Tut’s Egyptian Street Food, a fast-growing restaurant chain founded by Amr Elmazariky, is bringing authentic Egyptian street food to the Canadian mainstream, with plans to expand rapidly across the country.
Since opening its first location on King Street in downtown Toronto in August 2020, the concept has received widespread acclaim, offering a unique menu that blends traditional Egyptian flavours with street food charm. Despite launching during the pandemic, the company has since opened six operational locations, with three more under development in cities including Ottawa, Guelph, and Scarborough.
Elmazariky, who transitioned from a successful engineering career to pursue his passion for food, explains that the brand’s growth is driven by its unique positioning in the market. Tut’s focuses on Egyptian sandwiches made with house-made Egyptian bread and fillings like falafel, chicken, and beef, creating an experience reminiscent of Cairo’s street food scene. The restaurant is also known for its bowls and koshari, a hearty national dish made of rice, lentils, pasta, and chickpeas, offering a flavourful taste of Egypt that has yet to be fully explored in North America.
Looking ahead, Tut’s plans to grow its presence significantly, with a goal of reaching 10 locations by the end of 2025 and 20 locations by 2026. A central kitchen supports the operation, ensuring consistency across locations, and Elmazariky, the company’s CEO, is committed to maximizing capacity before embarking on even more expansion.
With an innovative approach to Egyptian street food and a strategy rooted in quality and authenticity, Tut’s is poised to become a leading player in the Canadian restaurant scene.
“I’m born and raised in Cairo. I did electrical engineering at Cairo University and then I moved to Canada in 2009 to do my Master’s in Engineering at the University of Waterloo,” said Elmazariky. “And then I graduated. I worked for around 12 years, different engineering jobs. I worked some time for the government. I worked for corporate. I worked in construction. All of them were around electrical engineering.
“Just before COVID I had met my wife and back then I told her, “I’m good at engineering. I’ve been doing it for 12 years, but I’m not really passionate about it. I don’t like it that much.” She told me something no one told me before. “Just quit and do whatever you want.” And that’s where Tut’s came from.
“I’ve always loved to host my friends over, host my family, make food. I’m not a chef, but it’s something that I used to like. I love to do . . . I wanted to do something that’s different, unique, and it’s not just any regular burger or tacos and stuff like that. I wanted to bring something special. And that kind of food has never been introduced in North America. There are people that introduced Egyptian food but not from the street point of view. They introduced it from the home-cooked kind of meals.”
Elmazariky said no one had ever really done those sandwiches where after a night out in Egypt, in Cairo, where people would eat on the streets. He missed that.
The strategy was to open in downtown Toronto first to test it, see if i works and then expand to other cities.
“It was received amazingly in August, 2020,” said Elmazariky.
“We have a central kitchen that does everything. So everything that we do right now and across all the locations from Waterloo all the way to Ottawa is made from our central kitchen. So all the bread is rolled and made fresh, and then frozen as dough. And then that dough we deliver to all the locations where it gets baked on site. Same thing with all the marination, all the chicken, all the falafel, all the beef sausage, everything gets done there, vacuum-sealed, boxed, and shipped to the locations. So that central kitchen, we are trying to maximize its capacity before we grow more.
“Right now, we estimate that it’s around 25 locations. My short-term goal is to reach that 20-25 locations. We are planning to be 10 locations by end of 2025. By 2026, we want to double that to be around that 20 figure.”
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