Once upon a time there was a magical restaurant off of Lawrenceville Highway called Madras Saravana Bhavan. It was one of the few restaurants serving fantastic south Indian dosa – a crispy crepe made from black gram (a black mung bean kinda thing) and rice and then filled with something delicious – often curried potato, onion, paneer – basically all the good things. It was the spot for many Decatur families and how us young’uns luckily got inculcated regularly with the amazingness of Indian fare. Then, while we were all off at college – we returned to find out it had closed. Sad and displaced, there have been others but overall it’s felt like there has been a void for favorite Indian restaurant ever since. Fast forward some years and we hear of a new spot called Madras Mantra opening from the same owners of Madras Saravana – and it’s ALL veg! We were overjoyed and couldn’t wait to check it out.
Madras Mantra is now one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta. I’ll start with the downsides so we can just go up from there – the service is not so hot…unless you are French and don’t care about hanging out for a long time…. my method is to order everything at once, and then ask for the check whenever I next see them. The location is also not the most awesome but that’s ok, we’re used to having our best food in scabby outlets off highways in Atlanta. The food more than compensates for these minor flaws…the food is some of the most inspired food I have had.
When you go, please order the thali;
“Madras Mantra Special Thali…13
Three chef’s choice curries, sambar, rasam, plain rice, special rice, naan or poori, vada, raita, pickle, dessert, fruit”
At a steal for $13 this has to be one of the best deals around as it is sure to fill up two people – the best part is you never know what you are going to get! To the unadventurous, if there is ever time to have faith and let go, this is it. From the vegetable biriyani to the aloo gobi, each dish has it’s own beautiful individual flavour profile which makes it the perfect restaurant to take any Indian food novice who wants to see what it’s all about or a skeptic who has been marred by one too many overly spicy or bland curry. The sambar alone is a beauty to behold and if you haven’t tried dosa before, you will have to do another trip just for that – order with a tasty masala chai. Whatever we get there we always demolish it – hope you end up loving it as much as we do so this one stays open forever and ever.
