Tamil Food in Scarborough, Toronto: Dosa, Kothu and Hoppers
New to Tamil and Sri Lankan food? Here is how to read the menu: what a hopper is, why kothu is chopped, what to do with a dosa, and where Scarborough keeps it.
Rice batter, a hot pan, and a minute or two later you are holding a hopper: a bowl-shaped crepe with thin, crispy edges.
That is the kind of small kitchen magic Scarborough does every day, in plazas and on strips across the east end. This guide is for anyone who has stared at a Tamil or Sri Lankan menu and wondered where to start. We have kept it dish-first, so you can walk into any counter on the corridor knowing what you are ordering.
Why is Scarborough the place for Tamil and Sri Lankan food?
CBC’s food guide ties the Markham Road stretch’s reputation for Sri Lankan food to Scarborough’s large Sri Lankan Tamil population. It calls one stretch of Markham Road “Little Lanka,” and puts it from McNicoll to Steeles and beyond.
CBC also traces a boom of Sri Lankan food in Scarborough to the waves of newcomers who settled here in the 1980s and 1990s, with dozens of places opening, many of them takeout joints. Its Locals Welcome series highlights Scarborough’s plazas rich in Sri Lankan and Filipino delicacies. The City of Toronto, for its part, says Toronto is home to one of the largest Tamil diasporas in the world.
A platter of Sri Lankan snacks: pol roti, egg rolls, vegetable roti and fish cutlets.Bawva / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
CBC describes the hopper as a Tamil delicacy, also known as appam, and essentially a savoury crepe made from a rice flour batter. It cooks for a minute or two and comes out bowl-shaped, with a thicker, pancake-like centre and thin, crispy edges.
How you eat it is the fun part. You can crack an egg into the middle while it cooks, then tear the sides and dip them in the yolk. You can also spoon a little curry into the centre, such as shrimp, chicken or mutton. There is a sweet version too: the coconut milk hopper, with coconut cream or milk poured into the middle, and sometimes palm sugar called jaggery melted into the warm hopper.
The batter is made by grinding rice into flour and adding yeast. It is ladled onto a very hot, round-bottomed pan, a bit like a small wok, and swirled quickly. CBC’s food guide says a hopper is best eaten right away, and that few places make them fresh to order. Our tip: if you see a cook at the pan, stay and wait for yours.
In Sri Lankan food, “short eats” means snacks or quick bites. To count, a short eat is hand-held and bite-sized, can be fried or baked, and usually has a stuffing, either vegetable or beef. In Sri Lanka, roadsides are dotted with spots selling them, and mobile short-eats vans called tuk tuks advertise their offerings. The family includes fish patties, mutton rolls, egg rolls and vadai, a savoury doughnut made from lentils, curry leaves and spices.
CBC’s food guide suggests starting here if you are new to the cuisine. Short eats are an introduction to the fiery, spice-laced cooking of Sri Lanka, and they come before you get into the curries.
Kothu roti is day-old roti chopped on a flat griddle and mixed with spices and curry. It is a fast-cooked Sri Lankan stir fry. We think of it as the dish that turns day-old bread into the main event.
Sri Lanka’s national dish is widely considered to be rice and curry. When you want a full meal rather than a snack, this is the order. We like it with a short eat or two on the side.
A traditional dosa starts with a batter of ground rice and urad dal mixed with water, then left to ferment for up to eight hours. The fermenting brings a slight sourness and a bread-like quality. The batter is cooked like a crepe on a well-greased flat-top griddle, or traditionally on a tawa, which gives a delicately crunchy shell that stays damp inside.
Dosas are often served with vegetable chutneys, including coconut and pepper dips, and with sambar, a stew of vegetables and dhal. Dunk, repeat, and save a corner of the crisp edge for the last bite.
A ghee masala dosa with coconut chutney and sambar.Pravega / Wikimedia Commons / CC0
How do you order like a regular?
Start with short eats, move to a hopper or a kothu, and finish with rice and curry if you are still going. That is our order of play. CBC’s food guide adds that in Toronto you can eat hoppers whenever you like.
Here is our dream table for four. Two short eats each to start, one hopper with an egg to share, a kothu in the middle of the table, rice and curry for anyone still hungry, and a dosa for the chutney dunkers. Everyone gets to taste everything, and nobody leaves guessing what to order next time.
For a corridor to explore, walk the stretch of Markham Road from McNicoll to Steeles. For places to eat across the rest of Scarborough, our Scarborough restaurants guide maps the roads.
When is the best time to go?
Tamil Heritage Month is a good excuse for a food run. The City of Toronto proclaimed January 2026 as Tamil Heritage Month. During the month, Tamils around the world gather to celebrate Thai Pongal, a festival that gives thanks for an abundant harvest. Check the City’s proclamations page and community listings for what is on.
