A visit to Malgudi

Being an ardent fan of RK Narayan, I wanted to visit Malgudi (I wish I could visit the fictional town but all I could do was to visit the restaurant in Bangalore) ever since I heard of this restaurant. Saturday was the day. My friends and I decided to go for dinner to this place. The ambience portrayed a typical Chettinad house with the pillars and paintings. To catch a glimpse of such a house, watch the first half of the movie "Kandukondein Kandukondein".

The menu had varieties from the four South Indian states. Being a vegetarian, I just had two choices for soups - tomato and drumstick lentil soup. I opted for the second and to my shock, it was horribly spicy. Though I knew it's going to taste like sambhar, I still ordered it and spoilt my taste buds. At a normal situation, I would have added salt/pepper to soup but I was forced to add sugar if at all I need to taste a few more spoonfuls of the spicy sambhar-so-called-soup. Even after adding 2 tsp of sugar, it tasted bad and I had to waste it.

The veg starters were better compared to the soup. We ordered vazhaipoo vadai and finger baby corn. The vadai tasted awesome but the baby corn was a disappointment. It wasn't cooked so well.

By the time I had to order the main course, I started being extra careful about my choice, given that I was pretty hungry. Based on Biju's suggestion, I chose "neer dosa" accompanied by cashew masala, praying that it tastes good. The neer dosas were very soft and tasty, reminding of the raw vadaam that my grandma used to make on top of a banana leaf and then sun dry them to get crispies. Cashew masala was also good to go with the neer dosas.

The non-veg fans were drooling over the prawns and the aatukaal soup. There are many non-veg varieties in the menu. Veggies, don't get scared like the way I felt reading the different items in the menu! :-)

For desserts, they serve sago payasam (which is not my favorite) and gajar ka halwa.

Malgudi in general is definitely overpriced and you can plan for lunch/dinner once in a while. It's definitely not worth a regular visit.