Babu Catering & Take Out

Amazing Kothu Roti. The dishes are well portioned, spicy and very delicious. For the price you are getting so much food. You can defiantly share one plate for Kothu Roti and still be full. I had the chicken and beef kothu roti, and both are great.
Just note, the store is a bit cramped and sometimes it can take a while for the line to move, but it’s definitely worth the wait.

This was my first visit to Babu’s Scarborough location. I had previously taken food out from their newer Markham store and was impressed by the taste. Let me start by saying I am not Tamil or even South-​Asian for that matter. I am a Caucasian Canadian guy who just enjoys the complex and spicy flavours of Sri Lankan food. This evening I decided to take a trip down Sheppard to try the original Babu location. Upon entering the store was obviously busy being that it was Saturday night. I stood in line for about 10 minutes and when my turn came (not before I was disregarded for family of Tamil patrons) I ordered a medium sized Chettynadu mutton and a medium size eggplant pickle (a very common Sri Lankan dish). Upon reaching the register my total came to almost $ 20 (which seemed abnormally high). I figured the individual dishes are more expensive than the thali/​combo plates and paid up. Upon seeing my receipt it appears they charge you double the cost of the small for a medium container and triple for a large. The containers increase in size by perhaps 40−50% as you go up to medium and large. While they pack the containers full, the quantity of food for the price doesn’t seem like such a good value compared to their combo deals. I suspect they overcharged me as they knew I wasn’t a regular nor would I know how much the food should actually be. After all, they don’t show prices for most of the hot food. Taste-​wise, I enjoyed my two dishes which were both packed with flavour and had a good level of heat (Sri Lankan food is supposed to be hot). Quality-​wise, the mutton was slightly fatty which may be the way it’s meant to be in order to stay moist and flavourful. The one issue I have with their food is the temperature of the serving dishes. They don’t keep the food at a temperature I feel is safe. Both my dishes arrived home cold despite being transported 15 minutes home in a warm car. The eggplant which came out about 2 minutes before I ordered it was not even steaming which made me question the freshness. Food temperature is very important (although some may argue the level of heat used in South Asian cooking was meant to preserve the food when refrigeration wasn’t available).
If you like Indian food and enjoy dishes with complex spicy flavours give Sri Lankan food a try.

Pretty delicious and inexpensive take out.
There is a wide range of Indian food available here. I’d suggest sticking to the south Indian menu.
The mutton rolls are the best here. So are biriyanis and the curries.

Went here because of all these beautiful stars that my fellow Elite members posted up. The service was fast and easy. The place smelled so good and the food was amazing.
I got the Butter chicken with Naan and the price was less than expected. They top up the foam container to the top for the butter chicken and the naan is HUGE!
I’m no Indian, but this is really really good curry. The spices and the flavor just seep out from the container. I would absolutely try it again!

I had the veg. thali. the tomato curry and dhal were exceptional. Wasn’t keen on the channa, but everything else was very good. I liked that it wasn’t very spicy. enough to give it good flavour but not enough to overpower. Not the cleanest restaurant. but good food!

Babus employees have a fluctuating attitude. The kothu roti is good however last time I called ahead to place an order (which I have always done since day one) I was told by a rude employee that I have to come in to order regardless of how many times before I have ordered ahead. Being that he was rude and not at all interested in doing his job I decided to take my business elsewhere going forward. Not that it’s going to hinder their sales so I highly doubt this review is going to really do much. 2 star for bad customer service since that’s the only Ky competitive advantage left for companies these days. Another place at Markham and Ellesmere is way better in terms of food and service will be going there from now on.

The mutton kothu roti is to die for.
My husband and I eat here 3 – 4 times a month. The food is great and the prices are even better!

Need to update this to 5 star, now that I know what to order (and more importantly what to avoid). Since this is a Tamil place, stick to the Tamil food. I no longer order the lamprais. Also I don’t order much Indian food, except for their butter chicken. This is my favorite Sri Lankan place in Toronto and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the best Sri Lankan places in N America, especially when you consider the great prices.
My go to orders are:
Mutton kotthu rotti. This is delicious, and so much food for the money. It’s a little on the spicy side. Tip: order this before you order the rest of the items as this takes longer to come out.
Fish curry. This has grown on me. I really like the sauce in particular. This only comes in one size (2 pieces of fish)
Mutton curry. This is tasty, but quite spicy
Butter chicken. Delicious as per my prior review
Short eats (eg wadais, patties, etc). Can’t go wrong here. The items are either 3 or 4 for $ 1. Try not to go crazy though because a lot of this is fried.
My wife loves naan so we used to order that too, but gave up because it takes too long to come out.
The parking lot can get pretty crazy on weekends. Its busy, the spots are on the small side, and theres more than a few bad drivers. I try to park away from the crowd when possible to avoid the dings and possible accidents.

This place is great on the pocket but spicy for the hot spicy lovers this is a great place.
Never had a better tasting SAMBAR anywhere in canada.
The morning combo is unbelievably inexpensive and stomach full.
Great variety of snacks. Noodles are awesome, just ask them to go light on the spices and its yummy and again only for less than 5 dollars.

«Would you like a coma with that lamprais? «
“Why yes, yes please! «
WARNING: LAMPRAIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED NON LOVING SPICY FOODSTERS. THIS DISH REQUIRES A PARTNER TO DEBATE WHO GETS TO EAT THE EGG! Ofcourse I did!
Not quite sure who could possibly execute the banana leaf dish like my Filipino people but BABU sure did fire up the ‘next level’ to the next.
If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, back home we have a way to feast on local delicacies laid out on a long stretch of banana leaves for ‘plates’, and use hands instead of utensils.
Yeah yeah gross, yuck whatever! You get a spot on the damn leaf, don’t stray double dipping in someone else’s territory and your cooties remains yours and yours only!
We call it ‘kamayan’ (eating with hands) and it’s taken TORONTO by storm as it became popular recently during birthdays and get-​togethers.
Even Filipino restaurants cater to this kamayan themed events for everyone to experience getting in touch with their inner caveman. HINT HINT: resto Lamesa delivers the experience in fine dining style.
BABU had their ‘TO-​GO’ version with a choice of chicken, beef or veggie with 5 sides of your choice (hardest decisions ever made on a Monday 11am might I add).
Comes with 1 hard boiled egg, choice of white or brown rice with the baddest sauce and spices combined wrapped in the glorious banana leaf, heated and then wrapped to go. BOOM!
You insult the GODS OF LAMPRAIS if you dare eat with the fork but hubby and I had no choice. We suffered from a mild coma as we indulged in every bite while the car windows fogged up, even my portion control awareness was impaired and FOGGED UP because of all the different flavours!!!
We probably looked like a pair of famished savages ripping the chicken masala apart amidst the pickled eggplant dish, lentils, dried/​fried anchovies, cabbage dish, potatoes, zucchini and chickpeas!!!
$ 9 for all this and we still had leftovers!
I see a repeat in the near future!
ISTUTIY BABU!!!

Chicken biriyani or mutton biriyani for $ 5.45, pretty good deal. I came an hour before closing and unfortunately they didn’t have chicken biriyani, decided to go with mutton. Added one naan for $ 1.25
Naan was very soft, and massive wow! Mutton was nicely spiced, tasty. Also came with a small container of yogurt chutney with sliced onions and cucumbers inside. Came home and made a salad to go with my meal.

Honestly the meat thali combo is insane! Variety, authentic, flavourful, badass and cheap! If your craving Indian food then this is definitely the place for take out. Lines get busy but after tasting babu you’ll know why.
As well I enjoy how authentic it feels inside, not American iced lol.

If you want cheap and fast and not bad quality this is the place it’s good don’t get me wrong not the best but for the price its amazing

This is THE place to go for Indian food in Scarborough. Great prices, amazing food.
Can be intimidating for the inexperienced or first timer. If it’s your first time, go the safe route:
Square Roti bread, Butter Chicken, and as many samosas as you can carry. Try something new each time you go and you’ll be an expert in no time.

I went here for the briyani and it was ok, not the best but not horrible either. What I do like about this place is their selection and their prices! The briyani was a little over $ 5 and was good enough for 2 meals, 3 if you dont eat too much.
Their curries and rotis look amazing and would be something I would go back for next time.

My go-​to place for quick tasty Indian food. I’ve been here so many times yet i’ve only tried a few things. Why? because their lunch combo w/​chili chicken is just too tempting. Their chicken roti is good as well. It’s stuffed w/​succulent chicken, potatoes, and egg for only 3 bucks.
Too bad they don’t have seating; takeout only. And there’s usually a line up (word is out!) but it moves fairly quickly.

This place is great! I’ve been getting food here for so many years. Food has always been great. The staff is good at letting you know what’s in the food. The portions are good for the price, quality is on point. There can be a line up because lots of people know of this gem but it’s worth the little line up. 110% worth it. If you like Indian food & are in the east end you have to check this place out.

Best milk Hoppas I have tasted! And I have tried a lot, these are always fresh and poked perfectly (crispy test moist in the centre). I would say their even better than the ones I have tasted in Sri Lanka.
Its a takeout only, my family usually gets party appetizers here like Samosas, Vadai (Ulundu, Channa), Rolls etc. Most of them cost about 5pieces/​$ 1.

I went to Babu recently with my parents. We bought several bags of food and it cost us less than $ 30. This place is take out only. There is no place to sit. If you have ever been to Samosa King (the take out part, not the restaurant part), Babu is similar.
We went a little before 3:00pm on a weekday and it was starting to get busy. The staff are incredibly nice. They answered all our questions and even gave us generous samples.
The vegetable samosas here are 5 for $ 1 just like at Samosa King. However, their meat samosas (mutton) are also 5 for $ 1 (where at Samosa King the meat samosas (chicken) are 2 for $ 1). The samosas at Babu are flatter and the pastry is different than most other samosas. The filling is also different, it is pureed, so the filling tastes like mash potatoes (vegetarian) and mutton-​infused mashed potatoes (meat). It is a very different taste than other samosas that I’ve had where the filling is little cubes of potatoes +/​-​meat. The samosas are tasty and full of flavour, but I think that I prefer non-​pureed fillings for samosas.
They had lots of «short eats» like mutton rolls, bondas, vadas, fish cutlets, etc. Mutton Rolls are $ 1 each. They are stuffed with curried potatoes and mutton. I liked them, but I prefer the ones at Samosa King as those are meatier and cheaper (only $ 0.75). Although the ones at Babu are spicier. Fish Patices are 3 for $ 1 and are little deep-​fried half-​moon pastries stuffed with pureed potatoes and fish. They have a mild fish flavour. We also got a Chicken Roti Roll ($ 2.95). It’s chicken, boiled egg and spices wrapped in a roti and then pan fried. It’s huge, I could eat one for lunch and be full. I really liked this, but there was a huge piece of whole ginger the size of a jujube in the roll and also a whole garlic clove. I would have liked it better if these were chopped up a bit more.
We also got some milk hoppers ($ 1 each). It’s like a sourdough crêpe with a milky centre. Interesting, but not my cup of tea. However, my mom loved it. My mom also got a small order of Red Pittu ($ 1.95). It’s like a rice-​based couscous with shredded coconut on top. Then they give you a bag of dried shredded coconut mixed with chili and butter that you are supposed to mix into the pittu, I suppose. The mix is hot (spicy) and sour and very unusual. Again, interesting, but not my cup of tea either. Again, my mom loved this.
We got an order of Chicken Kottu Roti ($ 6.95). It was very spicy, you could see many pieces of green chili peppers throughout. It also contained a lot of onions. I personally prefer the Chicken Kottu Roti at Samosa King since theirs has less onions and is only ($ 3.99). We also got their «All Day Lunch Special» which is steamed rice, 1 meat curry and 3 vegetable curries for $ 4.99. We got the Beef Madras (big tender chunks of lean beef in a deliciously spicy sauce), peas curry (spicy curry sauce), green beans curry (sweet and spicy sauce), and a potato curry (spicy curry sauce). Overall good, but very spicy. Samosa King has a similarly priced special but they also give you a huge piece of naan bread and a gulab jamun.
The food here is much spicier than at Samosa King. They are generally more expensive than Samosa King. However, they have items that Samosa King doesn’t such as Milk Hoppers, Pittu, Roti Rolls and Fish Cutlets.
Sorry for all the Samosa King comparisons, but the places are very similar in my opinion, so I can’t help but make comparisons. Babu is great in its own right (hence the 4 star rating). However, I personally prefer Samosa King because the prices are cheaper there and the food is comparable or better. But Babu has more selection and their food is spicier, so I would come to Babu for items that Samosa King doesn’t have or if I’m craving some really hot and spicy food.

Been here 2 times already and every time I go here its always has a line up. Take out only. Service is fast even when the line is long. Most of the food is displayed for you to see so you have an idea what you are ordering. Tried the Chettinad Chicken which was spicy but bearable and tasted very good. It has so much different flavors which is hard to describe. You just gotta try it and get it with naan. Got it with 1 naan bread the first time but mental note for self: Need 2 naans for future purchase as one was just not enough for all the sauce and meat they give you on a medium size order.
On the 2^nd visit I tried the butter chicken with 2 naans, and a tandoori chicken leg ($ 3) Neither of these were that good. The butter chicken lacked the rich buttery flavor that I’m use to from other Indian restaurants and the chicken leg was just seasoned the way I like. It looked too good to pass but after trying it once I don’t think I will ever order the chicken leg again.