Toronto's most beloved Egyptian brunch restaurant — Maha Brikho and her daughter Mary run this Leslieville institution serving ful medames, koshari, shakshuka, and morning spreads rooted in Cairo home cooking. The weekend brunch lines are legendary and the food justifies every minute of the wait.
Neighbourhood: Leslieville · Address: 226 Greenwood Ave, Toronto, ON · Hours: Sat–Sun 9am–3pm | Closed Mon–Fri · Price Range: $$ · Phone: (416) 462-2703 · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Maha's serves Egyptian brunch classics you won't find elsewhere in Toronto, all made to family recipes in an intimate Leslieville spot. The ful medames and fresh-baked balady bread are a revelation.
They're the only Egyptian brunch spot in town, and every dish is rooted in the Brikho family's own home cooking. Maha's meze spread and their honey cardamom lattes are cult-favourite menu items you won't get anywhere else. The energy is friendly, bustling, and honestly unlike anywhere else on a weekend morning.
Maha Brikho grew up cooking in Cairo, moved to Toronto, and eventually opened a restaurant on Greenwood Avenue in Leslieville that became one of the most warmly regarded weekend destinations in the city. Maha's operates on a simple model: weekend brunch only, Egyptian home cooking, the dishes made the way they're made in Egyptian households rather than adapted for Western breakfast expectations.
The ful medames is the dish that explains the restaurant. Fava beans cooked from dried, slowly, in water and spices, then dressed at the end with good olive oil, cumin, lemon juice, and fresh herbs — this is a dish that exists in Egypt the way oatmeal exists in Scotland, as a foundational morning food that people have eaten for thousands of years, but made with the care that transforms a staple into something memorable. At Maha's, it arrives with warm pita for scooping and is one of the most satisfying dishes you can eat in this city on a weekend morning.
Shakshuka — eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce with peppers and onions — has become familiar enough in Toronto through its appearance on every brunch menu in the city. Maha's version is different from the restaurant-circuit shakshuka not because of the recipe but because of the seasoning confidence: the spice balance is calibrated to Egyptian palate rather than to a North American guess at what Middle Eastern spices should taste like.
Koshari is the Egyptian national dish and the wildest composition on the menu: a bowl containing rice, lentils, pasta, and macaroni topped with a tomato-vinegar sauce, crispy fried onions, and garlic sauce. It shouldn't work and it absolutely does — the textures, the acidity of the tomato, the crunch of the onions, and the garlic sauce combine into something that is greater than its improbable parts. It's genuinely unlike anything else available in Toronto.
Mary Brikho, Maha's daughter, has increasingly been the face of the restaurant's front-of-house and social media presence, and the family operation quality shows in how the restaurant runs: warmly, with the specific attentiveness that family-owned restaurants have that chain operations can't replicate.
Maha's is a family-run Egyptian brunch restaurant in Leslieville run by Maha Brikho and her daughter Mary. It's open Saturday and Sunday only from 9am to 3pm, serving Egyptian dishes like ful medames, shakshuka, koshari, and breakfast mezze spreads rooted in Cairo home cooking. It has been Toronto's most beloved Egyptian restaurant and consistently draws weekend lineups.
The ful medames (slow-cooked fava beans with olive oil, cumin, lemon and herbs) is the benchmark order — it's the dish that explains the restaurant. Add shakshuka (eggs in spiced tomato sauce), koshari (Egypt's national mixed rice-lentil-pasta dish), and Om Ali (Egyptian bread pudding) for dessert. The full meze spread is the best option for two people.
Maha's only opens on weekends and runs until 3pm or until food runs out. Weekend lines are significant — arriving 15–20 minutes before the 9am opening will get you near the front. By 10:30am the wait can be 30–45 minutes. The food is worth it; come with patience and bring coffee.
Maha's serves Egyptian home-style cooking and the menu does not include pork. The restaurant is family-run in a tradition consistent with halal cooking practices. For specific dietary questions, contact the restaurant directly as menu and sourcing details can change.
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