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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Restaurants A visit to the 'new' Udipi

Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 3:27 PM

We visited Udipi last week. The restaurant, once my favorite Indian venue in town, has moved to the shopping center at the corner of Lawrenceville Highway and Church Street.

The menu is the same, as far as I remember, but the experience is generally quite changed. This classic thali (above) was good but a few other dishes were unpleasantly surprising. There was, for example, a spicy puree served with, um, something very much like the bottoms of hamburger buns (right). Yes, chewy, gooey white bread.

I'll have more to say later this week in "Grazing."

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

Tags: Restaurants, Udipi

Comments (4)

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Cliff Just an fyi-- the dish with the "something very much like the bottoms of hamburger buns" is Phav Bhaji, a dish usually served by street vendors in Mumbai (Bombay). And yes-- those are hamburger bun bottoms, just like in Mumbai. The dish is simple comfort food, and this rendition appears authentic.

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Posted by Doug on October 6, 2009 at 5:26 PM

Thanks, Doug. I have never encountered the bread before. It was quite disorienting amid the papadam, naan and dosai. After reading your comment, I ran to Google and most of the pictures I found of pav looked different -- small, whole buns that were seasoned, buttered and toasted, according to descriptions. Udipi's were unadorned white bread. Is that also common or peculiar to Bombay? Some pics: http://tinyurl.com/ycpvg8j

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Posted by cliff bostock on October 7, 2009 at 9:28 AM

Went to Udipi's lunch buffet for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. Delicious. I'm not usually a fan of buffets but theirs was really flavorful and made with lots of caring little details, like the rice dish had cashews , but they were toasted and there were little browned bits of masoor dal(oily dal variety) for an interesting crunch. There seems to always be Avial, which is a mild creamy dish with cauliflower potatoes and carrots, the Dal and Sambar is soothing, there is always some type of bajii, idly and a always a different bread like nan, puri, paratha each time, and about the 3 other dishes like a curry, an unusual beet dish, chole(chickpea curry), or something special...the chutneys are sooo fresh especially the coconut and the vibrant green cilantro/mint variety. The raita is fresh and tart. they bring you a medium sized masala dhosa (rice/lentil flour crepe stuffed with spiced curried potaoes)as part of the deal. There is also a tasty cardamom rice-pudding-like dessert but made with tiny rice?noodles. The buffet part is open until 3:00 p.m. and I've even come at 2:45 a few times, while it's still yummy and renewed with some fresh items, of course it's most impressive earlier in the day. I think its around $7.99 the whole restaurant is vegetarian and so flavorful if you get the right dishes. By the way, I had a horrifying dinner at another vegetarian indian restaurant, Vatica in Marietta. The thali dishes tasted like canned food, with premixed curry sauces. I dont understand, it made me wonder if there was someone Indian cooking the food or not, we didn't get seconds and hardly touched our plates. No love in the food. What happened?!? while never truly great, I don't remember Vatica such a disaster.

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Posted by great lunch buffet on October 7, 2009 at 3:36 PM

Cliff You're right, it can be served either with white or wheat bread. Many shops or street stands in Mubmai don't have access to wheat so white suffices. I agree-- it should be buttered (often overly so) and spice is always welcome in Indian cooking. That said-- you're right, it is quite different than the normal breads served in Indian cooking no matter the choice...

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Posted by Doug on October 10, 2009 at 10:55 PM

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