The Adyar Cafe

Adyar Cafe might be one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of stepping into. Fully vegetarian South Indian cuisine. Expect a lot of tang from fermentation and aggressive levels of spice. The spice blends here had a similar backbone—especially coriander and curry leaves made their way into almost everything—but they were used in different ratios in different dishes to balance out the flavor. Open with the rasam. Usually appetizers diminish your appetite, the opposite of what it’s supposed to do. Here, the rasam rouses your appetite with the tartness of tamarind and tomato combined with the aroma of garlic. It’s light enough that you look forward to the main meal. The dishes here were of course flavorful, but more than that, they were textural heavens. The paniyaram reminded me of semolina cakes, the way the plump tiny pearls slide against each other, but this was far more light with a delicate crisp. The vadai were similarly crisp with a fluffy donut-like interior, a different kind of textural contrast. And then the appam arrived, thin and spongy with a pan-fried browned flavor, like really thin crispy pancakes with a lot of tang, served with a sweet vegetable stew. The biggest surprise for me was actually the coconut chutney. I usually hate it. My guess is that most places use dehydrated coconut because that’s the only thing available. I believe Adyar grates fresh coconut. The chutney was only mildly spiced to provide a cooling contrast to the podi. I loved eating it as is. Adyar Cafe easily passes the biggest test: do I look forward to dining here again? Absolutely. It’s a genuinely exciting restaurant.

The place had great vibe and interior. The server and host were also very friendly. The food was nice but bit bland for our Indian standards. I believe it is good for her may be. Or our dishes might not be the perfect pick for spices. It does felt like light and healthy eating. The place is but pricey but ambience justify it.