Even after having watched the special show of Kabali on the very first day, I am not the kind who would let go of an opportunity to watch it again the next day!! Immediately called my friend and we decided to take our family along to the movie! Needless to say, kids were thrilled. It was a noon show at Devi theatre and the movie finished around 3PM. We hadn’t eaten lunch, so decided to go somewhere for a late lunch. Again, some compulsions to keep it vegetarian, decided to head to Mathsya in Egmore !
Wasn’t too familiar with Egmore, still managed to figure out where it was located and reached without big problems. Getting out of Devi theatre was more a pain and it was almost 3:45PM by the time we reached the restuarant. Surprised to find the restaurant packed at that time. 🙂 I was hoping they’d have service, but they were going full house. Couldn’t figure out why so many people chose to eat lunch so late 🙂 We had to wait a good 10 minutes before we managed to get a table. We were 4 adults and 5 kids, and kids were in no mood for any experiments, they were quite clear in what they wanted – a soup, Butter Naan and Paneer 🙂 Really hungry, we ordered quickly – 6 butter naans, 2 Paneer Butter Masala, and 2 soups served as 4 half portions. Meanwhile, myself and my friend, who is also a vivid foodie but just doesn’t put it in words, wanted to experiment a bit. Immediately looked at the Udupi Fare and decided to order a few dishes and share it among ourselves. Ordered Bisi Bela Hulianna aka Sambhar Sadham, Guliappa which was basically kaara paniyaaram, Neer Dosai, Kaara Uppu Puli Dosai, and Kadubu. That was almost all that they had in that section 🙂 and a portion of Curd Rice.
Food came in reasonable time, no complaints. All of them tasted good, a few stood out. Soup of the day was asparagus soup, and it tasted decent. Didn’t have any great expectation with this though, more like checking out noodles in Sangeetha. Mysore Masala Dosa was very nice, could have been a bit crispier, but liked it. Neer Dosai was very yummy and it came with a sweet accompaniment, something like jaggery with grated coconut and beaten rice perhaps, was very good. There were generous portions of Sambhar, coconut chutney and Red Chutney served, so never felt short of that ! Kadubu was good, kids liked it. It was a more grainy variant of idli, not sure what more. Guliappa was good, tasted nice with the chutneys. Kaara Uppu Puli Dosai was very different. It had a burst of flavors, tasted a bit like vaththa kozhambu, pulihogare with a slight sweet after-taste, loved it. It was served with butter and it was good. Kids loved the Butter naan and Paneer butter masala. The paneer was soft and the gravy was tasty. We ordered a couple of more Naans, paneer butter masala and a Mysore Masala Dosa and we were done with the main course.
Decided to taste a few items in desserts too – 1 Badam Halwa, 1 Kasi Halwa, 2 Basundhi, kids wanted 2 scoops of ice creams each. So 4 double scoops of Chocolate and 1 double scoop of Strawberry. That’s it ! Badam Halwa was very good, Kashi Halwa was okayish, I felt the ghee was a bit too overpowering, masking the taste of the halwa itself, Basundhi was awesome, easily one of the best I’ve had in recent times, very rich. Kids liked the ice creams.
Overall, food was yummy and we didn’t have any complaints with the food. Service was not the most attentive I would say, a bit laid back. It wasn’t proactive and we had to ask them a couple of times after which it was attended to. Similarly plates were lying on the table and weren’t removed after we were done with a dish, a bit inconvenient. Rest was all fine. The late lunch set us back by 3.6K and my friend insisted on paying this. I would certainly go here again if I wanted to taste authentic vegetarian Udupi fare.
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