Restaurant Review : Narayan Dosa, French Bridge (Hughes Road)

Today I stumbled upon one of the city's numerous hidden culinary jewels - eateries which are too tiny to register on the food columnist/ food show anchor's radar but which are firm favourites in their neighbourhood. I'd spent the morning out of office( "on the field" ) meeting customers in South Bombay, so by the time I got back to our Hughes Road office it was late and I was hungry. Luckily, MK, my colleague was waiting to take me out to lunch at a dosa place well-known and well-loved in that neighbourhood.

It was a rainy day with a cool breeze - perfect for a long stroll. But, given the state of my tummy, luckily, Narayan Dosa was just a quick 5-minute walk from our office. Located off Hughes Road (right at the beginning of French Bridge). Narayan Dosa is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it tiny eatery which can seat 12 people at a pinch. In fact, it is so long and narrow (not more than 6 feet wide) it is more akin to one of the secret passageways so beloved of Enid Blyton books than an actual restaurant.

But who cares about the ambience when right at the entrance, you see the chef spreading yummy-looking masala onto the dosas and expertly folding them into crispy golden triangles? Who cares about sitting down at tiny tables boxed in between 2 walls when the air is redolent with delicious scents of garlic and butter and spices? Not me!


The menu boasts of some very radical dosas - Palak Paneer dosa, Chopsuey dosa, Paneer Chilly dosa, Chilly Cheese dosa, to name a few. Of course, there are the usual suspects - masala dosa, mysore dosa, uttapam and the rest of the "normal" brigade, but I'd choose the radical over the conservative any day! MK asked for the chopsuey dosa which is her usual order and I ordered the paneer chilly dosa. In less than 5 minutes, our dosas were served - crisp, golden-brown parcels stuffed with spicy fillings and served with generous dollops of 2 chutneys.

The Chopsuey dosa was filled with a medium-spicy mix of noodles and finely julinenned cabbage, capsicum and carrot. The Paneer Chilly dosa had a huddle of soft paneer cubes in a spciy brown gravy. Both had the perfect balance of crisp outside and soft inside. And both were piping-hot and tasty - perfect when it was so cold and wet outside!




We followed this up with the believe-it-or-not Palak Paneer dosa - smooth, garlicky spinach puree studded with soft pieces of paneer. While I liked all three dosas, the Paneer Chilly and Palak Paneer had the edge over the Chopsuey dosa, IMHO. And this review would be incomplete without a mention of the chutneys - spicy, tasy and and thick with the goodness of real coconut (not the recycled washed-out coconut scrapings so beloved of Udipi restaurants) - one with garlic, and one without. With free top-ups on demand. :)

The prices of the dosas range from INR 25 for the plain dosa and INR 55 for the ultra special variant (Chinese Cheese Dosa, any one?) The service is quick, the food is tasty (and made fresh on order, by definition) and the environs, while no-frills and cramped, are clean and hygienic. So, visit Narayan Dosa and enjoy hot-off-the-tawa dosas while the rain pours down!