The House of Dosas located at Knight and Kingsway is open 24hours and is a haven for cricket lovers. Oh and they serve up some delicious dosas. It’s always been on my “should try list” but it never comes to the top of my mind when I’m thinking of a place to eat late at night. Olivia reminded me of it recently and so we made a visit after a Monday night of dodgeball. If you can, get a seat near the window because it can be great for people watching due in part to the restaurants prime location at a busy intersection and the big windows.
Straight up, I’ll be honest that South-East Asian food is not high up on my list. I’m sure it’s delicious (it is, from what limited experiences I have had) but I’m just not as adventurous as I’d like to think I am, and I have a tendency to lapse back to familiar restaurants and cuisines. Having mainly Asian friends sure doesn’t help me either! Slowly but surely, I’m going to push myself to keep an open mind and break down any mental boundaries I may have unconsciously set up.
Mondays are the best day to visit, if you can put up with the lineups as all dosas are $5.99 as part of their customer appreciation. On regular days, prices for dosas range from $6-12. There are also specials for the other days.
Deciding exactly which dosa you want is a challenge. So many different fillings, from masala, vindaloo, palak, meat and seafood, it could take a while to truly come to a decision. I finally picked Lamb Vindaloo Dosa just because I’m not too sure how well seafood would taste combined with curry and spices. When you order, the server will ask how spicy you want it. I said I wanted spicy, but he warned against it, so I toned it down a bit to medium. Now let’s see if this truly is spicy…
Look at this massive monstrosity. The last time I saw something this big was a beef redondo at Mexicali‘s, and it was only half this length! Sure, only about 1/3 of it (the middle) actually has any filling but don’t let that take away from how astoundingly good this is. I had to stand up just to get the whole thing in the picture. The green leaf plate it’s served on makes me think of big plantain leaves.. if only it were real leaves!
Starting with the sides. A small bowl of sambar. A sort of vegetable stew. That’s really all I could get from this though.. I did drink it all up though.
Carrot coriander chutney. It had a slightly gritty texture to it because of the grated carrots. A little salty/savory, I didn’t find it really necessary for this to be on the side, as the dosa itself was flavourful enough, but this just enhanced it.
Coconut chutney. If my dosa was as spicy as I was expecting, this would have been great for cooling down my tongue. It starts out creamy while you slowly start to realize and taste the telltale shavings of coconut in your mouth, and then it transitions to a minty aftertaste.
A peek inside at all the filling. The gamey taste of lamb wasn’t as evident due to the other spices present in the filling. It reminded me of a samosa.. just not as much potatoes.
At first I was timid, ripping small pieces of the crepe off the ends. However once I started eating it with the chutney and sambar, I lost all control and just dove headfirst into this beast. Why have I been holding myself back from this delicious delicacy? Why had I not discovered it earlier? Why had I waited so long to visit this restaurant? So many questions filled my head while I just quietly ate.
You can be prim and proper and use a fork and knife, or you can just dig in and use your hands to rip apart the crepe, scoop up some filling and sauce and shove it in your mouth. I had a great time just mix-matching the chutneys and sambar, but I also appreciated the dosa by itself. Rip the ends off and save it for cleaning up the plate after. Trust me, you’ll want to lick the plate clean. Olivia commented on how clean my plate was after…
Menu. I think it’s an older menu though, the one in the restaurant doesn’t look the same.
Good food, open 24 hours, and you can even try to understand cricket! Arrive early or late on Monday to avoid the line ups.
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