The whole point of visiting Gokul Oottupura Vegetarian Restaurant was to try one of their chaats, an Indian dish consisting of fried dough with various toppings and sauces. Alas, I guess that’s only a dinner thing, because their breakfast/lunch menu was completely chaat-free.
Dosas make up the bulk of the menu — the waiter recommended the podi masala dosa, so I went with that.
If you’ve never had a dosa, it’s basically a very thin, crispy pancake, usually filled with stuff. In this case, it was filled with a creamy, spice-packed potato mixture, along with a dry chutney (the podi masala — also known as gun powder masala).
It’s really good. The dosa itself has a great texture — it’s a really satisfying balance of chewy and crispy. Also, I think they might have mixed cheese in there? It occasionally had that flavour you get when cheese hits a hot surface and crisps up. Whatever it was, it was quite tasty.
And the mix of the creamy potato and the vibrant podi masala was enormously satisfying. It comes with a few different sauces to dip it in, which amps up the flavours and really brings it to the next level.
I got a gulab lassi to drink, which is a sweet, rose-flavoured yogurt drink. It was maybe a touch too sweet, but it was super refreshing, and a great compliment to the very flavourful dosa.
Location: Padivattom, Edappally, Ernakulam, Kerala 682024, India
How to find it: You won’t have any trouble finding it. It’s a large restaurant, and the sign is in English.