Posted by Kulsum Merchant in restaurant review, south asian on July 24, 2007 at 7:12 am

786 Halal Restaurant
1330 Gerrard Street East
416-406-0786
Dinner for two, with all taxes, tip and a mango lassi: $55

The mammoth Lahore Tikka House erupts on Gerrard Street floor by floor, dwarfing the smaller establishments dotting the neighbourhood of Little India. It is unfortunate to see so many of these places repeatedly shut down and reopen in the shadow of one or two that have come to epitomize the Great Indian dining experience on Gerrard Street.

Of the new restaurants that have recently opened, however, there is one in particular that comes as exciting news for lovers of North Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Montreal’s famous 786 Halal Restaurant* opened its doors last year in Toronto, diagonally across from the Lahore Tikka House, and is sure to give the monolith a run for its money.

Despite its small stature, the restaurant boasts a die-hard following. Do not expect soft lighting and linen here. The solemn, but accommodating 786 staff do not serve any alcohol. The main seating area is well-lit and spacious, if a little clinical, with its glazed tile floors and spotless melamine table tops. The side seating area, accessible only after walking through the main restaurant, is called the “Family Section” — a throwback to traditional Indian restaurants in India and Pakistan, where women were often seated in curtained off areas, away from the enquiring and sometimes lascivious gazes of a mostly male clientele. The restaurant can often be noisy. On Sunday evening, the day of this review, about thirty family members are seated at two different tables. Raucous as it may be, it is no distraction for those who are intent upon this restaurant’s unique menu.

My three companions and I have come for what we call a “strictly non-veg barbecue” dining experience. We order 786’s specialty, Chapli Kababs ($9) — ground beef folded with fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, and a light spicing of garam masala, flattened into round kababs, and grilled. I have yet to find these kababs anywhere else in Toronto, and for my friends who are tasting it for the first time, the dish is a hit. The tomatoes and onions give added moisture and texture to what would otherwise be a mild version of the Seekh Kabab ($7).

Each of the two pieces in the Seekh Kabab plate is almost a foot long, and fresh from the grill. A gravy boat of raita (yogurt with mint) with endless refills accompanies them as a perfect cooling complement to the piquant heat of the kabab. A deadly combination of coriander, green and red chilli, spring onions, and chaat masala, all finely blended with the meat makes for some serious tongue acrobatics with this dish. If your palate isn’t strong enough for all the chilli in this kabab, you can request the server to have your food made mild.

The third dish is an authentic Chicken Tikka ($10), reminiscent of the smoky, streetside late night meat grills in Karachi and Bombay. We ooh and aah over the large chunks of brown and white boneless chicken marinated in yoghurt, and tenderized with a ginger-garlic paste. It can be eaten plain, or with pieces of hot buttered Naan ($1.25 each). It’s very hard to go wrong making Chicken Tikka, and yet, I have eaten at many restaurants that offer bland-tasting chicken, just as long as it’s a garish orange colour. The tikka here is equally, horrendously orange, but fortunately, beautifully smoky-flavoured.

At this point, we’re near-stuffed, but there’s no going home without trying their $6 Weekend Special — on Sundays, it’s Paya. To say that this is not a dish for the faint of heart is an understatement. Back home, we call them “trotters.” Here, they are called feet. Cow’s feet in this case. Paya — how can I describe it — is possibly one of the most acquired, and most rewarding tastes from the North Indian non-vegetarian spectrum (next to brains). Made like any curry, with the requisite garam masala, golden-fried onions, ginger-garlic, and yoghurt, Paya has one defining element: its finger-sticking gelatinous texture. The fat off the feet melts into the sauce, making it thick and sticky like pudding when cold, but thin as water when hot. During Paya dinners as a child, I would spend an hour dipping my Naan in the sauce with my fingers, letting my fingers dry a bit, sticking them together and then unsticking them. I am excited to eat Paya after a year, but shocked when I see the massive, gelatinous cows’ ankles in the dish. In India, we eat goats’ feet, which are smaller and more manageable. The Paya is excellent, and the flesh on the feet literally melts in my mouth. Nothing like a dollop of pure fat to end things. Oh yes. I forgot about dessert. The best Gulab Jamuns ($3) in town, right here, thick, sweet and spongy without tasting of grease.

There are $6 Weekend Special dishes that are infinitely less adventurous, but definitely worth a try for a new taste experience. These are the Friday Haleem (a thick meat stew made with whole wheat and lentils cooked for hours, then mashed), and the Saturday Nihari (cow’s upper thigh meat slow-cooked for 9 hours so that the meat melts off the bone and the marrow dissolves in the sauce for extra flavour). Both these dishes are topped off with a vaghar (spices flash fried in pure ghee and then poured over the dish). Two other 786 specialties are the Lahori Fried Fish ($10; Tilapia, which I personally tend to find a little smelly) and Lahori Charga ($14; a whole grilled chicken). Other dishes on offer are the same conventional fare.

A warning to anyone who goes there to eat. There is strength in numbers here, because the portion sizes are so large that it would be difficult for two people to eat more than two dishes, so variety will be sacrificed unless multiple visits are planned. The more will certainly be the merrier in this case.

*The number 786, when written in Arabic, reads as “Bismillah” (In the Name of Allah) — a request to bless any beginning, be it eating, writing an exam, or praying. 786, in its Roman numerals is a bricolage often used by practicing Western Muslims in a non-Muslim environment.