Malgudi Cafe — Restaurant in West Whiteland Township

On our 4th of July visit to King of Prussia, my family and I visited Malgudi Cafe, located at Exton PA. As residents of NJ, we do not have a dearth of South Indian restaurants but being in PA, we had our doubts. Google search led us here and it was an amazing experience! We can easily tag this as one among the best pure vegetarian south Indian restaurants in the tristate area.

We ordered the following dishes and drinks: Idli Vadé, Chow-Chow bhath, Cheese Dosé, Masala Dosé, Basundhi and Filter Coffee. It will not be an exaggeration if I say their masala dosé reminded me of Vidhyarthi Bhavans' in my home town, Bangalore. The dosé was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a perfect blend of spices. The delicious chutney was not watery but more pasty like the home made ones.

The chef spoke to us and for our kids, he quickly made a sweet accompaniment (banana, coconut shreds, jaggery with maple syrup on the side. we didn't forget to capture a pic.) which was an added touch and was an instant hit with them.

The chow-chow bhath, which is a combination of a scoop of khaara bath and pineapple kesari bath, was also very tasty. Idli and vadé had the expected texture, crispiness and of course, the taste of the idlis and vadés found in top hotels back home.

Last but not the least, I have to mention their filter coffee. Typically, restaurants here pre-mix both decoction and milk and dilute or completely remove the taste of filter coffee. The chef mentioned that they keep the decoction and milk separate and only mix them before serving sugarless. Sugar is served on the side for drinkers to use as per their taste.

The restaurant has a good ambiance and the staff is very friendly. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by an enthusiastic college guy at the counter. He welcomed us, showed us to our table and mentioned that they were just a month old and explained their top dishes. The portion sizes were generous and the prices were reasonable.

Overall, I had a great experience at Malgudi Cafe and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for authentic pure South Indian...

I didn't have the greatest experience at this place.

I came in and one of the servers intially showed me to a table with 4 chairs. Immediately after some time someone else, I think a manager asked me to shift to a smaller table as I was alone, which is completely understandable.

The first issue I faced was the time that it took some one to take my order, it took around 10-15 min at least for someone to come take an order, and I feel it would have taken longer if a table next to me didnt had to pay the bill and saw me sitting there with a menu in the hand.

One of the items I had ordered was a Onion Rava Dosa, which they mentioned would take time, which is understandable. I also wanted a filter Coffee withy fosa which the server recommend to order later so that it doesn't come over first.

Another funny thing that happened was when I sat down, a table next to me had just put in the order, one of them order the same thing as me, which was a Rava Dosa, and they didn't get it till I had finishedunfopd and was about to get out.

I got my first dish Dahi Puri a bit quickly, but it wasn't that great I would say a bit below average for a Dahi Puri.

My Dosa came late, but I was warned that it would be, so I was fine. I asked the server who brought my food to put in the coffee order from earlier, he wasn't able to but he mentioned it to the other server who took my initial order, he came around soonish to get the coffee order, but my coffee only came towards the end of me finishing my Dosa.

The Rava Dosa was quiet good, but the chutney and Sambar could be better.

Just as I finished my coffee and had a sip of water, they brought the machine for confirmation of bill and to pay for it, no break in between. I found it a bit ironic, they took so long to greet and get my order, but was very quick on trying to get me out.

All, in all not a great experience. Not sure if it was an off day for them as the others reviews are pretty good. But I wasn't the only one facing service issues, as the table next to me was also...

Awesome ambience, soothing music, irresistible authentic Bangalore style veg delicacies served here for sure is makes it a unique nostalgic experience. Thanks team Malgudi (ಮಾಲ್ಗುಡಿ) for bringing pinch of both Malleshwaram and Basavanagudi closer to us! It was truly mouth watering delightful experience! Wish you all the very success!

2nd review from our 4th visit on 07/16/2023: ———————————————————————- Thanks Malgudi Café for opening up for the breakfasts too over the weekends! Great Ambience, Music authentic Bangalore/Karnataka breakfasts and taste. It was our fourth visit but first visit for the weekend breakfast yesterday morning! We were there with one of our friend visiting us from Washington DC exactly at 10 AM, when Malgudi opens for breakfast. Warm welcome with divine aroma of incense sticks along with melodious devotional song honestly re-kindled our nostalgic memories of visiting restaurants in southern temple towns like Udupi, Kollur, Sringeri etc. in any of our pilgrimage family trips. Next excitement was ಮಾಲ್ಗುಡಿ ಕೆಫೆ Sunday breakfast menu. Avare Kalu Uppittu, Idli-Vada, Bangalore Masale Dosé with Benne, Onion Dosé, Pineapple Kesari Bhath, is what we ended up ordering and all of them were really fresh and delicious and has the authentic Bangalore Darshini taste. I could take the photoes of Uppittu and Masale Dosé, this time as our freshness of the food made us quickly attack the plates as soon as it was served to us 😊. Every thing now is sustainable aracnut plates made it more appealing as well. Thanks team Malgudi for your passion and the sincere efforts to giving us the feel of home away from homeland. Another small thing that I wanted to put on record, as we noticed from last 4 visits, size of the Masala Dosé and Vade has become bigger. Portion provided in your combo is really large in our opinion to the contrast of few critical feedbacks...