The Pomegranate Restaurant

Was recommended by an Iranian colleague and the dinner I had there with friends turned out to be a great success.

The stew dishes (chicken stew and mushroom stew) were very fresh and delicious.

Lamb shrank was as good as expected.

Polo and ice cream were such a delight with oriental and Persian tastes! Highly recommended!

One of my favourite restaurants in the city, with a hard to find combination of uniquely delicious food and an intimate yet lively atmosphere. I always get the zeitoun parvardeh, which are olives marinated in a sweet and tangy walnut and pomegranate dressing. I like it so much that when walking by will often just take an order to go. Most recently I had the pom salad (feta, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, greens) and the kashk-e bademjoon (an eggplant dip with a tangy and salty whey that tastes very much like blue cheese) served with their house bread. My date had the adas polo, a lamb shank served with rice that is flavoured with dates, berries, and saffron. We didn't get it this time but the rose and pistachio ice cream is also divine.

Definitely call in to make reservations, the restaurant is quite empty at 6:30pm but fills up very quickly. Until next time!

We came here at 6PM on a Saturday with a group of 7. I'm not sure if I've had Iranian cuisine before, so I was excited to experience it amidst Pomegranate's vibrant interior (see attached photos for all the details!)

I ordered the Shirin Polo with halal braised lamb shank. The rice was extremely fragrant, and the meat was quite tender, but I'm not sure if all the elements of the dish meshed together. We also got the Persian ice cream, which had rosewater, nuts, and pomegranate seeds. It was a large portion size (good for 2-4 people to share) and not too sweet.

As our group didn't all arrive at the same time, we waited a bit to order. It felt like one of the staff was pressuring us to order as the table was booked at 8PM (though two hours ended up being plenty of time). Another of our servers was fantastic and super attentive throughout the night.

Overall, Pomegranate is a great choice for its ambiance and cuisine.

A lovely little restaurant that I've walked by a few times.

Ambiance here is beautiful and a great place to annoy a meal with one person or a small group.

We shared the pomegranate sangria and it was very tasty and the perfect amount for two!

Both dishes were the lamb shank, but my rice had the orange peel in it. It's a bit sweet (the orange) so beware, but I loved it for what it was!

People have commented on slow service, which I was nervous for, but service was smooth and food came out quickly with a restaurant that was about 3/4 full at the time!

Just a warning you should make a reservation because you will have to wait an hour to get a seat, we were put on the wait list, inside you have middle eastern look for the ambiance, I ordered the Baqali palao it definitely is reasonably priced, the Lamb was tender with rice with dill but the lamb was bland, there was no flavour at all, I was pretty disappointed, but if you don't try it you never know, Afghan food like Kandahar is ten times better than this, but people like this place so I'm glad this place is surviving but for my liking I don't like the food, it was very bland big portion reasonably price that's the positive but very bland

Had this place on my list for YEARS. Finally an opportunity arose where I needed to order takeout, and none of my usual spots sounded quite right. I decided to give it a try! I had no idea what to expect or to order ...

The beef stew with lentils was fantastic, exactly what I was picturing and hoping for. The biggest surprise for me was the pickle platter, usually a giant disappointment when I order that type of things, but the pickled flavours went great with my dish. I wouldn't say this is the type of flavour profile I'm likely to crave often (versus, say, sushi) but I would recommend and I did enjoy.

I was super excited to try out the food at Pomegranate, as it is a very well known Persian restaurant in downtown toronto. This place is usually all booked up but I went in for an early dinner / late lunch with a friend! I think you can call to make reservations, so I highly recommend doing that. We were seated immediately but the hostess had told us we only had a 1.5 hour timeframe before their next reservation arrived. This was a bit odd but I think it's nice that they make an effort to stay on schedule.

We ordered the Maast-o-museer, Gheymeh Polo, Fesenjaan, and two chais. The food was really really good!!! I was super impressed by how delicious everything was, even the rice was fragrant and fluffy! My least favorite was the maast, I found that the garlic was a little too chunky for my liking.

The service was okay, I do wish there were some persian waiters / hosts. They also didn't really check in on us and we had to call them for attention, despite the restaurant being very empty. Overall, food was amazing, service was okay. I'd definitely come back for the ambience and food though!

The staff is incredible kind and ensuring the customers were satisfied. The food did not take long despite they had a lot of customers. Even though we did not have a reservation, they were able to find a table for us very quickly which was amazing.

The food was even better than expected. Starting with the appetizers, we got a couple but our favourite were Zeitoun Parvardeh and Kashk-e Bademjoon as both were quite flavourful, and the pomegranate gave a very particular enjoyable taste in the Zeitoun Parvardeh. We both got Boz Oormeh for entrees, the portions were perfect, the stew was extremely tasteful and rich perfectly complemented with the rice and salad. I would absolutely go back to try more delicious Persian food.

The service was terrible. They were disorganized (and the staff all had terrible breath) They are not able to provide separate bills.
The food was not good. This was a huge disappointment because this place had amazing reviews before.

After hearing raving reviews about this place, I just had to go and give it a try! I got some great inside recommendations from a Persian friend, and so ordered based off those suggestions.

My friend and I got the mirza qasemi to split and share. This eggplant / tomato / garlic dip was super fragrant, so much so that I thought the bread accompanying it was garlic bread! The texture was very interesting; I could distinctly see all the eggplant seeds and taste the fibres. However, the flavour was much less prominent than I was expecting - it had a much more muted taste than a similar hummus.

We then each ordered our mains. All mains here are served with fluffy, seasoned basmati rice, mixed greens, and salad shirazi (a tangy mixture of red onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers). I ordered the qeymeh, a stew of yellow split peas and generous lamb chunks in a tomato sauce. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of picking a round, interesting, dark ball to eat first. My initial thought after consuming it whole was that it strongly resembled a Chinese chen pi (preserved mandarin). Only after looking back at the menu did I realize that it was sundried lime - no wonder!

My friend got one of the specials of the day, an eggplant stew with some sort of tangy yogurt and lamb. I sampled a taste and hooooly, was this stew gamey! He ended up eating all his rice and still left some of the stew behind.

Pomegranate is a super quaint place with lots of authentic decor and pieces. I expected the flavours to be a bit stronger, but the dishes are very lovely and unique! Would come again.