In this occasional feature, food writer Karon Liu writes about the tastiest things he’s recently eaten around the city. Got a suggestion? Email him at karonliu@thestar.ca.

As someone who has worked on-and-off at the Star building at the foot of Yonge St. for nearly a decade, I can say that the takeout options around here are pretty bleak. The influx of offices and condos led to a ton of cookie-cutter sandwich and salad bars in the Financial District, but it gets boring fast and reminds me of bland airline food.

Enter the waterfront location of local roti chain My Roti Place at 12 Queens Quay W. (west of Yonge St.). From 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. every day including weekends (and only at this location), it serves north and south Indian breakfast combos (both $10). The north Indian breakfast comes with two aloo parathas (flatbread with potato stuffing), egg bhurji (scrambled eggs with onions and chilies) a choice of raita or pickles and a bottle of orange juice. The south Indian version has one idly (a fluffy fermented lentil and rice-based steamed cake), one vada (a savoury fried fritter), a small masala dosa (dosa stuffed with potatoes), sambar (a spicy lentil and vegetable stew) and two chutneys for dipping.

Everything is cooked to order and incredibly filling without feeling greasy like a typical fast food breakfast sandwich. The hint of chillies, the tang of asafoetida in the sambar, the crispy roti with creamy potatoes, the cool raita, it’s the kind of breakfast I need to jump-start the day. My Indian and Sri Lankan coworkers are especially jazzed about being able to eat the breakfasts their moms would make when they were kids.

All the items in the combos can be ordered separately, but I strongly recommend getting the combos for a bit of everything. The south Indian breakfast has slightly more variety, but as someone who is accustomed to having eggs in the morning, the egg bhurji is hard to pass up.

It seems like few people know about the breakfast menu as the place only gets busy when the menu switches over to lunch, but I hope more people ditch the mediocre muffin and give this a try.

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