Mylapore South Indian Pleasanton — Restaurant in Pleasanton

Jun 2025: Great service. Poor quality of coffee and scalding hot sambar! Feb 2024: Ordered the mini Thali. It was just ok. Rice was dry, Kootu was hot. Aug 2023, Oct 2023 Summary: The place does not disappoint with respect to the food, but the customer service is lacking. FYI, I have been to the Folsom location of the same restaurant and had a great experience. Somehow the experience here was lacking due to a few sour interactions onsite at the restaurant. I design experiences for Brands. I used my journey as a customer to map the experience so as to help both the owners and patrons understand and appreciate the experience elements.

Location: This restaurant is in a prime location close to freeways (680 and 580) at the intersection of Stoneridge and HopYard. It is a mile away from both these freeways. The location is inside a strip mall which includes other businesses including opticians, restaurants amongst other small shops.

Parking: In both the instances that I was here, I was able to find parking very quickly closer to the restaurant. The parking spaces are pretty wide and adequate to park normal sedans and SUVs/trucks.

Restaurant Experience:- Entry: One of the confusing aspects of this restaurant is that you have to check in with the front desk and make sure you get a number before you proceed to order at the counter which is at the back of the restaurant closer to the kitchen. Ordering experience: While on my first visit I was able to get the seating assigned at the counter, the same was not the case during my second visit. Unfortunately in the second instance, the person at the front desk was away cleaning up a table and I ended up going to the counter and being informed rudely by the person @ the counter that I had to get a number and come back. You have to use a menu card to select items. The restaurant has a dosa happy hour from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. which is not advertised correctly and is not visible. I happened to notice it and asked the person about it. My experience during the first visit was not exceptional. During the second visit, the person manning the counter was plain rude. I was able to order and needed to look around for my table which required some detective work! It's so happened that there was someone occupying the table that was assigned to me. When I was asking about the location of the table, the person at the counter happened to notice that there were people sitting and again quite rudely told those patrons that those who ordered food "to go" do not get to be seated. The couple were kind enough to move out and this I got a table. I did call out the fact that patrons could be treated a bit more nicely in a courteous manner so as to offer them the experience they expect. I'm pretty sure except for the person who was at the front assigning seats/ tables, others at the restaurant did not care for the feedback. I heard a couple of patrons comment that the restaurant is known for its rude service sometimes and they get away because of the good quality of the food. This is rather unfortunate and a shame! Ambiance: You do have to expect a certain decibel level in Indian restaurants. The restaurant does offer seating inside and outside. In my case, the first time around I was seated outside and it was a pleasant day. The second time around, I had to sit inside because of the cold weather outside. Food service: The food is served quickly and delivered to your table. Restrooms and Cleanliness: Unlike most other Indian restaurants, this restaurant does have clean restrooms. In both of my visits, I checked for tidiness and found it to be adequate. Food Quality: Amazing dosas, quality chutneys. Barotta was nice, Kurma was oily. Crispy Medu vadais, Fresh filter coffee is a plus.

Overall a decent experience which could be better if customer service improves. Hope the owners can transform a lackluster experience to a great one! Please!

PS: I went both times around 5 PM and was seated immediately. But around 6 PM, the crowd picks up and getting a table requires...

Jay sir popped up on my Facebook feed while I was scrolling through countless posts where he was spreading joy of food preparation, passionate messages sharing customer compliments and customer criticism, speaking about smallest of the details involved in food preparation, storage, packaging, delivery, how he chooses ingredients from the right stores at the right time but little we knew about the blood, sweat , effort and challenges that go into running a food business especially south Indian restaurant in the heart of bay area.

My wife and I did a road trip nearly 700 miles to eat at Mylapore express after following Jay from Mylapore group of companies for nearly a year. We were so hyped to visit Pleasanton Mylapore express location and waited nearly 45 mins for getting the table. Mylapore express had warm welcoming staff who told us that getting a table is the hard part and food would arrive much quicker once seated.

My experience was over 2-3 visits over the last weekend. I have to start with the ambience, the inside would make you think that you really are in a different country, with Carnatic music in the background, food smell you grew up, people happily waiting outside knowing food will be worth the wait, extremely friendly staff especially Nirmal anna who is very down to earth with a smile on his face. The place is immaculate and completely matched my expectation - the ambience, service and more importantly every aspect of the food preparation, quality and taste. You can’t go wrong with the Idli, Vada, Dosa ( several varieties of them) and the coffee here. Oh, and the two types of chutney - coconut and tomato along with the sambar, deserve an incredibly special mention. The portions here are perfect for one person and does not overfill your plate. During our visit we ordered ‘Ratna café idly sambar’, ‘medu vada’, ‘Andra Kara dosa’, ‘Mini-thali meals’, ‘filter coffee’ which was first-class. Everything was piping hot freshly made according to your taste looked simple yet very classy and authentic.

I have lived in Madras all my life and this place brought back so many memories I had with my friends, family back home and their Idly Sambar took me back to Mylapore, my home. Jay sir responding to our text message was eager to meet us at his Folsom location and we were overly excited. In my mind I was thinking it would be a brief meet-and-greet and he would go back chatting with his staff and other customers, but Jay sat with us and had a 3-hour conversation which was the kindest gesture from a CEO of a restaurant that I have come across in my recent experience in America. I learnt about the incredibly tough life of a restauranteur. Jay always knew food was his calling. This name and fan following did not come easy to him and we learnt he has come across many hurdles on his way and turned every rock into a steppingstone.

We tried the signature New Year Specials and the entire menu was very special and well thought out starting from parupppu thogayal , 7 thaan kootu, Cabbage broccoli paruppu usili (didn’t have big chunks of broccoli), mor kozhambu, pineapple rasam (which my wife drank straight from the box) accompanied by akkaravadisal was out of the world. Appropriately priced, no fuss and these dishes are way healthier than any Indian cuisine you have in other restaurants. Will definitely go there again and again whenever I visit SFO Bay area. I would highly recommend the place for all tourists/locals/americans who wants to experience South India beyond the guide book.

My wife and I can’t thank you enough Jay for meeting us and for being raw, authentic in our conversation and for sharing all your tips and tricks openly with the world. I conveyed to Jay Sir that many youngsters like me are getting inspired by his daily videos on Facebook/YouTube. To end our trip Jay asked Nirmal anna to pack fresh hot Podi idlies for our road trip which had my amma’s touch and brought...

I called them to order food over the phone. After multiple attempts, I decided to order the food online. I placed the order successfully, and I took a screenshot just in case. I ordered the food for dinner around 6:40 p.m. to skip the delay. I also have hungry kids waiting for the food after shopping. I reached the restaurant around 7:40 p.m. and searched the rack for food. What happened after that is something I have never experienced in any other restaurant. They mistook me initially for door dash pick up, then got my order details, and I was told they did not have any such order and almost accused me of fraud. Amidst this missing order confusion, the guy at the counter offered to take the order and prepare the food, only to be stopped by another guy who usually prepares coffee. He didn't like to provide the food as he was accusing me. Had he allowed another guy to take the order, I would have paid again for being nice regardless of whether the online order went through or not. My only concern was ensuring they didn't get the order later and waste the food. They kept asking me to go and check whether I ordered the food when I didn't have the order number in the screenshot (it appeared truncated). I felt so humiliated. I will never visit this restaurant ever again in the future.

Edited on 10/29 in response to the reply from the restaurant:

Yes, I had a hungry child, but I was not in a hurry. I was simply dismayed by the number of times I had to answer the same question, repeatedly explaining myself. You are exposing yourselves by assuming that I was impatient, angry, and in a rush just because I mentioned having hungry kids in the car.

I maintained my composure, even when one of your staff members adopted a tone that accused me and treated me as if I were a fraud. To clarify, I was not angry; I felt humiliated and chose to leave the restaurant.

No, I did not refuse to place the order when one of your staff members asked. Please verify this with your staff; I was providing him with the order details. It was another staff member who intervened, requesting email confirmation. I am not delusional to assume that I had placed the order and then exited the screen. I agree that there could be various factors at play between placing an order and it reaching the restaurant. My concern is how you react to these situations and how you treat your customers.

I don't understand what you meant by the order apparently placed by someone else. Are you saying you received the order after I left? Or are you accusing me that I didn't place the order that I was looking for?

Upon reading other reviews, it appears that I am not the only one who has experienced such issues. You are about to learn a valuable lesson in customer service by treating customers in...