A touch of South India in the Fillmore
By: Patricia Unterman
Special to The Examiner
January 16, 2009
 |
| Kerala fish moilee: Sustainably caught fish is covered in a savory coconut sauce and served with coconut rice and salad. (Bret Putnam/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Emily and Anjan Mitra, who opened Dosa on Valencia to instant out-the-door crowds, have just launched a second restaurant — Dosa on Fillmore.
They somehow imagined a glamorous, mezzanined bar and restaurant with soaring ceilings in the drab former Goodwill store across the street from the Kabuki theater. They dreamed of monumental bejeweled hanging lamps and the drama of traditional South Indian arts woven into a cool, lofty space, all built with green materials. And now they are actually seeing it packed with people sipping pastel cocktails at the long, terrazzo bar and grabbing a dosa before and after shows.
Even more interesting, the Mitras wanted to create the first restaurant in the Bay Area that actually explores the diversity of South Indian cooking, not just vegetarian snacks and dosas.
At Dosa on Fillmore, diners can spend an evening dining on the whole food chain, either a la carte or on a four-course $39 prix fixe with lots of intriguing choices. Each course can be paired with uncannily complimentary wines for $16 extra. For the quality, uniqueness and presentation of the food, this constitutes a bargain.
Chef Senthi Kumar, who also opened the first Dosa, draws on family reicipes as well as his upscale hotel experience in the Maldives to create many smart dishes.
A filet of juicy, white-fleshed, sustainable fish (which changes) is smothered in creamy coconut milk infused with coriander, cumin, mustard seed and chile in Kerala fish moilee ($24 a la carte). It comes with addictive coconut-flecked rice and spiced yogurt — a dream plate.
Dosa’s tasty crab vadas or patties ($9.50), get a hot green-chile chutney and a cooler, sweet tamarind chutney that blend together companionably.
Yet, anyone who walks in with only a few bucks to spare doesn’t feel deprived. A dosa here happens to be one of the best bites in The City. My current fave is the rava masala dosa ($11), a gigantic, crisp, lacy crepe with holes, folded around a filling of crushed, spiced potato and cashews. All dosas come with the restaurant’s spectacularly deep-flavored signature sambar, an aromatic lentil and vegetable stew, plus lively fresh coconut chutney and smoldering hot tomato chutney.
In South India, no one drinks wine with dosas, but on Fillmore Street, many do. Wine director Todd Smith has gathered an international cellar of bright, fruity, unoaked wines that collaborate with the South Indian spice pantry. I have enjoyed whites such as a malvasia from Dao, Portugal ($8), but the red Singh Family Cellars tempranillo from Napa and Sierra Foothills ($10) really works with dosas. Smith is on to something.
Desserts stick to tradition. Rasmalai ($6), dried milk patties in a bowl of sweet cream sprinkled with pistachios and shreds of safron may not sound sexy, but inspire true love from those who try them. Housemade kulfi ($5) — hard Indian ice cream, also made from boiled milk — is always a treat.
Empathetic servers often have a lot of explaining to do, but they have figured out how to do it without diminishing the fun.
Exalting at finding a great dosa stall in an alley of Cochin — where the temperature drops to 95 in the evening — I never imagined I’d find such good ones at a very cool bar and restaurant a few blocks from my home.
Patricia Unterman is author of the “San Francisco Food Lovers’ Pocket Guide” and a newsletter, “Unterman on Food.” Contact her at pattiu@concentric.net.
Dosa on Fillmore
Location: 1700 Fillmore St. at Post Street, San Francisco
Contact: (415) 441-3672; www.dosasf.com
Hours: Daily 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Sundays through Tuesdays 5:30 to 11 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays, 5:30 p.m. to midnight
Price range: Starters $7 to $9.50; dosas $9.50 to $11; South Indian entrees $12 to $26
Recommended dishes: Rava dosa, masala dosa, fish moilee, persimmons and idiappam, crab vadas, rasmalai, kulfi
Credit cards: All major
Reservations: Accepted
