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...

I visited Malgudi Cafe just yesterday. I went in very excited seeing a ton of positive reviews but my experience was rather bitter sweet.

Positives: the staff were really kind and polite. The food was really tasty, although the bisibelebath in my thali was a little spicy, the taste was really good. Particularly, pineapple Kesari bath and vada were really good. The environment was really clean, cutlery and everything was extremely clean, unlike a review that says everything was dirty.

Negatives: firstly, there was a 30 min wait time to even get a table, which I totally understand as it can be busy on weekends. But, it took them almost 20 to come and take our order and within 15 mins of our first order, they came back to tell us that the kitchen was about to close so we had to order any desserts or extra food right away. Our initial order (including starters) hadn’t even arrived. Again, we understood its closing time so went ahead and ordered. However, our food did not arrive for until 40 mins after we placed our order. The restaurant wasn’t too busy either. Funny part was that my mom ordered A La Carte Thali and I ordered business lunch thali. The only difference between both was the quantity, otherwise both had almost the same dishes. Yet, it took 20 mins extra for them to bring my mom’s food, that too after repeatedly asking them. Didn’t make sense at all. We really wanted to try the mixed vegetable bajjis but they brought that order almost after dessert, so we had to ask them to take it back. They got coffee even before main course. The expectation from a South Indian restaurant is that it’s a given that coffee is brought in the end, in the place of dessert.

Anyhow, we enjoyed the food and honestly, I went with the expectation that I would give this restaurant a 5 star but was bummed. I’ll give it another chance and edit my review if my experience...