Bensalem’s Uduppi Dosa House is a bit beyond our normal scope of Philadelphia’s city limits, but that’s where we had to go to get some decent Southern Indian food. Adamant that we need to include a South Indian candidate in our Lunch Buffet Roundup, Tushar pointed us north of the border to sample some southern delicacies. I’m happy he did.
On the surface, Uduppi Dosa House doesn’t seem to be all that special. Located in the middle of a strip mall, the exterior of the restaurant is fairly inconspicuous; the interior is equally underwhelming. As we were ushered to our table, I could feel Tushar developing a plan of attack; I also think he started to foam at the mouth. He really likes Indian food. You know, being Indian and all…
Without getting into too many of the gory details, we sampled the majority of the buffet items, but our favorites include:
Masala Dosa A crispy, crepe-like cake served with a variety of fillings
Rasam A sweet and sour soup
Sambar A pea and vegetable stew
Sambar Idli A rice and lentil “cake” served with Sambar
Mehdu Vada A savory indian fried dumpling
Chennai Pal Payasam Warm milk-based dessert with vermicelli & nuts
I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to enjoy some southern Indian dishes, because they were very good and different from northern Indian food. I now understand why Tushar loves his Dosas. Slightly sour and crunchy, Dosas have both a nice flavor and texture. The Rasam had a subtle sweet and sour taste, especially when eaten with an Idli. The Sambar was delicious and offered just a bit of spice, but not enough to put sensitive people off. Lastly, the doughnut-like Mehdu Vada offered a crispy crunch in a savory little package. Generally, I found that most of the dishes featured delicate and interesting flavors.
Typically, no meal is complete without Tushar grilling our server. So, as I sipped my Madras Coffee, Tushar got the “low-down” on some special buffets offered on a weekly basis. Wednesday night brings a Chaat (Northern Indian street food) Buffet for $11.99 while Friday Night Uduppi offers an Indian Chinese Buffet $11.99. Sounds pretty darn affordable! If you consider that our lunch buffet was $6.99 each, the Uduppi Dosa House is the price leader!
In summary, go to Uduppi Dosa House for the food not the atmosphere. It’s worth the trip if you’re keen on trying southern Indian food. If you’re already in the neighborhood, definitely hit it. How can you go wrong for $6.99?
Please stay tuned for our final post of our series on Philly’s Indian Lunch Buffets where we’ll announce the winner and tell you why.
Uduppi Dosa House is located at Center Plaza 2163 Galloway Rd. Bensalem, PA 19020 (215) 638-4008 www.uduppidosa.com
Tags: Bensalem, Indian, Podcast, Uduppi Dosa House, Vegetarian
Wow..I’m from Cincinnati and there is a similar restaurant called Udippi in an out-of-the-way strip mall in my hometown, serving South Indian dosas, ect. I try to make a trip everytime I go home. So glad to hear there is a similar spot near Philly!
i’m looking for a rest. or a street cart that serves chicken and rice platters with white sauce kinda like the one in nyc on 53rd and 6th ave. if anyone knows where to get platters in philly can u let me know brooklynjdcb [at] yahoo.com
hey guys,
before you sign off of the indian round-ups, you have to visit 2 places. First, I agree with other posters that New Dehli is one of my favorites and you must compare/contrast with it’s neighbor Tandoor India. Second, the new king is Tiffin on Girard. It’s out of the way and the dining room is small, but the food is definately worth it!
One last comment: Dim Sum Garden at 11th and Arch btwn wawa and the chinatown bus station has fantastic hard to find home-made items: dumplings, vegetable buns, soup dumplings, beef brisket noodle soup. These are all things that my mother and grandma used to make and they (dsg) do it well. All the pasta appears to be handmade. Let’s hear what you think about it!
I would say that the last two times I went to UD it was a bit reduced from it’s former glory, although you make me want to try the Indo-Chinese night. I must here make a pitch for the only two other (much better) Southie food places in the region:
1. Devi in Exton PA. It is a huge hike but real South Indian vegetarian food lovers will head out there. You cannot get a bad meal there.
2. Brand new Dosa Hut in Collegeville, actually just past Conshohocken on Ridge Pike. AMAZING do not go for the atmosphere, but enjoy the real and crispy dosas.
I love Udippi Dosa House. I go there only for my Dosas and I certainly know all about being fixated on Dosas… being south Indian and all.
Dosa Hut in Collegeville is good but def not on par with UD.
I haven’t tried Devi yet in Exton, PA. Guess I found my plans for the weekend.
We ate at the Udippi Dosa House Buffet today (July 6, 2008). Much to our disappointment the food really did not measure up to the reviews of the phillyfoodguys. Pongal was the only item that appeared to be up to par, but even in this item, the preparation was a little too dilute and lacked the flavor of fresh curry leaves and edible camphor. The idli’s were straight out of the freezer and it was pretty obvious that they had simply warmed frozen idlis. The potato curry had too much salt and the pulav was unpalatable. The other items on the buffet, aviyal, porial, rasam, thayir sadam were just ordinary. The payasam was too sweet and clearly lacked culinary skills. The coffee was a horrible mixture of nescafe and creamer mixed in hot water. The only redeeming features were the masala dosas, malala vadas, sambar and chutneys that are included in the buffet. The dosas were crisp and the potato fillings were superb. The sambar and chutneys were also quite tasty. The masala vada were crisp and appeared to be freshly prepared. The bhajjis were passable, although I do not think that it made up for the disappointment of the buffet. Service was also terrible. We were the first folks to arrive and waited until 11:30 for the buffet to open. However, while we ate 2 other groups arrived and the 2 wait staff simply spend time taking orders from them despite several attempts by us to get the attention of the wait staff. Compared to buffets in Edison, NJ and Gettysburg, MD, I would rate this buffet at Udippi Dosa house a grade C.