The best part of a visit to India (next to meeting family and friends) is , for me, the ability to unabashedly give up any pretense of dieting and gorge on all kinds of gastronomic delights. On every trip to the des , I try to hit all my favorite restaurants at least once. This time , while in New Delhi, I had a great experience at Punjabi by Nature in Gurgaon .First off, it gets two thumbs up for what has to be my favorite restaurant name ever (edging out the predecessor in my mind Chor Bizarre). Its true that one has either to be Punjabi or married to one ( like I am ) to fully appreciate the nuances of the name ! Read the rest of this entry »

After having read multiple comments about ‘bastardized‘ cheese dosas, I walked in with with a lot of skepticism. I fully expected everything to suck and in a lot of ways, I wanted it to.

Dosa, located on 995 Valencia St., San Francisco was different in most ways. Just like my other favorite restaurant on the right coast, Dosa was trendy, pleasant and we were the only Desi’s in the restaurant, save the owner.

After a look at their menu, I settled for Bhel Puri and my friend for Pani Puri. Yes, my portion was bigger than his, but as far as the quality went, we were both surprised and amazed. Hoping that whatever we ordered next would be a disaster, I settled for a Rava Masala and he settled for a Masala Dosa.

The thing about Rava dosa is getting it right, yes it is as ‘easy’ as regular dosa, but a little extra oil can make the dosa damp and too little it could break into a million pieces. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mysore Royal Thali at Udupi Palace, Tacoma Park, MD. Do not let the Zagat Reviewed sign on the door fool you.

Dinner was my second meal of the day and boy was I excited to see the “Zagat Rated” sign on the door as I walked into Udupi Palace at Tacoma Park, MD. That was the only high point of the entire evening.

The Decor was on par with what you would expect from an Indian restaurant, the service was nothing to write home about.

After a detailed glance of the menu, I decided to settle for one of their dinner specials, The Mysore Royal Thali. It had everything I wanted and a little bit more, so the choice was obvious.

I picked tomato soup and right then I knew I had made a mistake. Instead of getting a bowl of home made goodness, I was faced with a cup of something that tasted very close to the cans you find at most super markets. The appetizers showed up right as I was finishing my soup.

Vegetable cutlet, too hard and cold for my taste, Medhu Vada that lacked spice and a Samosa that was ok.

The main course was a bigger disappointment. The Aviyal was too hot to taste, The vegetable rice was too hard (possibly microwaved) and there was the way too sour raitha. I was not disappointed until I figured that these were not “fresh” but had been reheated. It was obvious, because the rest of the food was warm at best.

Overall, I would rate the restaurant a 3 on 10. Never will I be going back there and it certainly does not deserve to be Zagat rated as the sign up front said.