A father-son team is turning out must-try Egyptian stuffed pastry in a Mississauga plaza

The sort-of-secret: Adel’s Fatatre, a fast-casual restaurant making feteer mahshey, an Egyptian stuffed pastry You may have heard of it if: You scour the suburbs looking for hidden gems But you probably haven’t tried it because: It’s tucked away in a Mississauga plaza

Adel Saad, a self-taught baker with 40 years of experience, has owned and operated wholesale businesses all over the world, including in Egypt, where he was born and raised. He opened Mary Knight, his first bakery, right out of university. Then, in 2004, Saad and his family moved to South Africa, where he launched St. Karas, a successful cookie factory. “We made over 22 kinds of biscuits as well as baklava and knafeh,” says Saad. “I sold it, but the new owner still retains the name and operations.”

After eight years in South Africa, Saad started to find Toronto appealing. “I had friends who told me that it was such a wonderful place to raise a family, so I thought it would be perfect for my three children,” says Saad.

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In 2012, they all moved to Mississauga, where Saad started another wholesale business, again focusing on sweets and supplying places like Adonis Grocery and Osmow’s Shawarma. But, along the way, Saad started receiving requests from the community for Egyptian street food. He took it as a sign and opened up Adel’s Fatatre in 2021, just after peak pandemic. “Since then, we’ve scaled back on the wholesale business and funnelled efforts to the restaurant—because right out of the gate, we’ve been in demand,” says Saad.

Saad runs the business with his eldest son, Abanoub, whose own children help out from time to time. The father-son team attribute their success to the fact that no one else is making feteer mahshey, a traditional Egyptian pastry similar to pizza that stuffs the dough with both sweet and savoury toppings. By doing so, they’ve tapped in to the diaspora’s nostalgia. “So many of our customers tell us they haven’t had feteer in 15 to 20 years,” says Saad. “But, the second they try ours, it takes them back to their childhood and homeland.”

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The reason Saad’s feteer gets such a reaction is because it’s not an easy recipe to master and definitely not something people will whip up at home, no matter how much they love it. “My dad makes it look effortless, but it takes years of practice tossing, massaging, resting and stretching the dough to get the thinness required,” says Abanoub. “During any religious holiday, like Ramadan, my dad will make up to 300 feteer in one day.”

After Saad gets the dough just right, in goes all the good stuff. The three most popular creations so far are the spicy sojouk with kicky beef sausage, tomato sauce, onions, green pepper and cheese; the mixed cheese, a gooey trifecta of mozzarella, feta and roumy, a fermented Egyptian cheese; and the mixed meat, loaded with spicy beef sausage, ground beef, basterma—which Saad compares to a beef salami with the texture of prosciutto—green peppers and cheese. No matter the feteer, they’re all made to order.

While the feteer mahshey is the main attraction here, another popular item is the feteer meshaltet, a puffed pastry used as a vessel for scooping up sweet or savoury accompaniments. “Because of the butter we use in this, when it hits the hot oven, the pastry puffs right up, so it’s a real show-stopper when presented,” says Abanoub, adding that meshaltet is usually eaten for breakfast (though you can enjoy it any time of day) and it’s essentially a blank slate to enjoy with sides like molasses, tahini, honey or their house-made custard and mish cheese, a spicy fermented cheese they age for six months. “Our family loves this as a sort of sociable morning spread, best enjoyed with a cup of coffee,” says Abanoub. “There are no hard-and-fast rules—just tear a piece off and enjoy it with any of the dips and spreads.”

At only 700-square-feet, the restaurant lacks the space for indoor dining, but with hazy summer days on the horizon, Saad and his son are excited to reopen their small seasonal patio, which can seat 16 people. Given their success, expansion is top of mind. “We’re looking into opening a second spot in Scarborough, hopefully later this year,” says Abanoub, who would like even more people to get on the feteer train.

“Think of it as a fun twist on pizza,” he says. “It’s light, flaky and filling, all at the same time—and always super fresh.”