"2009-05-08T00:00:00"^^ . . "5"^^ . "2"^^ . . . "3"^^ . "For a very long time now, Hamdi's has always held a place among my favorate restaurants in Toronto. \n\nTo put it nicely, the ambience and the service are the least of what you should be going here for. Hamdi's is a Somalian restaurant that offers wonderful meat and rice platters made for a small family/group (2-4 people) to share. \n\nEach platter comes on a very large pizza sized plate. This platter is essentially covered with your choice of either spaghetti or rice as your base. I personally prefer the spaghetti but most people will tend to like the rice so i like to recommend going half and half and getting the best of both worlds. After choosing your base, you have the choice of choosing 2-4 entrees which are served directly on top of your rice/spaghetti platter. Popular options generally include beef steak, chicken steak, beef stew, fried chicken drum sticks, or king fish. By far, my favorate dish off the menu is the beef stew and the second choice usually varies by mood and who else im with. \n\nMind you, because the entrees are served together on a large platter, the whole idea behind this is that the customers will be eating off of the same large plate. If sharing food and eating off the same plate is not something that you think you would enjoy, than this place is not for you. I tend to think that this place actually illustrates how there is no better way to enjoy a meal than to share it with the ones you love! \n\nThe actual foods taste great. I'd compare Somalian food to a very subtle and less spicey version of indian food. They also serve roti here however i found that a bit dry and hard in comparison to the kind you'd find in a Pakistani or Indian restaurant...and thus i dont recommend that so much. Aside from the food, the best thing about this restaurant is that they have unlimited mango juice and/or grapefruit juice for $1!!! The meal itself is about $9 and so all in all...you get stuffed til your stomach hurts, rehydrated with litre after litre of mango juice and then a teased with a complimentary banana to conclude your meal. I still dont get why you get a banana after such a heavy meal but i still tend to love it!\n\nSomalian food is probably not for everyone however if you're adventurous and wanna try something different and new, give it a go and i hope that you're not dissappointed! \n\nSalaams!\nps. this establishment serves halal food."^^ . "8"^^ .