Khana Kahan

· Hubert D'Mello (left) brings the Udupi experience to Toronto, and chef Narain Moorthi holds his creation

Even in big, multicultural Toronto, bursting at the seams as it is with many desi restaurants, I have missed a good old Udupi restaurant.

So it was with great anticipation that the family trooped into Udupi Palace. Okay, let's get the 'palace' part out of the way first! Udupi cuisine, by definition, is Indian fast food. In Bangalore, one can enjoy a leisurely dosa under a canopy of trees in the city's many drive-in restaurants, but by and large, a dosa is what you go for when you're in a hurry. It's available in places where the next in line wait for you to finish so they can grab your table. In fact, at home, "Don't do an Udupi!" was a standard cry when our househelp whisked dishes off the table before we were quite done.

Hubert D'Mello, who opened Udupi Palace on September 17 with his two partners Uday Shetty and Bino Jacob, laughed when I said that Udupi and palace don't really go together.

"You know, we never really thought about it quite that way!"

The trio have a chain of restaurants across America, including Delhi Palace in New York and Madras Palace in Gettysberg, Maryland. When they opened an Udupi place in Toronto, palace was a natural part of the name! So while they have the Udupi ambience down pat, tiled floor, functional furniture, big windows and lots of bright light, they also have ochre pillars and matching crown moulding.

"It looks more palace-like..." says D'Mello. He came to Canada in 1996 with years of experience at the Oberoi in Bombay. Finding it difficult to make a breakthrough here, he moved to the States and opened a restaurant with his friends. With restaurants in New York, Maryland, Atlanta and five in California, they looked at Canada again.

"I knew the place and we have a huge South Asian population here," he says.

It's not only the South Asians who were digging into dosas, though. It seemed half the town was there to try the newest dosa place, sorry, palace. I saw matrons in silk sarees and sneakers at a table next to a couple of Oriental students. The two had ordered rasam and as each spoon hit their tastebuds, they closed their eyes in ecstacy.

We ordered iddlis ($3.75), onion masala dosa ($5.75), special rava masala dosa ($7.95) ­ "nobody makes it like us in Canada!" ­ and a South Indian thali ($8.95) and were enjoying our lunch in minutes. From the eight different uthapams on offer, we ordered an onion and hot chilli uthapam ($5.75) and a bagala bath (seasoned yoghurt rice) from the rice section.

I savoured the familiar taste and when I learnt chef Narain Moorthi was from Woodlands in Bangalore, I knew why!

Though one does find kadhai bhindi and chana bhatura, the emphasis is on South Indian vegetarian dishes.

The Udupi special spring dosa described as a spicy Mysore masala dosa filled with fresh vegetables, sounded promising but we had to have dessert, yet.

Along with badam and carrot halwa and payasam, they offer halwa icecream. Intrigued, I decided to try one. Hot, melt-in-the-mouth halwa topped with dollops of vanilla icecream is a combination made in heaven.

Just a couple of months old in Toronto, the partners are already planning the next location. "Probably in Mississauga. We want to have at least five or six in here and in Montreal and Vancouver."

The taste of a small coastal town in South India is certainly going places!

­ Suvarna Shastri

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