Dr Laffa is no joke

Dr. Laffa is a Middle Eastern/Israeli restaurant located on Bathurst Street just south of Lawrence Avenue in Toronto in the predominantly Jewish area of Toronto.  So it's a great location for some serious food that is made by the staff at Dr. Laffa.  The spices are even shipped in from Israel.

I was invited to go for a tasting with a bunch of fellow food bloggers.  I think we ate everything on the menu.

This is the carnage a bunch of foodies can do to loads of great food.











Laffa is a bread that is a cross between a pita and naan bread but it is much thinner and lighter.  It takes only 56 seconds to bake.  It's so good you can eat a tonne of it.  Dr. Laffa is no joke.  It's the real deal.












We sampled so many different things and all of it was fantastic.   Some of the things everyone liked was the Shakshuka, eggs cooked in spicy tomato sauce.  I tasted a hint of cumin and some other spices.

The meat hummus is one of their signature dishes.  It was featured on You Gotta Eat Here on Food Network.  It's ground meat on top of really creamy hummus.


I really liked the Morrocan cigars.  A crunchy dough wrapped around ground beef.

A couple of things that reminded me of things my mom made when I was a kid were the roasted eggplant with tahini, it had a great smokey flavour.  The marinated peppers, similar to what my mom used to make.  Also baba ganoush.  My parents were married in Israel so it influenced some of my mom's cooking.

One thing I never had before but will probably drive there to get in the future was the dessert called Krembo, a chocolate covered coffee flavoured mousse on a cookie base.  It was light as a feather and not too sweet.

Dr. Laffa is owned by Yoram Gabay who opened the restaurant about a year and a half ago.   He formerly partnered with the Dr. Laffa that was located on Magnetic Drive but they separated and he opened his own restaurant.

Some of the other things Yoram served us were Sabich, Chicken Shawarma, Fries, Lentil soup, beets, tabouli and falafel.   We tried pretty much everything.   We all left fully stuffed.  I was glad I was really hungry when I got there so I could try it all.   I have been there before but I had only had the falafel and the chicken shawarma.   It's great to sample all of the other things so that I know what to get the next time I stop in.

It caters to Jewish clientele so it is closed for Jewish Holidays and Sabbath so you should check if they are open before you go.  You can see the full menu and the location details here:  Dr. Laffa