Shaaz

Shaaz built its Toronto following at 2043 Eglinton Avenue East in Scarborough before opening a second city room at 417 Danforth Avenue on August 1, 2026. The house leads with Hyderabadi and Barkas-linked cooking: pit-style mandi, sealed-pot dum biryani in several styles, weekend haleem with sheermal, and mutton roasted in ghee. Other branches (Markham, Mississauga, Ottawa, Montreal) sit on theshaaz.com; this desk page treats Scarborough as the original Toronto proof and Danforth as the expansion bet onto a festival street that has chewed through tenants.

Mandi and Hyderabadi biryani are different orders. Mandi hangs meat above rice so fat and smoke drip through; dum biryani finishes meat and rice together in a sealed pot with fried onions, mint, and saffron. Stay in those columns on a first visit. The broader card also carries Chickpet-style donne biryani, Hakka plates, shawarma, and chaat, which helps mixed groups and makes it easy to order a generic night by accident.

Use Scarborough when you want the proven late family-and-tray room. Use Danforth when Riverdale or Leslieville households will not drive to Eglinton. Either way, treat mandi or one dum biryani as the main event, not both on visit one.

Our August 2026 Danforth opening brief and house menu language both push mandi and dum biryani as the reputation dishes. Diners and BlogTO corridor coverage treat the Eglinton room as a long-hours business that sells two- and five-kilo trays for parties. Public chatter on the Danforth chapter was still settling at desk write-up; judge that room on whether Scarborough mandi rigor survives a bigger footprint at an address that recently saw Dhoom close after roughly seven months.

Vegetarian diners can stay in paneer and kaju paneer ghee-roast mandi rather than defaulting to a generic curry. Expect serious spice and share-forward platters. First-timers who wander into Hakka or shawarma often leave thinking the kitchen is ordinary; the Hyderabadi columns are the test.

Compared with Lahore Tikka House’s Pakistani grill fame on Gerrard, Shaaz is a named regional bet: Hyderabad and Barkas on the card, not a pan-desi BBQ hall.