South Indian restaurant with buffet and menu ordering.
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 2/22/2006
Rating: 8
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Udupi Palace is located on the busy streets of El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. I know Ive driven by many times but never thought about visiting until it appeared on the wish list. Characterized as being Southern Indian cuisine, Im not much of an expert as to the differences than Northern but I believe the Southern style is much spicier and dishes are soupier (is that a word?)
The restaurant is sparkling clean with the smell of spicy indian food in the air. The buffet costs around $10 which includes a plate of dosas. Along the wall sits a nice buffet line that comes with these fancy steel plates. The plates must last forever.
I wont go into detail what I piled on my plate since I dont know all the different plates. And for you southern indian food experts, turn away as I butcher the descriptions of the items :) So I had the large potato chip looking thing in Picture #4. I would love to have these things in the movie theater. I had the pancake looking things, some fried whatevers, dahl, tamarind rice, eggplant whatever, curry something, and a warm rice dessert. The dosas were filled with lentels? I wasnt too keen on it, I normally just like the plain dosas with the dipping sauces. The one thing I did notice was the uses of herbs that were left in the dishes. You would be eating part of a dish and find yourself chewing on what appeared to be tree bark or leaves.
I apologize for not taking the proper names down but the positive thing is the food here is damm good. All the dishes had complex flavors with some additional heat. I made 2 trips to the buffet line and left completely full. I thought it was money well spent. Although its strictly vegetarian I feel confident you wont miss the meat.
Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 724
Reviewed: 2/22/2006
Rating: 8
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Udupi was on the wishlist and near Best Buy, so we decided to take it down.
The parking lot was not too crowded, so we found parking easily, tho I can imagine it gets rather crowded as there were signs at the entrance to Udupi about parking in nearby lots can get your car towed without warning. So be careful if the lot is full.
The place looked very clean and well-sorted-out. There was incense burning at the front door that some people like or don't like. I could smell it on me afterwards at work.
A sign at the entrance stated that the buffet was $8 for adults and a couple bucks cheaper for children. Udupi is a south indian restaurant and I found it strange that it would be a buffet, but maybe many of them are and I am just uninformed (quite possible). They had the metal dishes with the individual holders which is a south indian thing. In a buffet, it seemed weird as I wanted to load up the plate but those kind of prevented me from doing so very well.
I was able to sample most everything on the menu and it truly all was great stuff. Because the place is vegetarian I could eat into everything without worry. A lot of the items are sauces that go with the 'chips' as i like to call them, and the pancakes with vegetables in them. There were a variety of flavors and none of them were particularly spicy, but had good flavor. I am not sure I like this format of dining as compared to Saravanaa Bhavan where you order traditionally. I prefer the fresh-from-the-kitchen feel to things over the heated-all-afternoon, but it was hard to beat the price for the amount of food I put away.
I particularly liked the thick cauliflower sauce, and the rice. The dessert was your standard tapioca but with rice noodles in it as opposed to rice. Was an interesting dish that I enjoyed as well. I would gladly return if I was in the mood for south indian cuisine and was hungry enough that a buffet would be called-for.
Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 71
Reviewed: 4/7/2008
Rating: 8.5
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This review is for the lunch buffet only. Unlike most Indian buffets in the area, Udupi Palace serves southern Indian food and is vegetarian (I think this is true by definition for Udupi cuisine). I visited here twice in the last few months and enjoyed both my meals here.
This is the first Indian buffet place I've been to that uses metal plates. These plates have divits on one side for storing your different dipping sauces or for mini bowls of soupy items very handy. The only problem with metal is your hands can get hot as you fill the tray up with steaming food. In fact, on my first visit I had to practically run to my table to put that sucker down! Water was served to the table immediately. Naan is not on the menu here, but they do offer some type of bread at the buffet, like chapatti( and Uthappam see below). You can also request a Masala Dosa be delivered to your table (this is part of the buffet price). On my first visit, the dosas were delivered to every table, whether requested or not. The rules, however, seemed to have changed recently. There is now a sign above the buffet saying buffet dosas are served to tables on request only.
Heres the description of the items I've tried at Udupi Palace: -- Masala Dosa: Not quite as good as I've had elsewhere, being slightly on the limp side. -- Mini appetizer balls Similar to mini samosas; Tasty, but I would have liked them a little more crispy. -- Uthappam Mini pancake made from rice and chickpea flour, embedded with vegetables. Yummy, but not as good as the made-to-order stuff. Still, I used these liberally as a naan replacement. -- Chickpea/eggplant curry: This was the highlight of my first meal here. Outstanding. I had a healthy portion of seconds -- Tomato Rice: Lots of flavor with a little spice. Nice. -- Potato/Spinach/Bean curry dish (name?): Wow. More outstanding stuff. -- Vegetable Korma (name?) Pretty boring; I didn't finish mine with so many other good things to eat --Yellow Dal: OK, Nothing special; Ate it all though. -- Sambhar: A soupy stew with veggies and a red broth. This is supposed to be a Udupi cuisine specialty. It was just OK for me -- Lentil/spinach stew (like Dal): Kind of bland -- Beet and Black-eyed peas Slightly crunchy and pinkish-red due to the beets. Savory but too mildly spiced for me -- Cauliflower-based stew (name?): Excellent served over rice. Probably my favorite item on my second visit -- Chickpeas/potatoes & fried bread chips in yogurt sauce: Served cold; Quite bizarre. I wasn't sure if this was dessert or appetizer; It was surprisingly good though, and I had seconds -- Tapioca dessert with rice noodles Very good; seemed to have pistachios and raisins in it. I didn't like the fact that it was hot. I would have much preferred something cool after my meal.
Total cost for the buffet was $8.60 plus $1 tip for total of $9.60. One of the cheapest yet. I'm torn between an 8 and 8.5 rating for Udupi Palace. Being one of the only of its kind though, I'll bump it to the higher rating.
Pros: Delicious food at bargain prices Cons: Parking can be limited; some items on the bland side; limited desserts
“Worst customer service ever!Our waiter was on the phone while we were trying to order!We went about 15 mins before closing time.They could have told us they are closed but did not..Would not recommend to anyone”
