Mississauga’s food scene is a reflection of the city itself: sprawling, diverse and shaped by generations of newcomers who have brought their cooking traditions with them.
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From Pakistani karahi and Palestinian falafel to South Indian dosas, Egyptian comfort food, Indonesian specialties and hand-pulled Chinese noodles, the city is packed with restaurants serving food that rarely feels generic or watered down.
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Our team of 11 food experts selected the spots below as being extra special: they made our Top 100 Under $100 guide to delicious, affordable restaurants in the GTA.
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Let us know what you think.
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Address: 3015 Winston Churchill Blvd., units 7-8 (at Dundas St. W.) and other locations
Even amid Mississauga’s vibrant Pakistani food scene, this family-run spot shines.
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It’s the offshoot of a Lahore mini-chain dating to the 1970s.
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The recipes, passed down through generations, shape a menu of hearty, shareable dishes.
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The chicken malai boti is a good place to start: marinated breast turned tender and smoky in a charcoal-fired tandoor oven.
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The chicken arrives hissing on a hot platter, strewn with caramelized onions, its nicely bitter char softened with the creamy cashew marinade.
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The Butt Special Chicken Karahi, by contrast, is a robust curry in tomato-forward gravy; its flavour builds in layers rather than all at once.
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It arrives in a wide metal karahi pan, slicked with shimmering oil and topped with peppery ginger.
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The long-grain basmati is lightly glossy with veal fat yet remarkably light — the kind of celebratory dish usually reserved for feasts.
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Hisham Amleh has spent his adult life fixated on falafel.
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In Hebron, where he grew up, his mother made them green and fragrant with parsley and coriander and more than a dozen different spices.
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She always cooked them fresh, no sitting around, so their delicate shells burst with savoury chickpea and herb-garden steam.
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At Amleh’s stellar all-day breakfast and falafel spot, he’s honoured that food memory, and then some.
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He does his falafel strictly fried-to-order, for peak texture and flavour.
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For a delicious variation, you can get them stuffed with tangy, sumac-spiked onions as well.
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The fattet samneh layers Amleh’s superbly smooth and fresh-tasting hummus — spiked with lemony green chiles — with soft, whole chickpeas and yogurt, so it’s extra creamy, with fried almonds and super-rich ghee over top.
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There’s shakshuka, and charred eggplant mutabal, plus omelettes, salads and excellent, earthy-lemony-garlicky foul mudammas, which combines long-stewed whole and split fava beans; it’s complex and satisfying.
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The thick, fluffy pocket breads here — pita-like khubz — are baked in-house; there aren’t many shortcuts to Palestinian cooking this good.
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As with any thrill ride, you may spend longer getting to Guru Lukshmi and waiting for a table than actually eating your dosa.
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At least you’ll have time to study the menu beforehand, a 43-page (!) PDF that surveys nearly every corner of South Indian vegetarian cuisine.
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There are the fried lentil-flour doughnuts called vada, steamed rice idly cakes (the toonie-sized minis are superb, drenched in ghee and sambhar, the tangy lentil stew that acts as a sidekick to nearly everything on the menu), and at least 10 different categories of dosa, the specialty here.
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Order a paper dosa: a golden cone of fermented rice-and-lentil batter, crisped in ghee and curled until it’s roughly as long as a cricket bat.
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Though there’s any number of fillings available, they’re typically savoury and at least a little fiery, like the Mysore Bhaji, built on potatoes, roasted garlic and chili paste.
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Each bite is a study in texture and heat, and after a dunk in the cool tomato, coriander and coconut chutneys that come alongside, temperature, too.
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No fire is too great to be put out by a glass of shikanji — the savoury, supremely refreshing lemonade spiked with cumin and black salt.
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This regal and family friendly spot has one of the largest Egyptian menus in the GTA, spanning grilled skewers, layered rice and pasta dishes, sandwiches, dips and meal-sized soups.
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Its fans have been following owner Mohamed Salah Saleh’s cooking since he began as a caterer in 2014.
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The mombar are also excellent, dill-flecked rice in natural sausage casings, seared to delicately blistered and juicy, cooled with a yogurt dip.
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Veg dishes are equally tantalizing — the ultra-creamy and garlicky lentil soup, for instance, blended with carrots and onions for a sweet finish.
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The lamb shank fatta comes braised and roasted to fork-tender, on fluffy rice and crunchy baladi bread croutons that soak up the lamb drippings and the bright tomato-based sauce.
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Contact: 647-772-3130
This 14-seat gem does real-deal Indonesian cooking for Indonesian patrons — for everyone else, it’s hard not to feel lucky just to take it all in.
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Samara’s menu runs from sweet grilled meat skewers to coconut milk curries, complex stews and expertly wok-fried noodles and veg.
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The batagor dumplings make a great start, their savoury minced fish interiors wrapped in crispy, golden-fried tofu skin, topped with chunky peanut sauce and a drizzle of dark, sweet kecap manis soy.
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They’re nutty, salty, just a little sweet, made for impulsive eating.
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The bakso rodal features an enormous stuffed meatball resting in an aromatic clear broth, with noodles, crisp celery and fragrant fried shallots; delicious.
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If you don’t speak Indonesian or Malay, a bit of smartphone menu decoding is rewarded here.
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The kangkung belacan is one such prize: crunchy water spinach stems wokked with funky-spicy fermented shrimp paste.
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…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
