Saravanaa Bhavan

Wrestling With Nostalgia at Saravana Bhavan

"At an Upper West Side outpost a few weeks ago I skipped the standard masala dosa for a paneer version — my dad scolded me for ordering a North Indian filling in a South Indian place — and the dish arrived folded into a triangle with a lump of filling concentrated in the center, which made certain bites glorious (soft, fresh-grated cheese mixing with glassy white onions, peas, and the occasional hot whole black peppercorn) while other bites contained nothing at all, leaving the dosa feeling inherently uneven; my table overlooked Amsterdam Avenue, and even knowing the scandal around the chain’s founder and seeing a joking Yelp comment about it, I still felt that this was one of the few restaurants where I’d always been made to feel, without judgment, like I belonged." - Bindu Bansinath