetizer selection, the menu offers a lot of choice when it comes to their entrees. Diners can select rice dishes like Biryani, Nihari, Haleem, Shawarma and Kababs, and Karahi. Toshka also has continental favourites like Mexican Chicken and Chicken Cordon Bleu in addition to pizza, wraps, and sandwiches. There are also many vegetarian options in addition to breakfast items like Halwa Puri, Paratha, Pancakes, omelettes, and more. We tried the most popular dish at Toshka, the Karahi Gosht, which is chicken infused with aromatic spices, tomatoes, ginger, green chilis, and coriander. Served with buttery, warm naan, this dish is one of the best comfort foods, especially for cold or rainy days (both were the case on the day that we visited Toshka). It is quite a spicy dish, however, so those who don’t tolerate spice well should let their server know – we had mild spice and it was still pretty spicy in our opinion. It is a wonderful dish, though, and we highly recommend you give it a try! Toshka does it right.

 

With all the spicy menu items, it was imperative that we had something to cool down our palettes. That’s where the orange float and strawberry mojito mocktails came in. The orange float was very reminiscent of the orange creamsicles of our childhood. The strawberry mojito was very refreshing and not overly sweet, but it did not taste at all of mint, which is one of the characteristic elements of a mojito. In addition to these beverages, Toshka also offers fresh fruit juices (pressed and blended in house with the option of nixing sugar and/or ice), other mocktails (like pina coladas) and artisanal sodas, shakes (like classic vanilla/strawberry/chocolate and mango lassis), or hot beverages like Turkish coffee or Doodh Patti.

In addition to drinks, restaurant-goers can also end their meal in another sweet way: with one of Toshka’s desserts. They serve Kawartha ice cream in bowls, with the option of one or two scoops per order, along with sundaes garnished in various ways (for example, the birthday sundae, which is birthday cake ice cream topped with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and “a special surprise”!). You can also order waffles and crepes with their own topping selections, as well as lava cake or more traditional desserts like Gulab Jamun (hot or cold) or Kulfi.

All in all, this new spot in Missisauga is worth a visit! If you go, we highly recommend indulging in some of the delicious traditional Pakistani and Middle Eastern dishes at Toshka Bar & Lounge.

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