For familiar Indian cuisine with a spark of the exotic.
The Food
Simpler than the cuisine of the north, with fewer foreign influences, Southern Indian cuisine is vegetable-heavy, relying largely on rice and pulsing along with lots of highly seasoned veggies. Aside from the standard appetizers, there are delicately flavored vadai (fried lentil donuts) and strange rice and lentil balls called pulugulus (say that three times fast.) Huge vegetable-filled rice and lentil crepes, called dosai, enfold mellow potato-onion curry, among other things. Our visit's only albatross was an idli (bland, gummy steamed rice and lentil cakes), floating in a sea of delicious sambar.
The Scene
Brahma Bull, a newcomer to California Avenue at the site of the former Healthy Choice, brings Palo Alto a wonderful mix of familiar Northern and more exotic Southern Indian fare. Waiters are seldom up to the task of explaining dishes to the uninitiated, so you'll have to wing it.
—Laura Reiley
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