SpiceCityTo

Journalist Sarah Efron explores strip malls and hole-in-the-wall restaurants in search of the city's best ethnic food

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I'm in heaven with this butter chicken wrap

What do you get when a half-Iranian half-Pakistani man born in Burma marries a Guyanese woman and opens up a restaurant in Toronto? You get Eastern Twist restaurant, located at 505 St. Clair Ave. West at Bathurst. (see map below)



The menu is a creative combination of the best eats of Asia, with a Caribbean twist. You can get a wrap stuffed with chicken tikka, Pakistani seekh kabab or jerk chicken for $6.95 to $8.95. Vegetarians can enjoy potato, chick pea or spinach curry wraps. There is even a chocolate wrap—think crepe—offered for dessert.

But the most popular item here is the butter chicken wrap. Like all the wraps here, it starts with a thin, light paratha made fresh on the premises. "It's a Pakistani bread that's a cross between roti and naan bread," explains the lovely server Rosary.



The bread is filled with chunks of saucy butter chicken and you can pick your garnishes—tomato, onion, yogurt, cilantro and spicy carrots. The result is a messy but delicious treat.

Rosary has worked at this location since it first opened up four years ago, and she doesn't miss a beat while juggling phone orders, chatting with male admirers and greeting her customers. "Spinach wrap, no yogurt, no onion," she says as one regular walks in. The woman nods. "Hey Harry, have you recovered from your cold?" she asks another patron.


There used to be another location of Eastern Twist in Scarborough, but it didn't survive.  "But this location has been booming since it opened up," says Rosary. She says the owners would like to franchise their operation. I can't see it being the world's next Subway, but it certainly seems right for worldly Toronto.

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Eastern Twist on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

  1. Nice review. A shot of the filling would've been good just to get the mouth watering even more.

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  2. Agreed. Unfortunately I failed Advanced Burrito Photography, so this is the only shot I got of the filling.

    http://twitpic.com/4dgram

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  3. LOVE IT LOVE IT BBQ chicken Wrap

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  4. butter chicken wrap mmmmmmmmmmmm
    my new favvvvvv

    ReplyDelete