Madras Mantra Marietta — Restaurant in Smyrna

We've been to their Decatur location many times AND LOVED IT, although since COVID, Decatur changed to an electronic table ordering/checkout system so the only time we saw staff was when they put the food on the table, and it was not pleasant. We haven't been back in a while because of that.

Reviews for Marietta suggested they DIDN'T do that, so we met up with our daughter and son-in-law for her birthday.

They had arrived just a minute before us and had menus and water. As soon as we sat down, a server asked if we were ready to order. We ordered wine and beer (and 2 more menus!) and asked for more time. The beer came out quickly, and the (different) server again asked us to order. We are vegetarian and 1 of us is gluten-free, so we hurriedly chose 2 apps & 3 familiar dishes marked GF to share. The food came very quickly; still no wine. The servers would barrel in, drop the dishes and fly away. I finally asked twice more for my wine and got it after we'd begun on the entrees. The place is roomy and pleasant, similar to Decatur, and we appreciate "real" menus, which are huge. It was Tuesday, so not crowded, but it was quite busy and they seemed to be understaffed. At least, the servers we saw seemed frantic and overworked, and we were loath to flag them down. There was a minor communication problem between the soft-voiced accents of the servers, and my poor hearing, plus for each appetizer or drink we ordered (individually) they asked "One, or two?", which was damned confusing! The food is really good, although I wished we'd had more time to examine the menu and experiment. It's so rare for us to find a fully vegetarian restaurant where we can order IT ALL, and yet we got stuck with the very basics because we felt rushed. I would like to have asked about the Dosai, which are this location's specialty, and are supposed to be gluten-free, but aren't marked that way on the menu. But it seemed like asking that of our harried young servers would have broken them. I'd love to go back but not when we are entertaining guests, and it's a 45 minute drive from our end of town, so it...

A very sophisticated Indian restaurant with some amazing food options on the menu chart. Haven’t seen a restaurant with this much variety in South Indian especially Dosa, Idly till now in/around Atlanta region.

Went on a Sunday night and it was a bit crowded. We went on to order some tiffin items. 🧡 Tomato Soup: It was really good. Felt like having in India and not westernized. 💚 Rava Onion Dosa: Was just good and with Sambar it was better. It was big but wasn’t that much moist. Felt a bit dry. The red chutney on the sides were good but the Coconut chutney wasn’t great. 💚 Plate of Idly and Vadai: We wanted to have Kancheepuram idly and it wasn’t available, so ended up ordering this. The idly was good and soft. Definitely not the hard ones you get at most places. The Vadai was just good. ❤️ Mini Idly: We badly wanted to try this out but it was an utter disappointment to all of us. They ran out of some good mini idly’s and they could have informed us ahead. Instead they just gave some pieces of mini idly and few more pieces of normal sized idlys. It was not so cool to come up with such an excuse and give us those pieces during closing time.

The ambience was very good. Not the first time for me here. But the service during closing hours is so bad. As said earlier the excuse for not having Mini Idlys and replacing with just normal ones without consulting us was totally unacceptable. The waiters were courteous but not knowledgeable of what’s happening in the kitchen.

OVERALL: Great menu but actual availability is a question. Good dosa’s but sides could have been a lot better. Ambience is good, a proper fine dining family restaurant. Decently crowded for a weekend night.

MY PICKS FOR YOU: Rava Onion Dosa, Plain...

I'd rate this a 4 out of 5, except for the fact that one person in our group had to wait a long time for their food while the rest were served.

We were a party of four for lunch. The general ambiance of the restaurant is casual and spacious, the food was good, service was a little hit or miss. A family member goes here quite often and mentioned that the service is fast and food is to their liking.

My ghee masala dosa was crisp and very tasty! The chutneys accompanying it were also a really nice touch, with one being tomato-based, another one with ginger, though it was also quite sweet and a nice coconut chutney. The sambar was tasty.

The chaat appetizer was decent. The vada sambar appetizer was good, glad that they gave a decent quantity of sambar and served it in a good sized bowl, though the vadas were small.

Unfortunately one family member's order of idlis arrived about a minute before the rest of us had finished eating, and that too when we asked about the order. They either forgot, or maybe because it is steamed, it took longer but nobody mentioned anything. She sat there waiting, while the rest were already at the point of ordering dessert and asking for a takeout container.

The rasmalai desserts were good, though they didn't really seem homemade. Nevertheless, the quantity was good enough to be shared by two people per plate.

Overall the experience was fine, although that slowness of service for one person in our party made it awkward with one person just sitting there waiting for the food while the rest arrived very quickly! I will give this place another shot in order to try other South Indian...