Restaurant review: A fine taste of home for Indian diaspora in Cork
The Dosa Spot on Washington street. Picture: Chani Anderson
La daughter and I have surrendered to Sunday afternoon serendipity, mooching around town with no plan other than that it might involve books, records, makeup, and whatever weird and random shops en route catch our fancy. Strangely, we had forgotten entirely about food until we find ourselves outside The Dosa Spot (TDS), its bright and cheery aspect triggering our appetites.
The effect is more pronounced within. The space is functional and nondescript, a rectangular box with booths, but a canny makeover has imbued it with an entirely different energy. Exuberantly colourful Indian lanterns dangle from the ceiling and local signwriter Niall Marron’s chalkboard-style hand-painted work pops off the walls, adding a casual, funky sensibility in keeping with the aimed-for South Indian vibe.
There have been Indian restaurants in Cork for decades, but Gautham Iyer’s late, lamented Iyer’s Café was the first that ever struck me as having real authenticity and genuinely exciting food.
While Iyer narrowed his focus, delivering with passion and precision the cuisine of his own upbringing in Tamil Nadu — including a mean dosa — most other Indian restaurateurs focused on replicating a formula that evolved years ago from the collision of one of the world’s most sophisticated cuisines with a formerly conservative Irish palate, one especially inclined to treat the unfamiliar and exotic with deep suspicion. On the plate, that formula equated to a reductive, homogenised overview of the multiple, varying cuisines of what is effectively an entire continent, all served up as a three-courser with optional chips on the side — a pale imitation of the real thing.
It has always been my rule of thumb when eating out on the fly abroad, to dine wherever there is a surfeit of locals. Back home, Iyer’s Café was the first Indian restaurant I registered as having a large and regular Indian and South Asian diaspora clientele — a good sign.
It is the first thing that strikes me about TDS: Indians and South Asians in groups of friends, entire families, couples, work colleagues, all leavened with a healthy spread of Irish and European diners of all ages.
Then there is the style of delivery. For starters, there is no alcohol, immediately eliminating the ‘going out for dinner’ crowd. It makes for a lovely vibe: casual, carefree and relaxed, by day and night.
While the dosa is ostensibly the main attraction, the menu also features biryanis, ‘Indo-Chinese’ dishes, curries, and a North Indian Street Food section that suggests a fluidity to South Indian geography: anywhere below the half-way point of the entire country; and some of the other half thrown in for good measure.
Samosa (€5.99) presents as two hefty, hearty parcels, rugged pastry encasing potato-dominant filling, tasty enough if a little short on finesse.
Dahi puri (€9.99) is a real street food snack, the little puri deep-fried to a crisp-shelled globe, then tapped open at the top and filled with yogurt, coriander, pomegranate, potato, and fruity tamarind, the latter pair combining to present with almost apple-like clarity and freshness. Deep-fried sev (vermicelli pieces) only adds to the textures and each puri makes for a bewitching mouthful.
LD opts for halwa puri (€12.99) on both our visits (yes, we do return!) and she has a point: pillowy puri are deep fried and crispy, with a soft interior which makes them ideal for tearing, mopping, dipping and parcelling up a very comforting aloo bhaji (potato) and a well balanced chana masala (chickpeas, tomatoes). The latter carries a potent kick yet is so tasty, LD pushes beyond her usual cautious approach to the Scoville scale. Funnily enough, she has zero interest in the sweet halwa (semolina, sugar, flavoured with pineapple) but I don’t leave it go to waste.
Plain dosa roasted with ghee (€9.99) comes with three chutneys: coconut, tomato, and ginger, peppery sweet ginger being my pick of the three, and a sambar (lentil ‘soup’) is bright and potent with chilli’s heat.
Paneer masala dosa (€11.99), roasted with cheese, carrots, onions, coriander, and potato masala, is substantial enough for a whole meal but the individual elements blur into one admittedly enjoyable whole, and I prefer the elegant simplicity of my plain dosa.
The batter for both yields delicious dosas, nutty, buttery, and cooked to a crisp, though I prefer my dosas to have a little softness, making them more malleable for dipping. To accomplish that, we order very good naan bread (€2.50) which does a splendid job of mopping up our leftovers.
LD has a mango ‘mojito’ (€4.99), pleasant if uninspiring and, though I’d like a sharper edge, more lactic tang, to my mango lassi (€4.99), it is impossible to stop drinking once you start.
Yes, there is better Indian food to be had in Ireland — mostly in Dublin — but TDS is making a very good fist of serving up a fine taste of home to the Indian diaspora. Right now, me, LD and, I’d fancy, more than a few locals are also very happy to be house guests.
35 Washington St, Cork, T12 DHX2
Bill: €63 (over two visits)
