At Upsouth, a new quick service eatery in Jayanagar the humble dosas and vadai turn into fast food snacks minus the MSG and the grease factor
At Upsouth, a new quick service eatery in Jayanagar the humble dosas and vadai turn into fast food snacks minus the MSG and the grease factor
Imagine you are standing in queue at your favourite fast food chain joint waiting eagerly for your mayonnaise laden burgers, fries dripping with grease and giant sized cola drinks and instead you get a crisp masala dosa, a crunchy dahi vada soaked up in sweet and spicy yoghurt, mini idlis dressed with spicy sambar and butter milk to quench your thirst all served in mini portions with the same alacrity as any other fast food joint. 
That is Upsouth for you, a Quick Service format restaurant that promises to dole out vadas, idlis, dosas, curd rice, filter coffee and more with the same speed as your favourite fast food joint but maintains high quality and keeps the grease factor in control.
The eatery located in Jayanagar (another branch can be found at the food court in Mantri Square Mall too) gives out a happy vibe with its two floors done up in bright oranges, yellows and reds. The look and feel is young and the walls are littered with corny wisecracks. You have to queue up at the counter and the menu is up on the wall promising interesting combos as well as an a la carte menu. Our eyes went first to the list of interesting fritters like Raw Banana Bhaji, Mysore Bonda and Keerai Vadai, but the staff informs us that snacks are available only between 4 and 7 pm daily. So we decided to settle for dinner in the form of combos.
We chose the Upsouth Special Combo (R 89) and the Merry Combo (R 79). The Upsouth Special Combo came in the form of a compartmentalised platter complete withu00a0 a mini masala dosa, poori and kurma, mini idlis tossed in sambar, a mini vada dunked in more sambar, dahi vada soaked in yoghurt and three kinds of chutneys: roasted onion, coriander and the regular coconut.
The kurma was veggies cooked in thick coconut milk gravy and went well with our fluffy atta poori. The Dahi Vada came with a strong hint of asafoetida and made the sweet and tangy yoghurt served with it, fragrant. We were glad that Dahi Vada, a dying breed of snack has remained on this menu. The dosa was thin and crisp unlike the usually thick ones you get all over the city and the aloo stuffing inside cooked sans masalas and low on oil.
The Merry Combo came with the same items except for the Bisibele Bhath and curd rice. While the Bisibele Bhath wasu00a0 spicy and perked up our tongue, the curd rice played the role of soothsayer for our tongues. All combos here come with your choice of beverage like filter coffee or buttermilk. The eatery has a separate section from where you can get your filter coffee just the way you like it: light, medium and strong with or without sugar.
And what's a good wholesome South Indian meal served fast food style without some sweet, sticky desserts. We tried the Badam (R 40) and the Kasi Halwa (R 35). The Kasi Halwa is a sticky halwa made out of grating pumpkin and cooking it in ghee, sugar, nuts and some cooking camphor. The rather strong smell of camphor spread in our mouth as soon as we had a bit, while the halwa itself tasted like a watered down version of the Carrot Halwa. However, the cooking camphor creates a unique flavour to this halwa and will take you back to your mother's puja room. The Badam Halwa was a bit heavy with its liberal addition of nuts, ghee and sugar and we could only finish half of it.
For those living in Jayanagar, Upsouth is willing to home deliver their menu and for those at whose doorsteps they haven't made forays yet, we would ask you make a trip there for a fast food South Indian experience
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Where Upsouth, 26th Main Road, 9th block, Jayanagar, Opposite Ragigudda Temple Arch and Food Court, Mantri Square Mall, Malleshwaram
Call 22443434 Meal for Two Rs 250
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