Dosa

Want the one-line hot take? Dosa is kind of dull. But my job is to make this review exciting, so that three minutes of your day will be well-spent instead of shamefully wasted.

So what makes Dosa interesting? It’s a signature example of an odious trend – the weakening of BOLD FLAVORS. Guy Fieri may have corrupted the term beyond cliché, but there’s a kernel of truth there. Subtlety is all well and good, but sometimes (often) we want our food to punch us in the mouth. Especially at an Indian restaurant.

When the namesake dish requires liberal application of hot sauces and chutneys to taste like anything, we start to wonder. When the lentils that are theoretically “piped with tamarind and mint” taste like neither, we start to worry. And when the uttapam – a steroidal pancaked version of a dosa – resembles an undercooked savory Bisquik creation, we start to get a little upset.

Wherefore art thou, bland flavors? What happened to the spices and sorcery we were promised? We’ve had more flavorful versions of vada pav and various chutneys at Curry Up Now, which is basically an active protest against the grammar of three different languages disguised as a restaurant (Quesadillix? Punjabi By Nature?).

As for Dosa itself, we’ve only been to the cozy neighborhood outpost on Valencia. The Fillmore option looks palatial, but it’s hard to see ourselves venturing over there given the disappointments in the Mission. (Update: My co- reviewer has been to Fillmore and feels much the same.)

We believe Dosa can rise again. But right now it’s just another okay Indian restaurant, and expensive to boot. Hard to argue there’s a good reason to run over.