Moldova Restaurant

Came here on a trip to toronto from Buffalo with one of my Moldovan friends.
I had a nice time. Staff was very friendly and service was quick. Food was pretty good and authentic, all of the staff seemed to be eastern european when I went, which is nice, and also spoke english. Yeah no complaints. Cool place.

Fast service great prices kind waiter and chef . beautifully decorated 10/10 pleasant experience

Ordered food for pickup. Our family loved the restaurant before dine in or pick up but it got new owner:
1. Quality is terrible-we ordered pork kebab and chicken kebab. Unfortunately for pick up I did not check the content. What I got was not kebab - it was fried on grill, was overcooked and !!!! it was not fresh looks like it was heated in microwave
2. portion is smaller than before.
3. prices is higher

Last time we were in 2023- the restaurant design was outdated but for the mid-price you get excellent east European food which was enough for me and more than enough for wife and daughter.

Now they refreshed design but they cheat. The portion I got was ~30 less than before and not enough for me.

I was not charged additional 13% for service - I think because of pickup- but I trust another reviewer they do it- It has to be my choice to give tips.

The service was amazing and felt very welcome. Being a Moldovan living in New York, it is nice to see real authentic food that tastes delicious. Definitely recommend trying and will be back for sure!

3.5 stars

used to come here about 10 yrs ago, on regular basis, was my fav russian resto. I think ownership has changed since then. Service still good, prices up at least 50%, probably expected. The food, was a little better with previous ownership, but still pretty good now

During this pandemic, I gravitate towards making and eating foods that are comforting to me. Although I am not Eastern European, I do love the cuisine. It's a combination of my living in Winnipeg, where I had amazing Ukrainian food, and having khinkali (Georgian dumplings) and more over a year ago.

I miss going to Bravo Bistro, which is an eatery steps away from the office where I work. It offers cabbage rolls, perogies, and more that I love. It seems like eons ago when I was last was at the office.

Anyway, I was running errands like I typically do on a Saturday. I needed to grab some lunch, did a search on my Ritual app, and found Moldova Restaurant. It has khinkali. Yay!

I originally ordered the khachapuri (it's essentially a cheese pizza with an egg on top). A few minutes later, I was notified that it was out of stock. I was sad. Perhaps pouty. Who could tell behind a mask?

Ritual is good in that it gave me 15% off my next order. Well, I took full advantage of that deal by changing my order up in less than five minutes.

I got these items instead:
- Khinkali with buckwheat as a side
- Cabbage rolls
- Honey cake

My order would be ready in fifteen minutes, according to the app. I took my time leisurely driving over to the restaurant from shopping at Giant Tiger in Etobicoke.

Moldova Restaurant is on Dufferin Avenue, a few streets south of Steeles Avenue West, on the southwest side. This restaurant is in an area with tons of parking. It was quiet on a Saturday afternoon.

I backed into a parking spot and went in. There is patio dining. No one was dining.

I headed over to the bar. Although it said that my order was ready on the app, it wasn't. The nice gentleman said that one more item needed a few more minutes. He offered to come to my car and deliver my food. I was game. I headed back to my car and waited.

The wait wasn't long. It was roughly five minutes. He came over to the passenger side. I rolled down my window. He placed two plastic bags containing my food on the floor and was wearing a mask. One had my dessert, including ice cream. What?! I didn't realize that it came with ice cream. Yay!

I thanked the nice man and made sure my food was protected before I drove off like a crazy woman to avoid having melted ice cream. Nah, the crazy driving part didn't happen. I simply dreaded the thought of having melted ice cream by the time I got home.

I was ready to eat lunch at 5 pm. Yeah, my lunch time is becoming an early dinner on Saturdays as the months go by.

Everything was nicely packed. I was pleased.

I had the cabbage rolls first. There were four of them with tomato sauce over them. They were so good. Each one had ground beef and rice in them. The cabbage leaves were tender, but not mushy. The filling was flavourful and not overly salty. The tomato sauce was bright. Yum!

I then opened the box of khinkali. There were four of them. They looked Georgian to me. I was so happy. I carved into one. The filling seemed to be a mix of pork and beef. It was generous. The khinkali were delicious. The dough was perfect. The filling was spiced well. They were juicy and done right.

I was curious about buckwheat as a side. I've had buckwheat in pancakes and soba noodles. I didn't know what to expect. Well, the buckwheat was seasoned with parsley and salt. I enjoyed it a lot. I had so much left over that I ate it with a side of corn the next day and loved the combination. Buckwheat is yummy in my books, and a nice alternative to potatoes or rice.

I love honey cake. I automatically said yes to it when I saw the menu on Ritual. The layers were impressive. It was yummy. It could have been more moist cake-wise, though. Still, the wasn't overly sweet, which I appreciated. It came with three scoops of vanilla ice cream, which did not become ice cream soup in this heatwave. The caramel drizzle make me think that two of the scoops were faces looking at me... haha! The ice cream definitely balanced out the slightly drier cake.

I would have given this place five stars if it hadn't run out of khachapuri. It just means that I need to return to this eatery and order it again. Hopefully, my luck is better on that front.

I loved my food here. It's a hidden gem that I wasn't aware of. Thank goodness I found it on Ritual.

(212)

I was visiting Toronto this summer and was invited to Moldova restaurant. Since I have Russian background, I Ordered borsh, vegetable stew and Kiev kutlet, that was exactly like my grandma's. I highly recommend this restaurant to people who love Russion/ Ukrainian cuisine .
I really liked this place and will visit it again.

Eating at Moldova Restaurant, I couldn't help but wonder if the food was lacking or if it's just Moldovian cuisine that's subpar. Though I didn't especially enjoy anything I ate, it's entirely possible that everything was a superior example of the dishes they were based on.

But bad food is bad food, ultimately.

We arrived around lunchtime on a weekday and the place was sparsely populated. I ate:

Harcho ("Spicy soup w/ meat and rice"): This dish was easily the best of the bunch. It's a fairly bland, tomato soup-like concoction that kind of grew on me as I ate it. There aren't too many flavors going on here and the spice is almost non-existent, but it's no worse than something I'd eat out of a can.

Chebureki ("Fried meat pie"): This bizarre dish is essentially a very thin, underseasoned piece of meat in a pastry. It's edible, I guess. The lack of flavor is bizarre, to say the least, and I feel like the pie would've been helped by a dipping sauce of some kind.

Mamaliga ("Corn meal w/ sour cream and feta cheese or fried meat"): This thing left my dining companion and I scratching our heads in confusion. It's essentially a very bland, tasteless corn meal cake that's accompanied by sour cream and feta cheese (we were not given the option to choose fried meat). We both ate a few bites of this tasteless mess and gave up.

(I should also mention that the Chebureki was supposed to come with a side dish but that didn't happen. Our smile-free waitress wasn't exactly approachable, so we didn't bother asking.)

Went in there about two years ago and food was tasteless however decided to give this place a chance and asked my bf to grab a takeout from there ..... no change

Moldova is a wonderful place for home-style Eastern European cooking.
My mother, daughter and I enjoyed a wonderful meal in homey surroundings, with thoughtful, helpful and pleasant service. We were using a Groupon, and had no difficulties redeeming it.
Our experience was so good that I am puzzled by some of the bad reviews. I've concluded that they may have not known what to expect from Eastern European food. If, for example, you search mamaliga, you will find that it is very similar to plain polenta, and is not very exciting on its own, but rather, as a side dish to be shared with other diners.
There was plenty of parking, and we arrived early. No worries, though, because we were seated and our orders were taken promptly. There was just enough of a delay to allow us to relax, without wondering if the beverages or meal would ever come. The timing of the courses was very satisfactory.
Moldova has a lovely, homey interior, which is a nice change from the hectic, banquet-style atmosphere of many Russian and Eastern European restaurants. Our server was so kind and friendly. She thoughtfully listened to our stated preferences and recommended some menu items. When she mentioned that Khinkali were a special that eveining, we ordered it! She told us how to eat Khinkali (a broth and meat filled dumpling, Georgian in origin) without all of the soup pouring out.
The service was really outstandingly warm and welcoming. I wish that I had asked for our server's name, because she was so charming, speaking Russian fluently but also commanding excellent English. She was happy to answer all of our questions regardless of the language that we were using! She even could understand my Mother's Ukrainian! We felt very at home, and our food was just as comforting as everything else at Modova. My goodness, even the parking was easy!.
We began with the featured appetizer of Khinkali.
"What is khinkali?" my mother asked. I explained that it was like a perogie, but also like a Chinese soup dumpling. We ordered it and WOW! All three of us loved the khinkali, although none of us was able to master the technique of slurping the broth out or the dumpling. But don't fear: that yummy bullion did not go to waste, as we threw pride and decorum overboard, and just drank that savoury broth from the plates.
Next: the main course. While we waited, we conversed with our waiter (using various languages), and my mother, daughter and I each felt so welcome at Moldova. Then, our main courses:
1. Chebureki. These are basically like meat pies or samosas. You can eat them as a hand-lunch and in Moscow they used to be on sale outside some of the metro stations (you could even eat it on the metro .. I hope that vendors still sell them!). Moldova's version was nicely spiced and fried without being greasy. My daughter rater her's 4.5/5
2. Chicken Tabak. Actually, a cornish hen was used in this preparation. My mother told me, verbatim, what to write: "I don't usually eat fried foods these days," she said *But this was very properly fried so that the skin is crispy and the dark meat was moist but not greasy. If you like crispy skin and dark meat, this will be tasty for you."
3. Chicken Kiev
This was very nicely done. I detected a lot of garlic in the dish, which pleased me greatly, and also a hint of dill, which gave the dish a freshness. The breading was very crispy. Also, you can choose kasha as a side, as opposed to just potatoes or fries.
4.So, what was the all-star dish of the evening for us? The Khinkali, to be sure! As my mother said, "It's like a Chinese soup dumpling, only much better.The filling was well seasoned and the pastry was not to thick."
Oh, by the way, don't eat the pastry "handle" - that button-shaped protrusion on the tops of your khinkali. It's meant to be a handle, and not eaten, which I learned when I lived in Georgia. However, if the pastry's good, I will sometimes eat the handles too!
The combination of comforting food and truly considerate service certainly makes Moldova a top choice for an Eastern European meal

Make no mistake though: Moldova does not specialize in innovative or fancy preparations, but serves the type of food that your Ukrainian/Romanian/Russian/ East-European babushka (grandma) would have made, if you were from that region, as the majority of the guests clearly were. So, in two words, it's authentic!
Here's my advice if you want to give Moldova a try: do a bit of research about the type of cuisine before you go. If you have calibrated your taste buds to an Eastern European frequency, then Moldova is sure to be a pleasant experience!! Home-style Eastern European cooking with a flair for special dishes from other regions near Russia (such as khinkali from Georgia, and sometimes they have other specials too).

I know that I'll be back! Moldova pleased three generations that night! My mother, my daughter and I left feeling comfortably full, with the added warmth that comes from polite and friendly service.