It's strange that being the foodie that I'm, this blog doesn't have any reviews about restaurants! In fact, the closest ever that I have gotten here is a the Ten commandments for Treatgoers which I had written sometime in January 2007.
Okay! Without dwelling into this any further, let's hop on to the subject. I had been to this restaurant twice in the past week and to cut the long story short, I have a mixed response in this review!
I heard about this from my ex-boss over a lunch conversation! And the USP about this was, well - Unlimited Dosas! What more can a group of bachelors who have to cook their own food think of? The very next day, a Wednesday was the D-Day when the place has the offer and we were immediately game for it! :-o)
Being a net freak, I googled for reviews and stumbled upon one by Supriya Raman of The Ode to Food. Her response was mixed and was more about how "Non Iyengar" the Iyengar Thali that is served there turned out to be! She rated everything below par which wasn't quite what we heard from my boss and hence, we decided to go on with the plans!
Mysore Veggie is located in Lowell, MA which is like 20 odd miles from where we live. Interestingly, we had been to the very next building to this place a couple of weeks back, again for another Indian Restaurant - Udupi Bhavan! So we were saved from the usual homework of looking at the map, noting directions and all that and all that!
We reached there around 8PM and the ambience was pretty much like most Indian Restaurant's. It was not crowded given the fact that there is this special going on and for a change, there was this blaring Tamil music from the movie "Ram".
An American lady attended our table and patiently explained that Wednesday was dosa night and all we needed to pay was one flat rate - the price for one plate of idly and vada to get unlimited dosa and uthappam with it! Of course, we knew it before hand!So we jumped into the fray right away!
For the next hour and half this is what I had! - Idly, Vada, Masal Dosa, Tomato-Chilli Uthappam, Onion Rava, Sada Dosa, Paneer Masala and Butter Masala! There was Sambar, Coconut Chutney and Tomato (Kara) Chutney. Hmm, All for just 12.95. To finish it off, we ended with Gulab Jamoon.Although the wait time for the initial few dosas were a bit long, they equaled our pace as time progressed and I have no qualms over the service! Overall it was a very satisfactory and enjoyable experience!
The marketing strategy behind these deals and promos is customer retention and word of mouth publicity and the mysore veggie got both of these...! The next day our tryst with dosas spread like wild fire in the office...
So, yesterday (Sunday) another colleague and I decided to check out the hotel again... I was alone as my roomies were planning to feast upon Home made chicken Biriyani and it seemed to be the perfect opportunity for me.
This time, it was a full fledged Vegetarian Buffet, of course with the option of Unlimited Dosas. By the looks of it, the menu looked promising enough for another feast! Again, the loud music from the movie "Ram" was playing along! :-D
To start with I had Rava Kesari, Vadai and Rava Kichadi. They were okay. Then it was Hot Pooris and some Veggie korma. There was one pinch of salt too much in the korma. Well, it was actully more than one pinch and it was applicable to most of the items there. Pitch this with a few Indian Restaurants which forget to add salt at all to the food. So, I was okay with all the other dishes other than this!
Next up was a Masala Dosa, which was quite as usual. Then I moved onto Rasam and Puli Kuzhambu. There was something missing in both of these and for me, it definitely didn't taste right. The rice was not hot and a bit hard which didn't make the dish any tastier. There was some Veggie Briyani which I didn't dare to taste and I moved onto the eternally tasteful Curd Rice with More Milagai which tasted Yummy and delicious!
Then, there was this Semiya-Jav Arisi Payasam which was by far the best of the dishes in the buffet! And, it tasted just perfect!
Later that evening all three of us complained of uneasiness and the only conclusion that we could hop into was - Something was not quite right with the food.
To sum up, here is how I would rate the restaurant.
Dosa Night:
Service - 4/5 | Ambience - 3/5 | Food - 4/5 | Price - 5/5 | Overall Experience - 4/5
Lunch Buffet:
Service - N/A | Ambience - 3/5 | Food - 2.5/5 | Price - 5/5 | Overall Experience - 3/5
After one satisfying experience, this was not how the review was supposed to be. But, Hey! The first time was really good and I would still say it is definitely worth a try if you are a game for a little challenge! :-D Well, I meant the Unlimited Dosas and not the food as such!
Have a nice time and enjoy the food. Do share your experience here...
Mysore Veggie is a great restaurant. Supriya Raman review was a total fake and all she did was to promote her website putting mysore veggie in her keyword list so her site comes faster for people to look at. Which person besides a narcissist would put her ugly picture on her website?
ReplyDeleteAnyways-- we always had pleasant experience at the restaurant. The owner always accomodated us if we needed something different in taste.
We always prefer to go on the week night to get best of taste and service.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIt is not my job to comment on if Supriya Raman's review was a fake or not. But being a blogger, I condemn using derogatory remarks against a fellow blogger.
What I have told in the review is purely my opinion based on how the food there was during my couple of visits there. And as it is pretty evident, the weekday special was better than the weekend buffet! :-o)
Anyways, I appreciate you coming here and justifying your point!