Taash Indian Restaurant and Bar

Taash means deck of cards in Hindi, and the Srivastava family who run the Ontario Street restaurant deal the menu out the way the name suggests — many plates meant to play together, no single one asked to carry the meal alone. The Indian dining room and bar in downtown St. Catharines is built on that premise: a Chef's Special lane led by house curries, an Indo Hakka section that brings momos and wok-fried noodles to the same table, breads and chaat in support, and a licensed bar that lets the meal stretch into the evening. Heat is adjustable at the order, from mild through extra hot, and the family talks about spice as flavour rather than only burn. The same plates travel well between a takeout container and a sit-down table.

The clearest house signature is the Taash Special Chicken — bone-in chicken cooked in the chef's special Taash curry rather than a generic butter-sauce shortcut — and it does more identity work in one plate than a default Butter Chicken order would. Lamb Shank Nihari is the deeper, slower move on the same Chef's Special section, stewed with aromatics for over twelve hours and finished with lemon, cilantro, and ginger. Chole Bhature gives a vegetarian table its own anchor, fluffy deep-fried bread next to spiced chickpea curry, ginger, and herbs. The Indo Hakka lane runs through Steamed Vegetable Momos, Chicken Makhni Momos, Vegetable and Chicken Chow Mein, and spring rolls. For breads, Laccha parantha layers under heavy stews and Mirchi garlic Naan adds a sharper edge to the curries.