Jamil’s Chaat House : The Modern Pakistani Pop-Up That Made Queen West Buzz

There’s a particular kind of restaurant Toronto needed and didn’t quite have. Not the hole-in-the-wall Pakistani spot you’d send a friend to for takeout, and not the white-tablecloth South Asian fine dining either. Something in the middle. Somewhere you could walk in for a chaat snack and a glass of natural wine, or sit down for a tasting menu and a cardamom Old Fashioned. Jamil’s Chaat House is that place, and since opening on Queen West in December 2025, it’s quietly become one of the more exciting rooms in the city.

A Family Name and a Pakistani Research Trip

Jamil’s is named after Jalil Bokhari’s grandfather, Farouk Jamil. His mom’s maiden name. A man who loved food, loved hosting, loved a good party. When Jalil and his partner Emma Tanaka decided to take their pop-up project seriously, they named the restaurant after him. It fits, because hospitality is what the place is about.

Jalil and Emma had been doing the occasional pop-up dinner for years, mostly for friends, at home, in low-key settings. Jalil has 15 years of restaurant experience, mostly front of house. Emma was less involved in restaurants until Jamil’s. The dinners kept getting bigger, the responses kept getting better, and in 2024, they decided to commit. They flew to Pakistan to visit Jalil’s family and treated the trip as research, then came back to Toronto with a full identity and a plan.

The pop-up tour that followed is what built the brand. They cooked at Likanez and a friend’s bar in Toronto. They went to New York and worked at Cellar 36, a wine bar. They went to Vancouver, Victoria, and Penticton, cooking at Bar Tartare and Salway, among others. Each city taught them something. Wine, in particular, kept opening up. Pakistani food and natural wine turned out to be a pairing few people in Toronto were exploring, and one Jalil and Emma kept finding more compelling.

The plan was a year and a half of pop-ups before opening a restaurant. Then a space at Queen and Dovercourt came up, fully renovated, the kind of opportunity you don’t pass on. They opened nine months in. Brick-and-mortar arrived ahead of schedule, in December 2025.

A Room Built on the Bollywood Golden Era

The space takes its visual cues from the golden era of Bollywood, the 60s and 70s, when Karachi was a port city and PIA flew direct to Paris, London, and New York. It was the hippie era, the cultural exchange between the subcontinent and the West, the moment the Beatles started spending time with Ravi Shankar. That moodboard is everywhere in the room.

Warm wood, oil lamps on the bar, candlelight at the tables. Then the modern counterpoint: chrome and reflective aluminum, a balance Jalil and Emma kept coming back to. The banquettes are upholstered in a jacquard fabric that feels pulled straight from a grandmother’s living room. The room is small, intentionally so. Tables sit close to each other, a little New York, a little Paris, the kind of layout that makes a room feel like it’s buzzing even on a slow night.

The playlist is part of the experience. Shuffle, anywhere from the 60s to the early 2000s, with deep cuts of South Asian disco running through the rotation.

The patio, which opens earlier this year (likely in May), almost doubles the size of the restaurant. Painted baby blue, set in a courtyard between buildings with a garage at the back, it has the feel of a Haveli, the South Asian architectural form built around a central courtyard. The tandoor is set up out there, so you’ll catch the smell of grilled food the second you sit down.

What to Order

The menu is intentionally small, around nine main items, every dish chosen because it earns its place.

Start with the dahi puri. Semolina puri shells filled with yogurt, chutneys, and crisp toppings, every bite a controlled burst of soft and crunchy, sweet and sour, tangy and spicy. Chaat is street food in Pakistan, a loose term that always points to combinations of texture and contrast. Dahi puri is the dish Jalil and Emma have made at every single pop-up since day one, and the one they recommend to first-timers. Zero to a hundred in one bite.

The chicken bun is the menu’s most familiar dish for people new to the cuisine. Pulled chicken, gently spicy, comforting in the way a good sandwich always is. It leans a little fusion, and that’s part of the appeal.

The karahi chicken carries the more traditional weight on the menu, deeply seasoned, the kind of dish you want to scoop into bread. The beef kebab is another standout, big-flavoured and carefully made.

Vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan diners are taken seriously here. The cuisine lends itself naturally to plant-forward eating, and Jamil’s leans into that. Anyone can come and find a full meal.

Sourcing matters. The meat is Ontario-raised. Produce comes from Broad Fork and Bondi, two of the better local suppliers, and the menu rotates with the seasons. Regulars who come every couple of weeks can count on their favourites staying put while a few items quietly change.

Wine and Cocktails Built for the Food

The wine list is one of the more thoughtful in the city right now. The focus is vibrant, semi-natural, sometimes biodynamic, never ideological. Jalil drinks a lot of French wine, and the list leans that way, with a particular love for Jura. Light reds, textured whites, higher-acid bottles, a few subtle oranges, plus grower champagne and white burgundy for guests who want something more classic. The pairings are built around matching the punch and spice of the food, which the wines do beautifully.

The cocktail program runs on classics with a Pakistani twist. Martinis, Negronis, Old Fashioneds, all anchored in tradition but reimagined with ingredients drawn from the cuisine. The cardamom Old Fashioned is exactly the kind of thing the menu is made for.

What They’re Most Proud Of

Ask Jalil and Emma what they’re most proud of and the answer keeps coming back to community. Friends turning into regulars. Strangers turning into friends. People bringing parents and bringing parents’ friends. Watching someone have a “Ratatouille moment” with a dish that brings them back somewhere personal. Restaurants are community, they’ll tell you, and Jamil’s was built to be one.

The Verdict

Jamil’s Chaat House is what happens when two people spend years researching, traveling, cooking, and listening before opening a restaurant. It is small, considered, and full of personality. The food is Pakistani in roots and Toronto in voice. The wine is generous. The room is buzzing. If you’ve been waiting for somewhere new on Queen West that feels like its own thing, this is it.

Written by Fabie Lubin
Photography by Scott Usheroff (Craving Curator)

Updated on May 11, 2026

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