restaurant review: amaya

Restaurant: Amaya
Location: 1701 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4G 3C1
Telephone: 416-322-3270
Website: http://www.amayarestaurant.com/
Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $30 CAD

What I had:
(I was sharing several dishes with my dinner companions, so this may look like a lot, but I was sampling)
~ murgh makhani (a.k.a. butter chicken)
~ naan
~ vegetarian samosa
~ kerela pepper duck
~ lamb lollies
~ mango lassi
~ poppadoms
~ coffee tofee ice cream

Ratings:

Comments:
This was a great Indian restaurant experience. Although a small, little place, I never felt squished and the seating is comfortable. The waiter was friendly, helpful and taught us a few things about Indian food (like when to call a samosa a samosa) and the food always came quickly to the table, but never overlapped (there was about a 5 minute gap between appetizers, main course, and dessert) and when I had asked for coconut ice cream (which they didn't have) we could see the waiter in the kitchen looking in the fridge thoroughly for about 5 minutes before he came back to tell me they were out.

The food here is absolutely amazing. The sauces are rich and delicious and the meat (duck, lamb, chicken) all melted in the mouth. The mango lassi I had was thick and very fresh-tasting. There wasn't a lot of heat to any of the dishes, which I really liked. And dessert was very generous.

The food was really good and the atmosphere was casual and relaxed. I would definitely come here again and would happily recommend it to everyone I know who likes Indian food or would like to try it for the first time.