Masala Mahal

Ordered a rice at medium spicy. Forgot the name. It is item #1 on the hand written board. Really good. Medium spicy is the perfect «foreigner spicy». On top of spiciness, there is bold and unmistakable spices in this rice. The meat part is mediocre. Meat is not the star. The super star of this rice dish is the rice. I would gladly eat it without any meat.

This place is spectacular if you want authentic tasting kashmiri food. I ordered their version of roasted chunky beef soup with noodles, medium spicy, and man, does the richly balanced aroma of flavors and spices blow me away!
They’ve improved a lot since they first opening in the summer. Noodles went from thin rice noodles to a medium thickness noodle, beef went from somewhat bland to richly flavored and the soup base is the perfect balance of spices and salt.
Portions are more than generous and for 7 bucks it comes with a drink! Truly another hidden gem.

Hidden GEM!
The best shank curry ever and the Haleem is quite flavoursome although could be thicker.
But thats pretty much where it ends. The biryani is bad.
Restaurant prices at the food court
The owner is a very nice guy to talk to overcharged us but later admitted the error with refund.

Lamb biryani and lamb kebabs were delicious and taste authentic. You will experience cardamom, cumin, and rich spices in every bite. Price and portion doesn’t quite balance out yet but this is something they can fix with a bit of customer feedback (sometimes they give too much food for an order, and other times it seems they give too little).
Hope they last long because it seems they might close up if they don’t start investing into some quality billboards. Too easy to walk by them and not give this place a chance because their storefront advertising efforts are negligible.

First Markham Place never seems to disappoint. For anyone working in Markham, this food court is great for your wallet. Even better for your tummy!
Now I have tried all types of Indian food, Pakistani, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, South Indian. so forth and so forth. but KASHMIRI! thank you, something new.
Let me say, i was surprised at the amount of selection that they have, even though their menu is kind of hard to decrypt (print out with picture taped all over the place). I ordered the basic daily special. Chicken Biryani with a pop for $ 5.99.
Was really good. Nice white meat, with a flavour of biryani not like anything else in the area. Not overwhelming with spices but still had great flavour. I enjoyed it for the price.
It was my first time so i went basic, I am definitely ready to visit the world of Kashmir again. good STUFF!

There’s always good food to be had at First Markham Place and all this time I have been looking to try Kashmiri BBQ but never got around to it until now.
After perusing the smallish menu I opted for the Masala Lamb Soup noodles at a reasonable price of $ 5.99 for the regular size. The owner told me to come back in 10 minutes, but I figured good things should come to those who wait.
I was right. What surprised me was the attention to detail in the dish, from the lamb that was stewed until tender to the pulling out of the marrow from the bones and sucking them clean, and the veggies decoratively arranged. This was not expected at a food court!
The noodles, fried garlic, had a little East Asian flair to it and I also tasted some Chinese lettuce at the bottom of the bowl, but I figure this is probably a fusion dish anyhow. All in all a good bowl of East meets South Asia.
Will be back to try the lamb chops and biryani next time.

The opening of Kashmiri BBQ does make the food court of First Markham Place more diversified!
Lamb with Rice? It is kind of like a fried rice? It has a good seasoning of cumin and chucks of lamb pieces.
Locating inside FMP competing against so many other fast food option is not going to be easy. If Kashmiri BBQ wants to attract more customers, they really needs to be more aggressive price and quality wise. But serving Halal food might give them an edge over the other food stalls inside FMP.

Kashmiri BBQ took over what was Shanghai Legend in the First Markham Place food court. I was a little taken aback when I saw it, cause Shanghai Legend was still operating last weekend. This place is so new that it doesn’t even have a sign up yet!
There are several items on the menu I wanted to try, but I mainly focused on the skewers they have. I tried the lamb skewers. For $ 2.50 each skewer, the price is actually quite steep compared to other places I know. It tasted pretty good, however I’ve had better skewers during Night It Up (PS: Kashmiri BBQ does have a stall there), and honestly $ 2.50 for a single skewer is too expensive for the quantity it offers, especially considering it’s still technically fast food.
Nonetheless, it’s a welcome addition to the First Markham Place food court. With the halal vendor now, the food court now has stalls for Western style Chinese, HK style Chinese, Central Chinese, Northern Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Halal, BBQ, and bubble tea. Not bad in terms of variety!