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Dosai Place East Windsor Review
Dosai Place East Windsor Review: Mediocre Dosa, Awful Coffee, Poor Service
When we heard that Masti Indian Grill at 440 Rt 130 South in East Windsor near Multiplex Cinemas had been replaced by a new Indian restaurant Dosai Place we quickly turned on our GPS and hurtled down the New Jersey Turnpike in hopes of having a good Masala Dosa.
After all, if there's something that can get us into a spirited mood, it's the thought of a nice Masala Dosa.
When we walked into Dosai Place around 1:00PM the other day, the East Windsor Indian restaurant was near empty except for four diners.
In the typical crude style of Indian restaurants, the waiter never bothered to greet us but asked us 'How Many' and showed us to a table.
The same clown later told us as we were paying our bill with a credit card "You better pay the tips in cash". More about this odd behavior later.
Famished as we were, we quickly placed our order - Mysore Masala Dosa ($5.99), Dosai Place Special South Indian Thali ($9.99), Coffee ($1.49) and Vijayawada Special Idly ($4.99) for takeout.
Our South Indian Thali arrived first followed by Mysore Masala Dosa and Coffee.
Dosai Place Mysore Masala Dosa - Mediocre
To put it in one word, Dosai Place's Mysore Masala Dosa is Mediocre.
 Mediocre Mysore Masala Dosa
It is mediocre for following reasons:
First, the masala paste smeared inside the dosa was too little and uneven
Second, the Onion-Potato filling inside the dosa tasted more like mashed potatoes than a flavorful curry.
Third and most important, Dosai Place's Mysore Masala Dosa was not tasty
Fourth, the accompanying chutneys made a bad situation worse as they were not in the least bit flavorful
Dosa Chutneys and Sambar
Mysore Masala Dosa came with Coconut, Tomato and Peanut Chutneys and, of course, Sambar.
With no evidence of any green chillies, Dosai Place's Coconut Chutney was a spiceless, tasteless travesty.
The sole saving grace of the Tomato Chutney was its slight sour taste.
The worst offender among the three chutneys was Peanuts Chutney. With an awful stale smell and taste, Dosai Place's Peanuts Chutney is one of the most flavorless chutneys that's ever made contact with our tastebuds.
The medium thick Dosa Sambar with a piece or two of carrot was alright.
Dosai Place South Indian Thali - Not Even Lukewarm
South Indian Thali included Plain Rice, Lemon Rice, One Chapathi, Pappad, Lime Pickle, Podi, Spinach Curry, Cauliflower, Potato and Beans Kurma, Stuffed Brinjal Curry, Dal, Rasam, Sambar, Yogurt and Moong Dal Payasam.
 Dosai Place - South Indian Thali
While the number of items sounds impressive, none of the food items were even lukewarm. No, not even Rasam, Sambar and Plain Rice.
Chapathi was too thick and hard. It was so hard that we found it difficult to break the chapathi into small pieces and were forced to abandon it.
Lemon Rice had generous amount of turmeric powder but lacked the desired sour, tangy lime flavor.
Dal was plain yellow tadka dal with a faint of garlic flavor and red chilli seasoning. We did not find any issues with it.
Kurma with Cauliflower, Potato and Beans was flavorful. Ditto with the stuffed Brinjal Curry.
Rasam had a pungent black pepper flavor but we found the texture to be too thick to be called Rasam. Rasam is best when it's thin, not with the texture of dal water.
With a slight tamarind sour taste and Dal-like thick texture, the carrot and capsicum Sambar was alright.
Pappad was crisp as it ought to be and Moong Dal Payasam was flavorful. No issues here.
Lime pickle was tasty but the Podi that came with our Thali was disappointing as it had a slightly stale taste.
Spinach Curry was the worst item in the Thali with its raw taste and lack of seasoning.
Also we never got the promised ghee with our Special South Indian Thali.
Dosai Place Special Vijayawada Idly - Hard Idly
As we were poring over the menu, we stumbled upon the Special Vijayawada Idly listed under appetizers.
Vijyawada Idly reminded us of yummy idlys we had at Babai Hotel near Vijayawada railway station some years back. Filled with nostalgic memories of Babai Hotel's Idly we immediately added Special Vijayawada Idly to our order.
Big mistake in retrospect, folks.
You see, the Special Vijayawada Idly served by Dosai Place failed at a very basic level.
Idly was hard, almost stone-like in texture. Naturally, we did not enjoy it one bit.
Sure it came with a generous amount of ghee as described by the menu and with the same awful Coconut, Tomato and Peanuts Chutneys and okayish Sambar.
Yet another irritating thing was the missing Special Podi. The menu description includes chutneys, sambar, ghee and special podi as accompaniments. But our order of Special Vijayawada Idly did not include the Special Podi.
Dosai Place Coffee - Godawful, Must Avoid
If you are a South Indian Coffee lover like us, never ever make the mistake of ordering a cup at Dosai Place.
 Dosai Place - Awful Coffee
The Dosai Place bozos can not make a decent cup of coffee.
What we got in the name of Coffee had the taste of hot milk and not the flavor of Coffee decoction mixed with milk.
Dosai Place East Windsor - Poor Service
As we entered Dosai Place, there were just a few diners. The thin crowd gave us the hope of a comfortable meal experience with attentive service.
But we were wrong. You see instead of greeting us the first question the waiter from Bombay asked us was "How many".
The same waiter never asked us whether we preferred Chapati or Poori with our South Indian Thali. You see the Special South Indian Thali comes with a choice of either Chapathi or Poori.
Also, the promised ghee with Thali was missing from our Thali.
While the silver was on a napkin, the waiter left the sugar mixing spoon for Coffee directly on the dirty table. We had to explain to him that the table is dirty and request a different spoon to mix sugar in the Coffee.
Our Special Vijayawada Idly did not come with Special Podi as promised by the menu.
While all the above things irritated us, what shocked us the most was the waiter's demand for paying him tips in cash as we were signing the credit card receipt. In a disbeleving tone, we asked him what and the Bombay waiter repeated "Better Pay Tips in Cash".
Folks, we are not strangers to such requests by waitstaff in Indian restaurants. Once an elderly waiter at an Anaheim, CA Indian restaurant requested us politely to pay in cash if we are going to leave a tip. On another occasion a Tamil speaking student waiter at Jersey City Indian restaurant suggested we not leave any tips as the owner takes all the tip money.
But Dosai Place was the first time a waiter demanded we leave the tips in cash.
Strange things happen at Indian restaurants!
As demanded by our waiter at Dosai Place, we left a cash tip and quitely left Dosai Place cursing its owner.
Dosai Place East Windsor Rating - Avoid
An Indian restaurant that can't get the Mysore Masala Dosa or the Coffee right has no business calling itself Dosai Place!
Dosai Place is a disgrace, at least as far as the Dosa, Coffee and service is concerned.
We're not returning to this impostor in a million years.© NJIndia.us
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