To celebrate Pongal, Prakash and I decided to head to South Indies in Indiranagar for a proper south Indian food spread. I had previously only been there once, but they have since moved to a new location, and I was interested to see how it was.
Pongal is the harvest festival celebrated by Tamilians at the end of the harvest each January. The festival generally runs for 4 days, during which most people will return to their hometowns or native villages to celebrate with their families. Since it fell in the middle of the week this year, traveling was not in the cards for me, but luckily there are plenty of nice south Indian restaurants in Bangalore to keep my satisfied.
South Indies specializes in food from the four south Indian states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. I have noticed it's pretty heavy on the last two and not so much on the first ones, but the food is still pretty delicious.
It's an interesting setup, with soup and starters being served at the table and the main course on offer as a buffet. To start with we had mixed vegetable soup which was spicy and really good as well as masala idli, some other kind of mini idli, fried vada, and potato chips, all served with coconut chutney and some other chutney whose name I didn't catch. All were delicious, and although the servers kept trying to bring more, I was eager to check out the buffet.
And holy crap, was there a lot to eat. There were lots of salad options, and the beetroot and tomato raitha were both really good. And then there was stew [which I skipped because I'm not a huge fan of it], drumstick sambar, vegetable palya, and a potato concoction. Beyond that were steamed rice, vegetable pulao, and pongal, while paratha, appam, and dosa were all served at the table. I think there might have been two other kinds of sambar as well, but I already had too many things on my plate and not enough space in my stomach for all of it.
My favourite by far was the drumstick sambar. It had something in the masala that just made it killer, and I had a second helping of it mixed with veg pulao because it was just that good. The potatoes and the veg palya were also great, and I liked being able to mix it up between the paratha, appam, and dosa. I also had approximately 3 papads, because I cannot resist them.
The curd rice with mango pickle was good, and although I appreciated the ingenuity of the pineapple rasam, it was just a little bit weird for my liking. I think the pineapples were a little too strong, and it masked the taste of the rasam, which made me sad.
And finally, the desserts: we tried gulab jamun, Mysore pak, mango payassam, some fruits and some sort of custard thing that we originally thought was kulfi and were disappointed to find out was actually not. There was ice cream as well, but I was so stuffed by the time we discovered it that I actually had to say no. Imagine, Veena turning down ice cream. That should tell you how full I was.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this place and will likely be back there once I return from Hyderabad. At roughly Rs 400 per person, it's a really good value for money considering how extensive the buffet selections are and that it really is all-you-can-eat.
I won't lie, I dreamt about that drumstick sambar last night.
xx
Pongal is the harvest festival celebrated by Tamilians at the end of the harvest each January. The festival generally runs for 4 days, during which most people will return to their hometowns or native villages to celebrate with their families. Since it fell in the middle of the week this year, traveling was not in the cards for me, but luckily there are plenty of nice south Indian restaurants in Bangalore to keep my satisfied.
South Indies specializes in food from the four south Indian states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. I have noticed it's pretty heavy on the last two and not so much on the first ones, but the food is still pretty delicious.
 |
| [the results of my first go-round of the buffet] |
And holy crap, was there a lot to eat. There were lots of salad options, and the beetroot and tomato raitha were both really good. And then there was stew [which I skipped because I'm not a huge fan of it], drumstick sambar, vegetable palya, and a potato concoction. Beyond that were steamed rice, vegetable pulao, and pongal, while paratha, appam, and dosa were all served at the table. I think there might have been two other kinds of sambar as well, but I already had too many things on my plate and not enough space in my stomach for all of it.
 |
| [dessert plate, split between the two of us] |
The curd rice with mango pickle was good, and although I appreciated the ingenuity of the pineapple rasam, it was just a little bit weird for my liking. I think the pineapples were a little too strong, and it masked the taste of the rasam, which made me sad.
 |
| [pongal decorations at the entrance] |
Overall, I would definitely recommend this place and will likely be back there once I return from Hyderabad. At roughly Rs 400 per person, it's a really good value for money considering how extensive the buffet selections are and that it really is all-you-can-eat.
I won't lie, I dreamt about that drumstick sambar last night.
xx
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