Location: 900 Rathburn Road West, Unit 1, Mississauga
Website: http://leelasroti.com/
Well, that was disappointing.
I’ve never tried a double before (a doubles? Does it have to have the S?), and I’d certainly heard good things about Leela’s. Trying something new? At a reasonably acclaimed restaurant? Yeah, I was excited.
And the place was packed — so packed that I couldn’t even eat in the restaurant (I ate in the car, which is always fun).
If nothing else, it’s crazy cheap. I got a double ($1.25), an aloo pie ($1.50), and a bottle of Trinidadian soda ($2.00), and the whole thing came up to just over five bucks. And it was a fairly substantial amount of food, I should note.
I tried the double first. A double, for the uninitiated, is essentially a chickpea curry sandwich made with a special type of fried bread.
It was actually pretty bad. It probably didn’t help that it had obviously been sitting around for quite a while, giving the bread a mushy, unpleasantly sodden texture that was really unappealing.
The filling is essentially bland curry mush. It’s just kind of there, without any real personality: a gentle, ineffectual poke to your tastebuds. Nothing about it pops.
It also had an unpleasant undertone that I can’t quite put my finger on. The closest thing I can compare it to is particularly ripe boiled cabbage. That flavour wasn’t too strong, fortunately, but it was definitely there, and it was definitely off-putting — to me, at least. I think it’s safe to assume that, in the process of updating this blog, I’ll be eating dishes that would be classified as acquired tastes. So I don’t know if this was just a bad version of a double, or a taste I simply haven’t acquired.
The aloo pie was clearly the superior of the two items. Featuring a spiced potato filling surrounded by a crispy fried pastry shell, it was nothing particularly mind-blowing, but it was tasty at least.
The filling is essentially like a smoother, less dense version of what’s in a samosa. It tasted okay, but again, it was kind of bland. It was spicy, at least, which helped give it some personality.
The fried pastry shell had a crispy exterior and a pleasantly chewy bite, but it also tasted very strongly of stale oil.
So no… not a fan. But if you’re looking to get full on very little money, then sure, come here with a few bucks in your pocket and go nuts. Just don’t expect anything that great.
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