As we spent almost the entire day in Princeton area in New Jersey, we went to Myilai Masala for dinner. Myilai Masala is a branch of Myilai Masala in Mylapore in Chennai, where it is in existence for around five years now. Though I have not been to the one in Mylapore, as my friends wanted us to try it out and see how it is.

Myilai Masala is a South Indian vegetarian restaurant and is located in a mall, just off the Sloan Avenue exit on 295. You can also come to this place from Quakerbridge Mall as it is at the intersection of Sloan Avenue and Quakerbridge Road. There is lot of parking space in the mall. Once inside the restaurant, I liked the way in which the tables were spaciously arranged and also the way it gave a sense of privacy. As they say first impression matters a lot and I was impressed. Their menu card also talks about Myilai Masala’s origin in Mylapore in Chennai, Chennai’s culture, etc.

Since I was very hungry I asked them to bring anything that they can bring immediately.

I got Curd Vada, which was like a sponge and I could not eat it, even with my favourite curd. It felt like eating ready made vada, dipped in curd. I was expecting a soft vada which will not be very difficult to eat. I will never recommend that item to any one.

I also asked for two more items for me: Onion Rava Masala Dosa and Kothu Parota.

Onion Rava Masala Dosa came out with three chutneys and sambhar with it. It was awesome – the best dish I had at Myilai Masala. The dosa was crisp, exactly cooked to my taste. It was so good that when I started sharing it, I only got less than half of it to eat, but sharing is also fun 🙂

Kothu Parota looked exactly as I had expected, but did not taste any where close to what I was expecting. Typically in Kothu Parota I would look for a lot of parota pieces, split into smaller pieces, but this one had a lot of onion and the other spices and very less amount of parota. Will not recommend Kothu parota at Myilai Masala anytime to anyone. I tried adding more raita to it to see if it would come closer to what I was expecting, but it did not make a difference.

My son had Cheese Dosa and he finished it fully without any questions. I guess either it must have tasted very good or he must have been very hungry. When I asked him he said though it was a bit spicy (that means mild spice level), it was tasty.

We also got Naan and Panneer Tikka Masala – which I always recommend against – I mean I recommend against getting an item like Idly from a North Indian speciality restaurant and getting Tikka items from a South Indian restaurant. In any case, it was ok, nothing great about it.

We also got Myilai Combos: Pongal, Idly, bonda and Medhu Vada – all of which were tasting ok.

The service was excellent. When I had asked for additional raita, they gave me a lot more and that made me feel good.

Overall, it was a ok experience and I guess my experience would have been more better and I might have liked it better if either I had eaten in the Mylapore location of the restaurant or if I had not thought that would be better than Saravana Bhavan in taste. In any case, I would recommend it to my friends if they are in Princeton area and are ready to try out this new South Indian restaurant.

Update: Just found out that this is the same place where Vasantha Bhavan existed earlier. If any one of you have been to Vasantha Bhavan before, I thought it would be easier for you to locate this one.