uddupi dosa house

[mrbigjas]

this place is up about a mile off street road in bensalem, and i finally got up there last night. you may or may not remember that i'm constantly bemoaning the lack of south indian vegetarian places in philadelphia, and while uddupi dosa house isn't close enough for me to go as often as i'd like, it's a hell of a lot closer than edison, NYC, or takoma park....

so lemme tell you, it rocks the house. from dosai as big as a tennis racket (one of those giant prince rackets, too, i mean--we had regular masala dosa and a spinach and cheese version that was listed as a house special and oddly enough had regular cheese in it instead of paneer), to non-greasy vadai, idly, pakora, to tangy, thin rasam, to spongy uthappam, spicy, slightly bitter dal full of curry leaves and red peppers, various vegetable curries (we had kadai bindi masala and malai kofta)--everything was excellent. waiters were uniformly friendly and helpful with the menu.

i tried to encourage them to open a place downtown so i could go every week, but i don't think they bit.

anyway, of course you can always order a thali, which for $9-11 gives you bits of a ridiculous number of things--app, soup, bread, rice, dal, poriyal (dry curry) kootu (a creamy sort of dish), raita, pappadam, pickle and dessert. we didn't get these, but that's a crazy amount of food and would give you a sense of what this cuisine is all about if you've never had it before.

total dinner last night was about $19 apiece with a nice tip and we have tons of leftovers.

as an aside: friday night is indian chinese night, and they have a buffet. we didn't do that last night because i was in the mood for south indian, but i'm gonna check that out soon--i've never seen indian chinese around here before.

i'm going to go again, and soon.

p.s. supposdly they have a website at http://www.uduppidosahouse.com but it's been down for a while. i wonder if they know.

[percyn]

Its been a few years since I have been here (and if it is the place I am thinking of). I recall them having a decent chat night where they served Bhel, Sev Puri, etc on the weekends.

[philadining]

Percy, any thoughts on their dosas, uthappam, etc vs Devi?

[mrbigjas]

they have chat buffet on wednesdays.

[percyn]

Percy, any thoughts on their dosas, uthappam, etc vs Devi?

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Its been a while, but from what I recall, I would prefer Devi's dosas. Devi has a Chef from Madras, the land the dosas, who seems to do an excellent job with them.

At Devi and other dosa places I would recommend ordering the dosas from the menu, not as a side dish with the buffet.

[mrbigjas]

but devi's all the way out in exton, and uddupi dosa house is right up there on street road. it's like 20 miles vs. 40... (because after all this is all about me).

UDH's dosas were browner/crisper than others i've had. but they sure tasted good.

[philadining]

Elisa Ludwig visits this place for The City Paper and seems to like it.

[philadining]

A few of us hit Uduppi Dosa House for chaat night (wednesdays) and really enjoyed it.

(just FYI, if you're googling or something, as you can see from the photo, this topic has the name spelled wrong - it's one D, two Ps)

There's a small-ish, but perfectly sufficient buffet with several different items, any one of which could keep me pretty entertained for an evening.

But it is a dosa house, so you are offered a freshly-made dosa as you arrive.

That's two (spicy) Mysore Masala Dosas, on top of a plain Masala Dosa. They were very tasty, and nice and fresh and crisp. The Mysore version had a nice spicy kick to the dosa itself, but the filling was fairly tame, seemingly the same as for the regular Masala Dosa.

The main attraction of the buffet is the Panipuri: little crispy puffs, in which you knock a hole, and fill with your choice of condiments. We didn't quite have the filling thing down at the start, but watching folks mix up batches of varying concoctions gave us a better idea of how it goes, and our later constructions were much more elaborate! And I'm not quite confident of my dipping in the masala water technique, but hey, even our clumsy attempts were pretty tasty. Oh, and they had deep-fried chile peppers too. Those were really tasty, but not surprisingly, delivered a bit of a kick!

I think my fave of the night was the Pav Bhaji, the little sandwich filled with spicy potato and chickpea curry.

But then, the puff-pastry thing with spicy veggies was pretty awesome too. That white-ish mound in the back is Aloo Papri Chaat, which I must say, doesn't really do so well on a buffet line. It's one of my favorite snacks when mixed-up fresh, but done ahead, it turns into a soggy mass, the texture is just all wrong, and that mix of crunchy, soft, tangy, spicy is the main appeal for me.

I'm not sure what these other things were, but they were pretty good, although the cold, yogurt-y thing in the front was not especially thrilling to me.

But overall, we really enjoyed the food, and it's about $12 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a fresh dosa. I'm eager to go back and just eat Pav Bhaji, and work on my Pani Puri filling chops.

I don't know of any place else doing chaat around here, so it's a nice change of pace, and generally well-executed.

Edited October 4, 2007 by philadining (log)

[jmbrightman]

apology for being off the food topic, but the stunning pics compel me to ask: what camera/flash/lens are you using?

Edited October 4, 2007 by jmbrightman (log)

[Ducksredux]

I don't know of any place else doing chaat around here, so it's a nice change of pace, and generally well-executed.

buncha places have chaat on their appetizer menus, such as Desi Village in Langhorne. I was astonished by the lack of flavor in everything I ordered 3 yrs ago at udippi... maybe I'll try it again based on the recs here.

[mrbigjas]

last time i went i was kind of disappointed in the blandness also. the dosai were good texture-wise, like they were properly made, but ... i expect that cuisine to be hot, and it wasn't.

[philadining]

buncha places have chaat on their appetizer menus, such as Desi Village in Langhorne.  I was astonished by the lack of flavor in everything I ordered 3 yrs ago at udippi... maybe I'll try it again based on the recs here.

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I see a few chaat offerings here and there, but for instance, at Desi Village in King of Prussia (are they related to the one in Langhorne?) they have Panipuri, but it's pretty lame in comparison, in terms of the variety of fillings. And my waiter seemed more mystified than I was about how to eat it. Desi Village's Aloo Papri Chaat, however, is excellent.

But it is kind of cool at Uduppi to have a wider selection than I see on most appetizer sections of standard menus, and to be able to eat as much as one likes.

As for the spicing, nothing took my head off in terms of heat, but several offerings had a solid burn, and aside from heat, I didn't have anything I thought was bland. The filling in the dosas was pretty tame, but as I mentioned, the Mysore versions had some spice in the dosa itself. But I can't comment on the standard menu.

That said, although it's not a direct comparison, I think the spicing is more intense at Devi in Exton. Their Mysore Masala Dosa had more chile heat for sure, especially the filling. And several curries from their buffet have had me pretty lit-up, especially on the nights they do Sri Lankan dishes.

(photo tech note: I'm opposed to using flashes in restaurants, so that's all available light, shot with a Nikon D-50 Digital SLR, with an 18-35mm f3.5 lens. My 50mm f1.8 does a little better in low light, but the depth of field is really narrow, and it's more sensitive to unstable hands, so I've been having better luck with the wide-angle.) (oh, and thanks!)

[percyn]

...

I'm not sure what these other things were, but they were pretty good, although the cold, yogurt-y thing in the front was not especially thrilling to me.

The items at 12 o'clock on the plate look like a poor rendition of Dhai Puri (see thread below for a better rendition). The item at 6 o'clock looks like Dhai Vada (Dhai = Yogurt). Can't easily identify the 2 other items, though the item at 8 o'clock looks like Bhaji from the Pav (Bread) Bhaji (vegetables).

I don't recall traditional Pav Bhaji having any chicpeas in them, it is essentially a mixture of mashed sauteed vegetables and spices.

Chaats are interesting in that there are many local/regional variations and do by many different names. Finding a good chaat house can be difficult even in India and the good ones have long lines that form outside.

More information of chaats can be found here.

[philadining]

The items at 12 o'clock on the plate look like a poor rendition of Dhai Puri

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In Uduppi's defense, the stuff at 12-O'Clock is one of my lame variations on the make-your-own panipuri. It was actually quite tasty, but if it looks like a poor rendition of something, it should be blamed on me!!