Ok, I’ve been hearing about this place forever. I finally went recently. It was awesome, just like people (and the huge wait list) suggest.
They have two locations, Mission and Fillmore. I met Melanie way too late one night at the Fillmore location. We intended to go to SPQR, but were snubbed without a reservation*. So we got to Dosa around 9pm and I didn’t get home until midnight, so full that I thought I might explode. It was epic.
Dosa was full at 9pm on a Saturday night. And unlike SPQR, they were kind enough to put my name on a wait list**. We sat at the bar to wait our 30-45 minutes and then were kindly seated at a table for our 10pm dinner. Perfect!
Honestly, this was many weeks ago and I don’t remember it all that well. What I do remember:
- Wait staff – nice. Recommended wine and food to us.
- The chutneys were super exciting (4 flavors!) but were waaaaay to spicy for me to eat.
- Actually, most of the food was very spicy. Thank goodness Melanie had a packet of kleenex. I destroyed it.
- The dosa recommended by the waitress was not on my radar but was SO GOOD. It doesn’t look like much, but it was completely amazing. Cause for overeating for sure.
- The curry dish was similarly really good. Not as good as the dosa, but good.
- We were way too full for dessert but got the little sweet cheesy thing anyway (you know what I mean, right?). Delish.
Overall – very good. Food was great (despite the excessive spice for me — I’m very sensitive). Atmosphere: swanky, dim, modern. Wait staff: efficient, helpful, smiley but not annoyingly so. Price: not cheap. Dude, it’s a nice, good restaurant in the City, what do you want? Not super expensive or anything though. Just compared to hole-in-the-wall Indian, which is also good but in a different way. My vote: thumbs up.
*I mean seriously, how DARE we approach their restaurant without a reservation?!? When I asked the hostess if I could put my name on the wait list (which I had to ask her, she did not ask me after I said I didn’t have a reservation), she said they seat people “first come, first served”. It was my understanding that this was how a wait list worked, but apparently she disagreed. So… I was supposed to stand there and hope that I was in the right location when a table opened up? I still want to go back (because I hear their food is good and I want to give them another chance not to be rude), but in the meantime I may suggest they change their name to SPAZ…
**Response on behalf of SPQR: “Ugh, how common of them.” See video below.
Ali O says
How dare you indeed? I smell a Yelp review coming on…
sandy says
Ha, that sucks when the hostess is a troll like that. I love dosa, haven’t been to the fillmore location cuz the valencia is easier to get to from bart. It was so cool to meet you in person and enjoy those Caramel Pops together at the La Cocina bash!