Mint Kitchen

Cloud kitchen with pick-up & delivery only, no dine-in space. The dosai here is the bestseller but as a fellow Tamil who manages my own dosai, I am here to endorse the mutton biryani. Mutton biryani is the G.O.A.T (pun intended) of South Asian biryanis and it’s my contention that Charlottesville had no mutton/lamb biryani worth speaking of outside of my home until Mint Kitchen. The meat is tender & yielding. Unlike other places in town, the biryani rice smells and tastes like it’s actually cooked in the mutton stock with a delicate layer of fat (& did I find little bits of marrow, hallelujah?!). It is made with basmati rice though (not the more traditional jeeragasamba rice — I’m not complaining!) in the Tamil style, which is not as rich as its Hyderabadi or Awadhi counterparts. It needs no raita or any other accompaniments and can be eaten as is — as God intended — because the rice and meat are moist & flavored perfectly with cardamom, saffron, & I think, kewra. The proportion of meat to rice is about 35:65, which I find perfect if the rice is also flavored with mutton stock as this one is. Minhaj told us he sources the goat locally and these are high-quality cuts of meat treated with respect and care. This is bone-in goat, so go at it with your hands if you really want to appreciate the meat. The biryani is mild by desi standards of spiciness, so feel free to ask for extra salna or khatta, the accompanying gravy, which has a good hit of spice. The raita and pineapple sambal are good but really not necessary, in my opinion. Dont snooze on the dosas, this is the only place in town you can get them & they insist on making it fresh & as close to time of pick-up as possible. Slight wait times should be expected and appreciated as the cooks are dedicated to making the best possible food. :) Instructions for pickup: the entrance is in Suite 1; the door is sometimes locked till 5 pm, so if you get there 4 pm on Saturdays, hover until Minhaj spots you & lets you in. Make Saturday your biryani night, it’s the best you’ll find in Charlottesville.

So glad that we don’t have to drive to Richmond for our dosa cravings. We ordered a couple of masala dosas and it was really tasty! Can’t wait to try more items on their menu. Location is pretty convenient, as well, with plenty of parking available. We also received great service from the owner. The photo was taken after we ate half of it. So good!

Finally a place with good South Indian cuisine options! I’ve been getting by with either Amma’s or heading to the DMV area. It’s so fast and tasty. I will return!

I’m so happy to have dosa in town!!! We got two masala mysore and one ghee dosa. They were absolutely delicious and a very filling, affordable meal. The owners of this spot are lovely, too!

Absolutely incredible! As a vegetarian, I love Indian food and I eat it a lot. But this meal was something special. Great flavors and textures and I had enough for some leftovers! Give it a try, you won't regret it.

Very excited there’s finally a spot with dosa in town now. Food was delicious and very very affordable, and the person we talked to there was extremely kind. We didn’t realize the takeout orders were already full for a few hours when we got there and they took the time to make food for us anyways. 100% going to be back to try more of the menu in the future and couldn’t recommend this place more to others.

I had been looking forward to trying their food, and they did not disappoint. Everything was delicious! I brought along some guests visiting from Richmond, and even they said the dosas here were better than anything they’ve had back in Richmond. Highly recommend this place to anyone craving great South Indian food!

Great South Indian food! Hoping they will eventually open up a brick and mortar place! I ordered via door dash and the dasher forgot a large portion of my order. When I called the restaurant to figure out what happened, they were very apologetic (though it was not their fault), said the dosas were left behind and they were cold, so he offered to remake them fresh for me and have them ready in 10 minutes. Sure enough, right as I pulled up 10 mins later he called me to let me know they were ready, and threw in extra vadas! Excellent service!