Kerala Kitchen

I think that Kerala Kitchen might be the last Surrey area South Indian restaurant that we had not experienced. Note that I specify South Indian ( we have come to love dosa and other tastes of Southern India). We are all familiar with (and love) the Punjabi style restaurants but South Indian is a bit harder to find and I am making it my life's work to seek it out (not really but it would be an honourable pursuit).

Located on 120th Street not far from 96th, we were almost their first guests of the day and were seated quickly. They have tables spaced for social distancing as well as a login for contact tracing, hand sanitizer and our server was all masked up so everything was good! 

I'm afraid that we are a little predictable in our ordering habits and need to branch out a bit. We generally start with a combination plate of appetizers, this time it was Idli, Vada, Sambar and a couple of chutneys. This one came with Uthappam also. If we do manage to branch out, I think that we could do without the Idli. These little steamed rice flour pillows are a little on the dry side (always) and basically serve to soak up sambar and chutney. Everything was good here though and it gives one a taste of a few different things to start.

The main event as always was the Mysore Masala Dosa. This one didn't have the usual tubular shape but it doesn't really matter.

What it did have was more filling than any dosa that we have had in the past (frankly, they can be chintzy sometimes). I highly recommend the Mysore part (it was all delicious) which is a red chilli-garlic chutney on the inside of the dosa). Best that we have had!

I kind of mistakenly overlapped by ordering Onion, Tomato and Pea Uthappam (already came with the appetizer) but this was another best ever for us. The whole thing was moist and tasty and like everything else came with chutneys. 

For me, you can never have too much chutney and sambar (we ended up taking quite a bit home). The coconut chutney always blows my mind but this one had a few extra spices and seeds that we don't always find. As far as sambar (basically lentil and vegetable soup or stew) I could live on that stuff!

Alas, we swerved off the vegetarian highway and ordered Lamb Biryani. This was also very tasty but not legendary. The crispy onions on top were more like overcooked carmelized rather than crispy and we got a chunk of cinnamon. I am not sure if that was intensional or an error. It was edible (and kind of interesting) but a little too close to being a chunk of wood. Still, there was lots of tasty lamb and who doesn't love Basmati rice.

We paid about $60 but had so much left over that our actual meal cost was like half of that and we ate a couple more lunches from the leftovers. Service was friendly and tolerated my usual barrage of questions. Does anyone know what percentage of the South Asian folks that live here had originated in the southern provinces of India? We really recommend this place!

Food                        4 out of 5

Service                    4 out of 5 

Comfort                   4 out of 5

Value                       4 1/2 out of 5