Guru Lukshmi

Awesome food as ever!!! It is unbelievable how it tastes the same year after year!!! Service is also amazing. All together five stars and worth the 30 KM drive from downtown on a weekday!!!

This is a really yummy place!!! This has been the only place I have tried dosa and I have never been disappointed

Wow, Where to start? This place is amazing and the amount of people here is no joke. I couldn’t believe how many people are waiting for this place; People wait because the food is phenomenal. Best dosas I have ever eaten. Period.
We came here on a Sunday evening, made a reservation of four for 7:30pm and I couldn’t believe there was a waiting room for people who reserved. let alone another one for those without a reservation. If you want to eat here, reserve. You don’t want to wait hours to get a table right? We went in at 7:45pm.
We started off with dahi idly which are rice/​lentil cakes in a sweet yoghurt based sauce with boondi. I have not been a huge fan of idly in general so these were just alright. The chili bajji pakora was really disappointing. You can make these at home with chick pea batter. They were nothing special, and tasted bland. I also recommend getting the lassi (yoghurt drink) which is the perfect compliment, and stick with the mango. The creamy sweetness coat your tastes buds perfectly after all those spices. And stay far away from the ginger which tasted like spoiled milk. It was ridiculously sour!
Okay so now for the entrees: we ordered the pav bhaji dosas, the traditional paper dosa with aloo masala, cheese dosa, paneer dosa, onion and tomato uthapam, and pineapple and cheese uthapam (yeah, we ordered too much for four people — stick with one per person). They all came with the delicious tomato/​mint/​coconut chunteys and sambar. I was just smothering them on like no tomorrow. I have never tried these special dosas before and can say they’re great. We added cheese to most of them and they were pretty hefty. These are dosas with substance, they have a lot going on in them. Like the signature dosas had vegetables in them. I would probably suggest to not order them with cheese, the dosas were quite heavy as a result. I still enjoyed my paper dosa the most though. It was crispy and I just like my potatoes lightly seasoned. Please note the uthapam takes 45 minutes to arrive. It was also my first time and it’s really tasted like pizza (in a good way!), try it and you won’t be disappointed.

Had the Paneer dosa, it was delicious! It had onions, mozzarella cheese, paneer, green peppers, and a slightly saucy blend of spices. Incredibly flavorful and spicy:)

Definitely it’s one of the best Dosa Places in GTA… and it’s really r-​e-​a-​l-​l-​y busy… totally packed!!! You must make a reservation to get seats, else the wait time can be v-​e-​r-​y long.
The menu has great selections… lots of choices, and unique items which probably you will not find anywhere else. And even better, you can customize your dosa just like you want… in several levels of soft to crispy, mild to extra spicy, oily to not-​oily…
Though it’s very crowdy, but the food comes pretty fast… and it tastes great!
Also, the servers and staffs are polite and helpful. They also try their best to accommodate the sitting options of your choice. The prices are a little premium than other dosa places, but considering the quality, taste, and options, it’s rightly justified… Overall it’s a nice experience!

Best South Indian food. Start with mini idlies and Dahi vada, followed by their amazing dosas. My fav is aaloo chat dosa and rawa dosa. I love their butter milk and coffee.
Make a reservation so that you don’t have to wait.

Very very good dosa. What sets this place apart is the variety offered — interesting flavors of dosa, uttapam, idli, etc.
Service is meh, but unimportant. If you make a reservation, you will likely still wait 15 minutes, so just prepare for it. They are very busy, so you may feel rushed to order, eat, and leave. Just think of the poor souls waiting outside for 2 hours to get a table, and try to oblige within reason

First time trying dosas — and like the first time I tried samosas and mimosas (see what I did there?), it was love at first sight (and taste). How comforting, how filling, and delicious.
We arrived on a Thursday evening around 6:30 PM and the place was packed. We had called ahead of time and booked a reservation, so we were seated right away. We ordered the Spinach (Palak) Dosa with cheese and a dinner special, as in the pictures attached.
Wow. The dosa was crispy, yet soft, with generous filling. Super savoury meal, and full of complex flavours that I can’t even describe. Filling was cooked and spread perfectly. Portions were large, but we had no trouble finishing off our meals — you can’t help it, you just keep going. Each bite was addicting. Service was also very helpful and attentive, despite how busy they were.
My one regret is not asking or identifying the varying sauces in my dish (see picture attached — I’m a noob, sorry). I kind of just free-​for-​all-​ed it and dunked my dosa in each one before gulping it down. Take time to figure out what each sauce comprises of — in retrospect, I know it would have allowed me to appreciate the meal even more than I already did.
For two people, with tax, and tip, our total was $ 30.54. We’ll be back!

Wow, can I say wow again. The food is beyond delicious. I can say the best Dosa I have eaten in Toronto. I am from South India, and my brother said it’s the best be has eaten some back home. So definitely worth the drive from the east end.
The service is impeccable, they actually care about their guests. They are friendly and very attentive. The owners I have met are very nice and do all the cooking themselves. They are extremely nice as well.
I do want to point out though, they are extremely busy. So you do need to make an appointment. But I think k that’s expected to get this good quality food.
So if ur on the fence, just GO!

Lots of great choices but lacks desserts. Customer service is horrible. It is always packed because of its amazing food.
Needs to hire more waiters.

Good Food, Shit Service.
Make a reservation.
I would recommend mushroom dosa or chilli cheese.
That place is like a machine, getting people in and out as fast as they can.

Unbelievably fantastic dosas! These are authentic Mumbai style dosas and the best I’ve eaten outside of India.
The chettinad dosa with potato filling and be sure to get any dosa you get here at a 100% spice level unless you can’t stand spicy food at all.
The butter plain dosa with potato filling is a solid fail safe choose too as is their rava masala. Those are always a win.
The condiments that come with the entrees — rasam, sambhar, chutneys are all exceptional.
Lastly, the idli’s and vada’s are a good choice for appetizers.
I took away one star because the service is sub par on a good day — but who cares when the food is fantastic!

Always a great place to eat dosas but pathetic service. We reserved table, but had to wait 30 mins inspite of that. The tables were shaky and not good experience to eat. Will always prefer to pick up from here until they improve the service.
My favs to order — coriander dosa, chettinad dosa!

this is 3^rd trip to Toronto to enjoy some delicious Indian food. My stops on the food trip to Toronto : — Tim Horton, Maroli, Tandoori flames, Lahore paan and kashmiri tea, King dumplins, guru laxmi. I love the the wide spread of Indian and south Indian varieties on the menu. The dosa are fresh crispy and delicious. Like the fact that you can customize the spice level and oil for the dosa. My favorite so. far has been pav bhaji dosa and spring dosa. Mini idly with rasam is delicious starter and love the puri korma dish. The rava masala dosa well-​made and again delicious and crispy. Liked the onion utapam too. Ended with yummy yogurt kulfi and Madras coffee. Overall. top place for South Indian dosas. they have double their floor space in. last 3 years but still you may have to. wait in line during peak times on weekdays too

Always busy, which is a good indicator of popularity. Rushed service, food quality is decent. The dosa is perfectly done and prices are reasonable. Menu is extensive due to different slight variations… not too easily understand for newcomers. Felt the need to study up prior to dinning due to rushed service (couldn’t really get the servers to explain much)…

Wow this place is always busy!!! Also be aware that the place closes on the weekend at 3 and reopens around 5. We were lucky, got there at 2:45 and put our names down as the place was packed on a Saturday afternoon. I had heard about this place from my co-​worker and my parents. As a Durham region resident I was interested in trying this place when I was in the west end.
The food was great, the ambiance was great, the service was very good which is key to me specially when I go to Indian restaurants. My favourite is the rasam, hot, very spicy, light broth tomato soup. I could have a gallon of it. The vadas were delicious as well and I loved that they give you three types of chutneys. I loved each and every chutney!
This place is definitely a great place to eat South Indian food if you are in the area! There are comparable places in Scarborough and on Gerrard but I liked the service here the most.

Having heard about this place from several of my co-​workers I had no choice but to try it out.
Before going I decided to call (good thing I did); I was told I had to make a reservation. Being a weekday I was a little surprised but I made one anyways. When I arrived there was a «bouncer» outside the entrance to the restaurant. Since I didn’t think he was an employee I said «excuse me» since he was blocking the door. I was hastily replied with «no excuse you, do you have a reservation». I replied «yes», he then told me to wait in the «waiting area». This whole ordeal made me feel as if I was entering a top secret area.
Fast forward to the point I was actually seated, I was greeted by our server, who very quickly made me order my appetizers and mains. Having never being there before I ordered the Green Chilli Dosa as my main and Idli as my Appetizer. Both were very good and I’d say better than most other Dosa places. The only main hindrance this place has is the service. The reason for this is that you feel extremely rushed the minute you enter, for an «enjoyable» dinner I would skip this place.

I’ve been going to guru lukshmi since they had their stall in the Newin centre way back when (I wasn’t even in High School yet!).
The food has always been consistently fantastic. Their sambhar is always rich and flavourful, the chutnies perfect and the dosas just divine.
The restaurant can get packed so make sure you make a reservation or avoid going at peak hours.
My recommendation: Start with baby idlis in sambhar or rasam vada, then go for the mysore masala or coriander dosa (the latter if you can’t tolerate spiciness) and then end off the meal with a traditional south indian filter coffee.

One of the best dosa/​South Indian restaurants in the GTA. It’s so good — I crave this food. I get hungry just even thinking about it. Seriously — come here.
Quick tips: CALL AND MAKE A RESERVATIONS ON FRI/​SAT/​SUN — it is mandatory.
This place is packed, you will have to wait even with a reservation if it’s later on. But the food is worth it. They may rush you towards the end and rush to take your order but that’s only because there are people waiting. This isn’t the place to sit and chat with friends for 2 hours. It’s a place to have a quick catch up and delish food! It’s so good I don’t mind the wait. Just clear your evening.
If you’ve never tried a dosa before you’re missing out– you should try it here. It’s a vegetarian restaurant so you won’t get meat here, but I promise it’s so flavourful you will NOT even miss it.
Amazing dosa — crispy yet soft. They also have creative options for fillings (cheese, pay bhaji, tofu, spring vegetable, spicy coconut etc), tasty chutney with good quantities offered, the sambar (lentil spicy soup) was also sooooo good! Fabulous food and flavours overall. They gave good portions of the sides/​chutneys, which in my opinion, is amazing.
We also tried the sambar vada which was fab.
Service was good– better than the rival dosa place we all know.
I’d say get there early because it sure fills up quick and make a reservation.

What can I say about Guru Lukshmi… For sure it’s an experience in itself. We walked into this whole production unexpectedly and it was really cool — although probably cool for us since we were out of town on vacation. I don’t know how others deal with it on a regular basis. :)
So I was randomly Unilocaling Indian restaurants in Mississauga, since we were visiting Toronto. Everyone’s heard of the Indian crowds there. I ran across GL and we decided to drop by for dinner. It was a bit of a hike from the city, but we get there like… 9:10pm and noticed some CRAZINESS! :) There were people out the door jam packed! Talk to the guy, and he’s like there’s a 1.5 hour wait. Nuts… never experienced that at an Indian restaurant.
The kids were hungry, so we put our name down and actually took the kids to Taco Bell. :-) I know… it’s big in America. Hadn’t had it on the entire trip, and the kids jumped up like they saw Santa when I mentioned there was one like 5 miles away. Can you imagine? A dinner adventure before dinner?
So then we get back and it’s still like 30 minutes to go. We were chit chatting with the host and all and some of the other seated guests — recon before the big showdown… Found out they not only do dosas, but they have innovative kinds of dosas. Like, Pao Bhaji Dosa, Khaara Dosa, etc. The menu had probably like 40 different kinds of dosas. We’re reading the articles about this place and how many times they’ve had to expand and they still have 1.5 hour waits.
We finally get seated and then it hits you. Service. Indian restaurants can be as popular as the Backstreet Boys, but Indian service is going to remain Indian service. There was a bunch of confusion and miss-​steps throughout the experience. They don’t seem to have assigned waiters for the tables, so we had numerous people stopping by with updates, questions, etc. One person was like, the waitress couldn’t «get» the order so he came to confirm it. One lady said they were out of Mango Lassi for the night and then 3 minutes later they brought us some. The guy was like, they were just making more. I could go on and on with these things, but really, the star of GL is the food, so I will move on.
Idli Sambhar — Loved them. Comes with coconut and this spicy chutney. Sambhar was good and the idlis were just the right texture. Not too hard and not too squishy either. Great start.
Onion Rava Masala Dosa — what was better about this than other places was that it was very thin and crispy. Thinner than most places I’ve had it. I had the masala on the and it was just a great dosa. The dosas all came with the coconut and spicy chutney, and also this green minty one. I like the first two most.
Butter Masala Dosa — I didn’t have this one, but it looked great. Those that were eating it enjoyed it.
Mysore Bhaji Masala Dosa — So I tasted this one and it was very unique. Basically, they had mixed in some Pau Bhaji masala into the Mysore Masala, so it was a mixture of those of those flavors. Very interesting. Personally, I would stick to the basics, especially when trying a new place. I’m glad someone else ordered this one and I got to taste it. Overall, very crispy, flavorful, and good.
Badam Halwa — I really liked it. Others I was with said it was too sweet — more sugar than the norm, but I thought it was great. It comes in a really small portion, probably because it’s quite rich, and very good.
As I mentioned, Guru Lukshmi was an interesting experience. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our evening with as many adventures as it had. Best dosa in North America? Well, better than other ones I’ve had in North America. Actually, with some of the variety, it may be the ONLY place where you can get some of these dosas at all. Definitely recommend GL for someone in the area. Oh, and supposedly they take reservations so definitely call ahead.

I love coming here. Food is great, décor is great, service is a little brisk but very accommodating.
Ever since my first time here, I’ve developed a bit of an addiction to the chana dosa (chickpeas). It’s spicy for me but there is just something about the punchy full flavours that I love, so I sit there nose dribbling, eyes running, mouth smiling and stuffing in more. You’d never miss the fact that nothing on their menu has meat! The chutneys are absolutely delicious and help offer relief from the heat.
The décor itself is very classy and modern.
The service, while a little bit cold, is very fast and accommodating.
If you love Indian food, definitely try this place out. It’ll give you a taste of something different from your average butter chicken and naan.

Guru was the first place I ever had dosa, so basically they are responsible for my addiction. I have tried Dosa at a couple of other places, one of which I believe is the same owners (and this is the only one that compares to Guru), but Guru is and likely always will be the BEST. Their Dosa’s come out crispy and somehow manage to stay that way throughout. The worst is a soggy Dosa and you won’t find that here. Their chutneys are amazing, I love coconut chutney and they have a green one that taste like fresh cilatro, beware the red tomato chutney! It’s super hot!
I love that they have so many different choices of Dosa’s, I personally get the spicy coconut, it is fantastic, it is so flavorful, highly recommend.
The plain mango juice isn’t very good, that’s my go to drink at Indian restaurants but this seemed thin consistency and out of a can. Much prefer purée based juices. Do try their masala tea however, especially in the cooler months!
They get very very busy here after 7:00pm so if you’re planning on going later they often have people sitting outside waiting to get in. If you can I suggest coming around 5:30 when it’s much quieter.