Madras Cafe
9484 Black Mountain Rd
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 695-6229
After I visited Ashoka the Great, a few people recommended that I try out Madras Cafe, which features Southern Indian vegetarian food, and is in the same plaza as Ashoka. As a result, Madras Cafe has been on my list of places to try for quite a while. You can read a great post on Madras from Kirk at mmm-yoso. Getting Boyfriend to go try it with me was a bit tricky. Boyfriend is very big on meat and is not a fan of vegetables.
I waited for a day he was in a pretty good mood and was distracted to casually announce that I wanted to try out Madras Cafe, a vegetarian Indian place that had gotten good recommendations from quite a few people. I don't know if he was actually listening, but he didn't protest. So off we went to Madras Cafe.
We opted to try the buffet so we could sample a bunch of different dishes. The buffet has these metal trays and little individual bowls you can put in your trays, so that the dishes don't mix.
I don't know the name of many of the dishes, so I'll just show pictures. (I forgot my camera unfortunately so I had to rely on my camera phone)
A lot of the dishes were spicy, which I liked. I particularly liked the rice and the potato dishes. There was also a good eggplant curry.
Shortly after we were seated, we were given fresh hot dosas. Dosas are
like a crepe. The inside was filled with a potato curry. I liked the
dosa. It was crispy on the outside and I liked the curry filling.
We
also got hot Idlis, a type of rice cake. I didn't really like this.
There were two desserts. One was this orange colored dish. The waiter said it was cream of wheat. I didn't really like the texture of it. There was also this tapioca pudding with coconut flakes. I enjoyed this one more.
All in all, I thought it was a pretty good vegetarian place. But I did leave kind of missing meat. Also, I thought it was slightly pricey for a vegetarian buffet. I believe it was around $9 a person.
You should try Surti Farsan, its in the same complex as this place on Black Mountain Road. It was the best Indian restaurant (in my opinion) in San Diego when I lived there!
Ooh, I’ve never eaten there. I’ll need to try it next time.
9 dollars bloody cheap…but I know you are working shitloads over there – for crap money – be happy to have Obama for health insuriance and all.
don’t know wotz up w yer country. GUNS and POOR vs RICH.
And all this from a potato curry – sorry.
Great Dane
Now I need to find a Southern Indian friend…I like cardamom too!
It’s nice that it changes a lot, so you can keep going back and not get sick of it.
I have come to understand that the best way to go here is to hook up with a Southern Indian friend and have him/her order stuff from the kitchen.
Though, when I went, I enjoyed the buffet I don’t think it is the best representation of what this restaurant can offer.
There are a number of biryani-like rice dishes and special curries that they make if you know what to ask for, apparently. According to some other blogs and things I’ve read, when ordered this way, this place makes a very authentic representation of Southern Indian Cuisine.
Its too bad that the wheat pudding they make looks dried out in your photo. I had it a bit fresher and its very tasty…but I am partial to Cardamom which is the primary spice used in its preparation.
Hey Kirbie – The offerings change so often, that I’m not even sure what I’m eating there half the time as well!