The Palace of Dosas, Amherst, NY

Restaurant Review by Jennifer Kumar.

Whenever we go to Buffalo, New York, we have found our mainstay must have tasty treats at Palace of Dosas. You can read about our last two visits on Dec. 15, 2007 and February 17, 2008.

For appetizer we had the mixed vegetable platter with aloo bonda, vada, idli, onion bajji and other various vegetable fritters along with sambar and coconut chutney. I had the sambar vada (or as listed in their menu Vadai with Sambar). I also took up the idli from the mixed plate and had a meal in the appetizers! The vadas are really big- they are at least 2.5 times the size the ones I make at home! I liked the sambar. Seemed they may use the frozen mixed vegetables (hope I am wrong, but the cut and texture is same as the mixed frozen vegetables) and a few authentic south Indian vegetables. One seemed like a potato but I am forgetting the name of it, as it is not a potato. But, to my surprise there were no curry leaves in the sambar. I was curious about that!

** Regarding the appetiser in our last visit we did have the aloo bonda and remembered we did not like it so much. This time, hubby says they have improved on the taste of the bonda and he enjoyed it very much.

For the main course I had a butter masala dosa. I was somewhat pleased with it. The side of dosa that goes on the grill was finely browned, but the other side did not seem to have been put on the griddle, it was white and also not fully cooked in the thicker parts. I also did not get such a butter or ghee taste. Maybe this comes more with the ghee roast, which is a paper thin dosa? The masala potatoes inside I could not begin to eat as I was stuffed. I did have an additional side of mullagai podi (spice and dhal powder with oil) with the dosai in addition to the sambar and chutney that come with the dosa. The mullagai podi was very tasty as it was spicy but not too hot spicy.

My husband got the aloo poori which is potato curry with puffed deep fried breads. He liked the pooris but did not think the potatoes were tasting as they should. He also could not finish the potatoes. We took the potatoes home and will have them in our upcoming meals. We were interested to see, though the potato curry for the dosa and the poori aloo were two different potatoes, so that is good!

Totalling the bill, for the sambar vada, mixed vegetable platter, aloo poori and ghee masala dosa plus tip it was $30.35 ($3.00 tip). We prefer to drink water with our meal.

Don't miss the complementary rasam that is served with the meal. It's a must have!!

I should also not that now that I have learned to make dosa and idli, it's not as fun for me to go out for dosa or idli. I'd like to see other south Indian stuff out there, but anyhow south Indian restaurants being few and far between I shouldn't complain.

As an added benefit- this is a great place for Indian students on SUNY Buffalo campus to try when tired of the Indian fare found on the commons at "Bollywood Bistro" (which we have yet to try) or those pining for South Indian food in Buffalo. It's a must visit!

To find/contact
Palace of Dosas
656 Millersport Hwy
Amherst, NY 14226
(716) 834-1800
Directions to The Palace of Dosas

Photo Credit: Krishna Kumar

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