Malabar Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

Tuesday night dinner with out of town guest. WOW! The ambience is low key, good mellow lighting, few adornments on the walls, zen-like, painting directly onto the walls. Small tea lights in glass bowls with little live flowers was a sweet touch. Very homey. Lovely waiter who wholeheartedly encouraged us to stay to enjoy the home made ice cream when we said we'd love to try it but perhaps to go since we were the last ones there and didn't want to hold them up. You could tell he really cared. The ice cream is home made by the owner's wife, who mixes up a fresh batch DAILY! It was chocolate with habanero and even the chocolate piece on top was infused with orange in the best way i've ever had chocolate infused with a flavor, not too sweet, fresh rasberries .... and VEGAN, we were most delighted with our choice. The bananna leaf salad was also very unique, asian pears, mint and some kind of finely chopped nuts ...

I lived in India before and am a big fan of dosas, which was the reason we came here. I must say the dosa itself was a bit 'floppy' / limp, as opposed to the the crispy wafer style I enjoy the most. I'm not downgrading this place for it, but I wasn't impressed with the presentation of the dosa and the texture. The eggplant / mango spice paste filling in mine was truly unique and tasted out of this world! The little white tray of various chutneys was quite a tastebud treat as well. I couldn't tell you which one I liked the most ... they were all good and the waiter was happy to offer up more of whichever one or ones you ran out of (which is easy to do). The sambar sauce which usually comes with a dosa (spicy tomato based soup) was more like dahl here and there was some spice in it that left a bitter taste on the tongue (both me and my friend agreed and we did not finish that). The drink my friend had was pomegranate and almond milk and not sure what else. I thought it would be too sweet and smoothie like but it was light and refreshing, again nothing was too sweet, perfectly balanced. This place is ORIGINAL, and very local and I highly recommend it. I'm new in town and was told I should expect to lower my expectations when it comes to restaurants here in SC. I'm happy to say I've been happily surprised many times in the few short months since moving here. This place is a gem. 2 dosas, one salad, one drink, one...

My girlfriend and I left here saying that this might be the best food we have ever had. We had the Gobi Manchurian appetizer that was just loaded with flavor, and the chickpea breading was great with the cauliflower. The sauce was so flavorful! Then was the mixed vegetable dosa, which was so unique and great to try the little sauces that came out with it. When ordering a dosa you also receive a killer coconut soup that feels like there isnt another single nutrient you could cram in there, so rich in every aspect. We also had the Tempeh La La, which were these super tasty, carmelized tempeh chunks with a peanut sauce and veggies. During our dinner, the owner enticed us with the ice cream his wife makes. It seemed to be a special experience for anyone who tried it, and once I realized he wasn't pushing it as a sales guy, but mostly as a "my wife makes some killer ice cream, I'm so proud and honored to have you try it while you are here" we had to get it. He was right though, it was killer, and easily some of the best vegan ice cream you can have. His wife changes the flavor every couple weeks, so explaining what it looks like or tasted like here could be very different depending on when this is read. Whatever time you come here, seriously try the ice cream! Only downfall is we didnt try more items, but we will be back here very soon. Easily some of the best vegan food in Santa Cruz, dont miss out...

I have been on glaciers that moved faster than this restaurant. The ravings about the quality and flavors of the food had us excited to eat here, but we were very disappointed. The morose staff seemed unconcerned about our experience and the way the plates were plonked down in front of us did not help. We waited so long between our appetizer and entree (30 minutes) that I very nearly grabbed a left-over Samosa from the table next to us. How does wait staff leave a dirty table for 30 minutes while there is a line of waiting customers ten deep? We were very hungry by the time the entrees were trickled out and it only got worse.

The Vegetable Korma was drowned in a tepid, flavorless curry followed five minutes later with a bowl of rice tossed down on the table; seemingly as an afterthought. The noodles, which came 10 minutes after the vegetables, were overcooked and lumped into a sticky pile of flabby onion, root veggie and cheese. South Indian/Sri Lankan food is supposed to explode with flavor, spices and some heat. This food was the antithesis of that tradition.

We did not finish our entrees. Instead, we achingly removed ourselves from the uncomfortable chairs we had suffered in for the last hour and a half and go off to find some dessert to...