March, 1997

Mavalli Palace
46 East 29th Street (Between Park & Madison)
212-679-5535
All Major Credit Cards accepted
Wheelchair Accessible

I once bottomed out on Indian cooking. After spending too much time on East 6th Street, all the food became indistinguishable, one bland mash of heavily spiced dishes after another. I gave it up, for good. Yet, all of that had changed, because Mavalli Palace serves, indisputably, the best Indian vegetarian cuisine in New York City. Specializing in food from southwest India and with a down-home style, the menu is heavy on lentil mixtures. But don’t let that discourage you in the slightest. The food here is flavorful, light, and never too greasy, and even in the more bland dishes, each particular ingredient remains distinct. The chef at Mavalli Palace prepares food as if your mouth had a slot for every different kind of spice involved with each dish. One can identify curry, coriander, cumin, cayenne, etc., with impunity and clarity as soon as every bite hits your tongue.

The most exciting appetizer at Mavalli is definitely the Masala nuts ($4.95): spiced cashews that are then lightly toasted to create a warm and mouth-warming alternative to something too heavy or filling. The vegetable samosas ($4.50) rival the ones that mom use to make: crisp, not too-starchy, and bold enough in flavor and texture to forgo any particular sort of condiment. Unfortunately, however, the menu does contain one disappointing thing: iddlys ($3.75-3.95). Iddlys are cooked lentil and rice cakes, but even when mixed with coriander and ginger, provide nothing but a disappointing texture and an overwhelming bland taste.

Mavalli Palace has fantastic main courses, in particular, the dosais (Indian crepes, $6.75-8.95) and the uttappams (rice and lentil pancakes, $7.50-8.95). The crepes are paper thin and so gargantuan that each one is worthy of a review all its own. For example, the tart and spicy Mavalli masala dosai ($8.95) is a crispy crepe filled with hot chutney and a layer of potatoes, green peas and onions. The combination of spicy chutney, starchy peas and silky onions hit every taste bud, and when wrapped around the flakiness of the crepe, will cause one to think twice before ever sampling again something as poorly concocted and insipid as a "wrap." Also highly recommended: coconut uttappam ($7.75), a thick and rich coco pancake, and its vegetable cousin ($7.75), both filling enough to turn even your most hard-core carnivore friends into fans.

And yes, Mavalli Palace does indeed serve curries, but they make them exactly as they should be. Both the dry and wet versions of curry are subtle, carefully-mixed constructions that rely heavily on the use of spice to compliment the taste of vegetables. I would also recommend the chanamasala ($9.95), an amazing dish of chick peas and pomegranates with spices, that tastes so much better than it sounds that it makes me wonder if I hadn’t found a fruity version of ambrosia. Then, of course, there are the rice dishes. The lemon rice ($8.95) will truly blow away your expectations. For those of you who imagine rice the bland, indispensable starch it has become in the West, think again. Mixed with spices and balanced with just enough fresh lemon, the rice prepared by Mavalli Palace makes starch seem like the steak of the Nineties.

Mavalli Palace should not be viewed as a vegetarian Indian restaurant, but as the place for Indian cuisine for anyone of any particular food persuasion. Although there is a $10 minimum per person for dinner, most of the dishes vary between $7 and $9; in fact, the most expensive dish on the menu is $10.95. You can actually see what’s going on here, as it’s a well-lit space. With its walkable location from downtown, full bar and easy ambiance, Mavalli Palace makes a full dining experience for any occasion. Cheap, cheery, accommodating and mind-changing, Mavalli Palace is a far cry from the 6th Street locales many of us usually succumb to when the mood strikes.

Ron Shavers is a writer living in Brooklyn.

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