Toddy Shop

ORDERED: 🐔 Chicken Pepper Fry: bone-in chicken, shallot, black pepper, green chilli, coconut ($28.00) 🍍 Pulissery: pineapple, yoghurt & coconut curry, tumeric & curry leaves ($18.00) 🥚 Mutta Roast: fried eggs, onion, tomato & coconut curry ($19.00) 🦐 Prawn Mappas: fresh prawns, tomato, coconut milk, green chilli, kokum ($29.00) 🍞 Parota: flakey layered bread ($5.00) 🍚 Matta rice: traditional kerala red rice ($4.00) It was $128 for 2 people which included 1 drink! REVIEW: You could walk in on a weekday (there were some tables free) but we made a reservation anyway! ❤️ My favourites: 1. Chicken pepper Fry. My mother makes a similar Vietnamese dish - salty pepper bone-in chicken - which meant this dish was nostalgic to me. The smacks of pepper and the bone-in chicken are perfect. A+ for the surprise nostalgia hit. 2. Parota. The best roti variant I've tried. It's flaky, the hype is real, all the Google reviewers are ON to something. Warning: the mutta roast is spicy. I tend to be alright with spice, but this got me weak in the knees. 🥵 I don't get an opportunity to try southern Indian food often, but Toddy Shop was the perfect place to experience it. Cool decor, intimate setting, friendly staff.

We came to Toddy Shop with an open mind to try something new, and it turned out to be one of the best food experiences I’ve had in Melbourne! The South Indian food is amazing - full of flavour, with the perfect spice we’ve been craving and the cosy, homely vibe makes you feel so welcome 💕

I visited Toddy’s Shop on a cold and rainy Sunday night, and to my delight, we were the only diners in the restaurant – which made the experience feel all the more intimate and special. If you haven’t been, you should know Toddy’s is tiny – the open kitchen takes up nearly half the space – but that’s part of the charm. With warm lighting, terracotta tones, cane furnishings, and hand-painted murals, the interiors feel like a modern tribute to the tropical homes of Kerala, South India. The space is earthy, character-filled, and incredibly cosy – like being invited into someone’s home for a proper South Indian meal. Service was quick and welcoming. We ordered three curries to share: the Beef Nadan Roast, Goat Ishtu, and Prawn Mappas, along with flaky Parotas and Matta rice – a nutrient-rich red rice native to Kerala. We were also kindly treated to a fish dish on the house, which was such a lovely touch. All three curries were full of flavour – the prawn and goat were mild, while the beef packed a punch. The meat in both the beef and goat dishes was beautifully tender and fell apart effortlessly. I personally loved the goat – warming, delicate, and comforting. The beef was also delicious, but very spicy – I was definitely sweating through it (in the best way), while my spice-loving friends devoured it. Toddy’s isn’t your typical Indian restaurant. The menu, space, and overall vibe are a fresh, modern take on traditional South Indian coastal food. It’s bold, fun, and refreshingly different. Highly recommend!

Excellent food. As a person of South Asian descent, I really appreciated the level of spice and how flavoursome the food was. The chicken pepper fry and prawn curry was packed with flavour and reminded me of genuine South Asian food. Bread was was flaky and just a little crunchy and soaked up the curries very well. Great attentive service as well with a pleasant ambiance. The owner had real photos of his family taken many years ago around the restaurant which really added a lot of authenticity to the environment. I would definitely eat again here.

Comforting Southern Flavours Toddy Shop brings a taste of Southern India that feels both familiar and satisfying. The egg curry is rich and flavourful, the fish curry has a lovely tang, and the parotta is crisp and soft in all the right ways. The cabbage thoran adds a nice crunch, and the Kerala red rice completes the meal well. The spice is just right — bold, but not overwhelming. A comforting spot for when you’re missing home-style food.

Not to my expectations!! Food was very spicy hot, too much priced, Porotta was frozen paratha from katoomba or some other brand, re heated, not kerala porotta. As a Malayali, i was surprised to see they added cabbage thoran on the menu, and charge $18, also Pulissery as menu item to order...might as well should have added sambar in there too... Matta rice, under cooked, for a small dish charging $4. Very few seating available inside, you may need to reserve a table in advance, especially in winter, you dont want to sit outside, where there is no heaters.

We visited while staying in Melbourne - keen to have some Kerala cuisine and saw it had been featured on the Urban List. It was a Saturday night and the place was empty. The food was fine - we spend quite a bit of time in Kerala and would say that the food wasn’t authentic but was really trying to be and a couple of dishes weren’t far off. A couple of dishes were more spicy than they needed to be, and I did find a piece of chicken in the chicken fry that wasn’t fully cooked which was quite a shock. As we had limited time, I just left it rather than discussing with the staff. Service was quick but not warm - we almost felt like we were inconveniencing the waiter. The high price unfortunately just doesn’t match the food or overall experience - I would save your money and go elsewhere.

They are South Indian food restaurant. For me their dishes are different from the well known Indian dishes I had. It was delicious and new for me. Definitely worth a try! Staff are well trained and lovely.