Vegetarian Udupi restaurant Sri Ananda Bhavan will impress dosa snobs and novices alike.
14/20
Indian$
Between Dandenong and Pakenham, 43 kilometres south-east of the CBD, a wavy-roofed building that once housed a real estate office is now one of the best South Indian restaurants in Melbourne.
At first, the quirky spot with its vaulted, glass entrance looks more like a modern church than a dining room, but seven-year-old Sri Ananda Bhavan is spacious and comfortable with seating for 55 on banquettes and high-backed chairs. A sweets counter near the cash register looks into a huge kitchen, where everything is made from scratch with pride and attention.
You might not think of an Indian eatery as a place for coffee, but this restaurant only exists because of the owners’ obsession with the filter coffee they drank in Chennai, a south-east Indian metropolis. Brothers-in-law Vinodh Rangaswamy and Gary Taylor craved it so fiercely, they opened a restaurant so they could devote themselves to making it.
They also crafted a menu of vegetarian dishes based on Udupi cuisine, a wholesome, healthy, South Indian style. There are a few elements on which aficionados will judge an Udupi restaurant: dosa (thin pancakes served with fillings and sprinkles), idli (steamed, savoury cakes made from fermented rice batter and lentils) and sambar (spiced lentil gravy). On all counts, Sri Ananda Bhavan excels.
The dosas are made with urad dal, a type of lentil, and short-grain rice, that are soaked, ground, mixed in a secret ratio and fermented overnight to create a light, zingy batter that turns into a crisp but bendy crepe.
You can have your dosa folded around spiced potatoes, onions, chilli paste or curry leaves, drizzled with ghee or sprinkled with podi (a spice and pulse powder), but the most important accompaniment is the sambar.
Based on toor dal, a yellow lentil, it’s soured with tamarind, sweetened with shallots and sugar, and balanced with house-roasted spices. Tear the dosa, dip it in sambar and enjoy the subtle kick, the crunch softening into soupiness.
You can eat idli in similar ways, but these can also be found on the kids’ menu with jam (children are extremely welcome) and on the Indo-Chinese menu, a popular cuisine strand which sprang from Hakka communities in Calcutta in the late 19th century.
Where Udupi food is gentle and mindful, Indo-Chinese tends to be deep-fried, gloopy and audacious. The chilli-tossed idli here are a deft representation.
There’s much more. Rava dosa are made with semolina; they’re softer, floppier and creamier, more like comfort food than the sprightly regular dosa.
Sev puri is a Mumbai street snack popular all over India and the version here is on point: hollow wheat-dough spheres are filled with potato masala and striped with chutneys to create a one-bite wonder.
Yes, you have room for dessert, probably the pineapple kesari, a semolina pudding studded with cashews and raisins and glossed up with ghee, a clarified butter that’s made in-house.
“There are a few elements on which aficionados will judge an Udupi restaurant. On all counts, Sri Ananda Bhavan excels.”
Taylor – his dad’s family has British ancestry, hence the Anglo name – oversees the kitchen while Rangaswamy takes care of everything else. They’re first-time restaurateurs who’ve somehow turned their collective experience in welding, car-detailing, Nando’s franchising, IT and project management into a very special suburban restaurant with welcoming and engaged service. They told me their families are utterly astounded that they’ve made this leap and by Taylor’s “magic fingers” (he never used to cook).
If you’re a dosa snob, I reckon you’ll love this place. If you don’t know your idli from your elbow, they’ll look after you, too.
The low-down
Atmosphere: Passionate, proud, South Indian feasting in the suburbs
Go-to dishes: Sev puri ($14); curry leaf dosa ($19); pineapple kesari ($8)
Drinks: The owners are obsessed with proper Chennai-style filter coffee, served hot, strong and foaming. Chai is a fragrant house blend. There’s no alcohol but BYO is fine
Cost: About $60 for 2 people
This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine
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