Govind dosa (near seher e batil ki Kaman, charminar area, hyderabad)

In a NUtshell:

Brilliance on the roadside – a food cart selling outstanding freshly made South Indian vegetarian snacks, at times with a twist.

Address and other details: Govind dosa

Meal for 2: ₹100 onwards

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews.

We paid ₹200 in cash for the food mentioned below. No bill.

YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry

Hyderabad is known for its street food Bandis (carts/ roadside stalls) that sell freshly prepared food.

We read about this place from a blog post on Bandis and decided to visit here for breakfast one Monday morning at around 8 am. Have heard this place is always crowded but were pleasantly surprised to see just one or two people at that time – that allowed us to chat a bit with the owner, click pictures and shoot videos. By the time we were leaving there were 10-12 groups of people.

The set up was pretty simple – it’s a movable stall with big branding of Govind dosa. Very well maintained, neat and clean set up.

The stall had a big long tawa, rectangular in shape. In the front there were a line of containers full of dosa batter, chutney, aloo curry filling etc. in addition to dosas, masala idly and masala vada were being finished on the tawa as well.

On one side there was an LPG cylinder and a stove where they were streaming idlis.

All employees were wearing branded tee shirts of Govind dosa.

Food was served on a newspaper , topped with saal leaves – so happy to see that, in place of cheap plastic disposable plates given by most street vendors.

There was no spoon – everyone ate with hand, in traditional way.

Food was served on the saal leaf and chutney was being poured either on top of it to immerse it (in case of idly), or on the side (in case of dosa).

They were using Amul butter for the dosas.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

We saw in the menu ‘special Govind dosa ‘ and asked for it. As he started making we saw something interesting. He poured batter on the tawa and spread it out like it usually is. Then he took another batter and poured on top. The lower layer kept drying and the upper layer displayed a thick simmering liquid. At one point he folded the dosa and served. The dosa took a lot of time to cook.

The dosa had two distinct layers – the thin and very very crisp outside layer and the soft and thick inner layer. It was a unique play of textures in a dosa. The taste was totally different and outstanding. We tried but cud not guess. We asked and he told us that the mid layer was rawa!!!

He asked us whether we wanted masala separately and we agreed. The masala had an aloo base and was had loads of thick cut onions. The aloo masala was tempered with curry leaves and mustard. Excellent to taste.

The chutney was coconutty and nutty at the same time. They were garnishing it with a reddish brown masala powder.

Rate the dosa 4.95/5, aloo 4.75/5 and chutney 4.5/5. Rating averages out to 4.75/5

We next had idli. They placed four idlis on the saal leaves and poured a lot (I mean a real lot) of white chutney and sprinkled red powder on top – to the extent that the idlis became invisible. Super YUMM. The Idlis were more brittle and less fermented than Murugan idli, chennai. They looked slightly different and the pores were larger than that of Murugan idli.

The chatpata masala, the oodles of chutney and the soft and YUMM idli made a unique combination ( in terms of proportions) and we loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

This is the first time I had anything close to the masala vada. A dollop of butter was put on tawa, onions, tomatoes, chilly, masala powder etc were put in it, A medu vada was split into half, placed on tawa atop the masala and in some time it was picked up and served. Wow. Crisp, chatpata, super YUMM and so different. Loved it and rate it 4.5/5.