Little India on Gerrard: where to eat South Asian food and buy sweets
Toronto's Gerrard India Bazaar, what to order across North and South Indian kitchens, and the phone number for every one.
The Gerrard India Bazaar runs along Gerrard Street East around Coxwell, and it is the oldest South Asian strip in the city. It is quieter than it was. Rents, the suburbs pulling the community toward Brampton and Scarborough, and a long stretch of thin years have closed some of the old names. What is left is worth knowing, and the sari shops and sweet counters still bring the crowds on a festival weekend.
South Asian is not one cuisine, and ordering well means knowing roughly where a kitchen is pointing.
North, South, and the sweets
- North Indian is the food most people picture: butter chicken, tandoori, naan, rich gravies, biryani. Heavier, dairy and wheat based.
- South Indian is lighter and mostly vegetarian: dosa (the big crisp crepe), idli, sambar, coconut chutney. If a place makes a proper paper dosa to order, sit down.
- The sweet shops are their own trip. Barfi, jalebi, gulab jamun, ladoo, sold by weight. Buy a small mixed box the first time and find what you like.
- Chaat is the street-snack category: samosa, pani puri, bhel. Cheap, sharp, best eaten fresh at the counter.
A kitchen that grinds its own masala and makes dosa batter in house tastes different from one opening jars. On this strip the old hands still do it the long way.
The kitchens
These are the Indian and South Asian spots in the directory.
Before you go
Ring first, because the strip runs lean now and hours have tightened, and a Monday can find a kitchen dark. Festival weekends are the exception, when the whole bazaar is open and busy. The number on each page is the business's own.
Written by See The Six · kept current from the directory, last checked 2026-08-24
