It feels like it's been too long since we last went for South Indian food. I saw on the Daily Hive that House of Dosas was opening up in South Surrey which is a relatively easy Sunday morning jaunt for us compared to driving all the way to Vancouver to their original restaurant. The new location is near the corner of 16th and 152nd in White Rock, so there is no dealing with the insane summer Marine Drive traffic..
We arrived just as they were opening and were seated right away. One of the things that really drew me to House of Dosas is that vegan menu items are clearly marked! There is no quizzing of staff including testing their understanding of the difference between vegetarian and vegan. We just ordered off the menu!
We started with the Rasam Vadai, mainly because we were unfamiliar with it. As our server told us, this would be a perfect winter dish. Vadai (or vada) are the wonderful savoury donuts we have had quite often that are legume-based rather than wheat-based. The rasam is a warming herbaceous soup with a nice tamarind slight sourness that goes perfectly with the vada. We will most certainly be back for this when the weather cools off but we don't regret ordering it even on this warm morning. 
Dal Makhani is a black lentil dish that is often vegan no matter where you go (you should still ask to make sure as butter or ghee show up at times). Served with rice and a plain dosa, this was creamy and smooth and felt almost buttery. The dosa was nicely crispy and went well with the dal. Don't panic as the yogurt-based dip in the photo was discovered (served in error) in time to save the world.
This Onion-Rava Dosa was a revelation and the source of much enthusiasm on the parts of both my wife and myself! The key word here is rava which is a dosa containing semolina and also rice flour and wheat flour. It was lacey as you can see from the photo and very crispy! Amazing and again, this was a new dish for us! Under the dosa is an onion-eggplant concoction that we scooped up with pieces of dosa. Delicious!
Finally, we tried the Mixed Vegetable Uttapam (believe me that a lot of this meal went home with us!). Sort of pizza-like but again lentil based rather than wheat for the crust. Nicely soft in texture and full of tasty veggies and Indian spices. A substantial and satisfying yet healthy dish.
The dining room here was cool and airy and comfortable. Our server was quite friendly and enthusiastic and offered some pretty good suggestions. Reasonably priced to begin with, HoD offers a Monday deal on dosa that is worth driving out of your way for! This has been our best restaurant experience in a long time and we tapped about it all the way home!
Food 5 out of 5
Vegan Options 4 1/2 out of 5
Comfort 4 out of 5
Service 5 out of 5
Value 5 out of 5
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