1
Google
Indian•Gerrard India Bazaar•$
Madras Curry
Madras Curry on Carlton Street is not working to impress you with atmosphere.
spicytakeoutindian
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.6 Google
9.6
2,263 Google reviews
GuideUpdated July 14, 2026
5 Best Places for Chicken 65 in Toronto
Where to find the best chicken 65 in Toronto — each restaurant rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.6★. Spanning indian and sri lankan kitchens. Curated by TastyPals.
The best places for chicken 65 in Toronto are Madras Curry, CEYLON SPICY HUB, Delicacies-Banana Leaf (Etobicoke), and more. Start with Madras Curry if you want the strongest overall first pick.
Google
Top picks at a glance
Who this guide is for
Chicken 65 — the fiery, tangy, deep-fried South Indian classic — turns up across Toronto's South Asian dining map, but the versions worth crossing the city for cluster in a handful of kitchens. Leading the pack is CEYLON SPICY HUB in Scarborough (9.4/10), where the dish is consistently described as crisp and properly fierce, sharing the menu with a full pound of Ceylon Special Wings served over chilli-onion fries. At Madras Curry in the Gerrard India Bazaar (8.7/10), the version is reportedly crimson-lacquered with a layered heat that builds rather than lands all at once — an opening move diners tend to wish they'd doubled. Etobicoke holds its own with two contenders: Amma's Kitchen (8.6/10), where the Chicken 65 is described as tender and properly fiery alongside a widely praised banana-leaf thali, and Delicacies-Banana Leaf (8.4/10), which frames the dish as the fiery, tangy Madras street-food classic it is. The result is a scene worth navigating deliberately, with real differences in heat, texture, and regional treatment from one neighborhood to the next.
Quick picks
Madras Curry
Indian • Gerrard India Bazaar
Madras Curry on Carlton Street is not working to impress you with atmosphere.
CEYLON SPICY HUB
Sri Lankan • Scarborough
Ceylon Spicy Hub has built a genuine reputation among Scarborough's Sri Lankan community as a kitchen that doesn't dilute the island's spice profile for a wider room.
Delicacies-Banana Leaf (Etobicoke)
Indian • Etobicoke
Delicacies Banana Leaf on Kipling Ave is doing something Etobicoke has quietly needed for a long time: a Tamil Nadu-focused kitchen that refuses to sand down its regional specificity for a broader…
Editorial details
On this page
How the restaurants compare
Google
Madras Curry
Gerrard India Bazaar • Indian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$
Best for
spicy
Mood
Gerrard India Bazaar
Google
CEYLON SPICY HUB
Scarborough • Sri Lankan
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Sri Lankan comfort
Mood
Scarborough
Google
Delicacies-Banana Leaf (Etobicoke)
Etobicoke • Indian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
South Asian comfort
Mood
Etobicoke
Google
5 Spice Dining
Scarborough • Sri Lankan
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$
Best for
spicy
Mood
Scarborough
How we chose
We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →
Room tone
Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.
Food fit
We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.
Useful range
The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.
5 ranked picks
Madras Curry — Madras Curry on Carlton Street is not working to impress you with atmosphere. The room inside Gerrard India Bazaar is casual to the point of bluntness — no curated lighting, no concept statement — and that directness is reportedly the whole argument. What the kitchen centres on, at prices that feel almost confrontational in 2024 Toronto, is South Indian technique at a moment when much of the city's Indian dining still defaults to the North Indian greatest-hits format. The Gerrard corridor matters precisely because places like this exist here, and Madras Curry is consistently cited as one of the reasons regulars keep coming back to it.
The Masala Dosa is the dish that anchors the restaurant's reputation. Diners return specifically for it, which in a city where dosas are frequently either too thick or arrive lukewarm is meaningful specificity. The menu's approach is rooted in fermented batter and regional South Indian proportion — the kind of cooking where mustard seed, curry leaf, and properly loosened sambhar do the argumentative work. Chicken 65 is the other anchor: deep-fried, reportedly crimson-lacquered, and known for a layered heat that builds rather than lands all at once — the bar-snack dish that people order as an opening move and then wish they'd ordered more of. The Chicken Dum Biryani rounds out the trio; customers consistently describe it as very flavourful, slow-cooked, and aromatic, which in biryani terms is exactly the standard that matters.
The practical approach: come hungry, order the Masala Dosa and Chicken 65 together, and treat the Chicken Dum Biryani as the reason you brought someone along to share. This is a walk-in situation — no reservations — and the room reportedly fills faster than its low profile would suggest. Come off-peak if you want space to actually settle in. View restaurant →
CEYLON SPICY HUB — Ceylon Spicy Hub has built a genuine reputation among Scarborough's Sri Lankan community as a kitchen that doesn't dilute the island's spice profile for a wider room. The Passmore Avenue spot runs a buffet concept anchored by a rotating rice-and-curry spread — reportedly several distinct curries cooked to their own logic rather than collapsed into a single house gravy — and that commitment to keeping dishes true to themselves is what diners keep citing. Weekend buffet pricing runs around $25, with vegetarian and vegan options available alongside the meat-heavy plates.
The menu's most talked-about items each have a specific identity. The mutton fried kottu is what regulars return for: chopped godhamba roti griddled with egg, vegetables, and seasoned mutton, a dish prepared to the unmistakable rhythm of the cleaver on the flat-top that defines the cooking style. The Chicken 65 is consistently described as crisp and properly fierce, while the Ceylon Special Wings — a full pound served over chilli-onion fries — is the shareable combination that diners apparently argue over at the table. The shrimp puttu stands out as the plate worth planning around: well-cooked shrimp folded into soft, fragrant puttu, part of a broader puttu lineup that runs from squid to jaggery-and-banana variations.
This is a room built for groups and serious takeout runs rather than quiet tables for two. The Ceylon Pot Biryani is sized to feed three, which makes it the practical anchor for a larger order. Pricing sits firmly at the accessible end of the spectrum across the board. Hours at smaller independent spots like this can shift, particularly around the weekend buffet, so calling ahead before making a dedicated trip is the move — and when you go, order widely across the table rather than cautiously. View restaurant →
2
Google
Sri Lankan•Scarborough•value
CEYLON SPICY HUB
Ceylon Spicy Hub has built a genuine reputation among Scarborough's Sri Lankan community as a kitchen that doesn't dilute the island's spice profile for a wider room.
Sri Lankan comfortdinnertakeout
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.6 Google
9.6
900 Google reviews
Delicacies-Banana Leaf (Etobicoke) — Delicacies Banana Leaf on Kipling Ave is doing something Etobicoke has quietly needed for a long time: a Tamil Nadu-focused kitchen that refuses to sand down its regional specificity for a broader crowd. This isn't pan-Indian approximation. The premise — and the name is literal — is that food arrives on banana leaf, the way it does in Chennai homes and Tamil Nadu tiffin halls, where the leaf functions as a vessel that imparts a faint vegetal perfume no ceramic plate can replicate. For the Tamil diaspora spread across the northwest end of the city, that distinction is a matter of cultural pride. For everyone else, it represents a genuinely different register of South Asian cooking than most of Toronto delivers.
The Seeraga Samba Biryani is understood to be the anchor of the menu, and the reasoning is specific: Seeraga Samba is a short-grain, intensely aromatic rice variety native to Tamil Nadu — smaller and denser than basmati — which means the biryani it produces is reportedly tighter and more cohesive, each grain absorbing spice rather than merely sitting beside it. That distinction matters, and diners consistently single it out as the order to build a table around. The Ghee Roast Dosa is the other dish the kitchen is known for: the ghee roast technique is associated with a deeply golden, lacquered exterior that sets it apart from a standard dosa preparation. Chicken 65 — the fiery, tangy, deep-fried Madras street-food classic — rounds out the trio, and at this price point, ordering all three is entirely reasonable without negotiation.
The kitchen runs until midnight Tuesday through Sunday, which makes this a rare South Indian spot built around late-night eating rather than the lunch rush. Skip the delivery aggregators and call direct. The move: Seeraga Samba Biryani as the centerpiece, Ghee Roast Dosa as the opener, Chicken 65 alongside. Come after 8 pm when the room settles. View restaurant →
3
Google
Indian•Etobicoke•value
Delicacies-Banana Leaf (Etobicoke)
Delicacies Banana Leaf on Kipling Ave is doing something Etobicoke has quietly needed for a long time: a Tamil Nadu-focused kitchen that refuses to sand down its regional specificity for a broader crowd.
South Asian comfortdinnertakeout
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.6 Google
9.6
747 Google reviews
Get the App
Save these spots to your Toronto list
Keep the shortlist handy in the TastyPals app and find similar restaurants across Toronto.
Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist
5 Spice Dining — 5 Spice Dining occupies a particular lane in Scarborough's South Asian dining corridor — one that sits at the crossroads of Sri Lankan, South Indian, and regional Indian cooking without fully belonging to any single tradition. The menu draws heavily on Tamil culinary geography: Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka, Kerala on India's Malabar coast, and the deep-spiced Chettinad kitchens of Tamil Nadu. That's a deliberate and coherent editorial choice, not a sprawling pan-Asian hedging strategy. At price level one, it's clearly pitching to the Scarborough community that knows these flavors firsthand, not tourists needing a primer — and the menu reflects that confidence.
The dishes that define 5 Spice's reputation speak directly to that regional focus. The Jaffna Calamari is the anchor — Jaffna-style cooking is known for its aggressive use of dried chilies and curry leaves, and calamari prepared in that tradition tends toward a deeply spiced, dry fry that's distinctly different from generic South Asian seafood. Chettinad Chicken draws from one of South India's most labor-intensive spice traditions, built on kalpasi, marathi mokku, and freshly ground masalas — dishes that take their time seriously. The Kerala Baked Fish in Banana Leaf is a regional classic: the leaf both steams and imparts fragrance, and the preparation signals a kitchen willing to do things the traditional way. Bamboo Biryani — rice cooked and served inside bamboo — is the kind of theatrical-yet-purposeful dish that diners consistently cite as a reason to return. Rose Falooda closes the meal with a familiar South Asian dessert that bridges nostalgia and refreshment.
The practical move: order the Jaffna Calamari early — it's consistently the dish diners reference first. The Bamboo Biryani is worth flagging if your table is ordering communally, given its format. For groups leaning into the full breadth of the menu, pairing the Kerala Baked Fish with the Chettinad Chicken covers both the coastal and inland registers of Tamil cooking in one spread. Walk-in friendly at most hours, but weekends draw the Scarborough community crowd — earlier is easier. View restaurant →
4
Google
Sri Lankan•Scarborough•$
5 Spice Dining
5 Spice Dining occupies a particular lane in Scarborough's South Asian dining corridor — one that sits at the crossroads of Sri Lankan, South Indian, and regional Indian cooking without fully belonging to any single tradition.
spicysri lankansouth asian
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.0 Google
9.0
3,619 Google reviews
Amma's Kitchen — Amma's Kitchen has become one of the GTA's most talked-about Tamil kitchens through word of mouth alone — a strip-plaza address in Etobicoke that has accumulated more than 2,000 Google reviews and a near-perfect rating without a PR push or a patio to show for it. The name is the whole thesis: 'amma' means mother, and every account of the place returns to the same idea — home cooking, served generously, at prices that make it a weekly rotation rather than a special occasion.
The menu spans both South Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil traditions, and that dual identity is what separates Amma's from narrower regional kitchens in the city. Amma's Special Dosa is the dish regulars consistently point newcomers toward — the benchmark order, the one that establishes what the kitchen can do. Beyond the dosa, the menu centers on the chicken kottu roti, reportedly chopped to order on the griddle in the Sri Lankan style; Chicken 65, which diners describe as tender and properly fiery; uttapam; and a banana-leaf thali that is widely regarded as the most complete argument for the restaurant in a single sitting. Portions are known to be large, and the cooking is consistently described as tasting genuinely homemade rather than standardized — no small thing at this price level.
Ammma's Kitchen is a casual family dinner or a takeaway staple, not a date-night room, and it functions best when you treat it accordingly. The banana-leaf thali is in high demand on weekends, so calling ahead is the practical move if that is the goal. Come hungry, start with the dosa, and let the kottu roti anchor the rest of the table. View restaurant →
5
Google
Indian•Etobicoke•value
Amma's Kitchen
Amma's Kitchen has become one of the GTA's most talked-about Tamil kitchens through word of mouth alone — a strip-plaza address in Etobicoke that has accumulated more than 2,000 Google reviews and a near-perfect rating without a PR push…
South Asian comfortdinnertakeout
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
8.8 Google
8.8
2,458 Google reviews
Explore next
Related guides
Get the App
Save these spots to your Toronto list
Save these spots to your Toronto list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.
Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist