Woodlands is a chain of restaurants, like Sarvanaa Bhavan. I hadn’t been to a Woodlands before. Having been to Sangeetha three times in a little over a month, and Sarvanaa Bhavan once, we decided to pay Woodlands a visit when the in-laws were here.

The food was as good as the other places, if not better. We ordered a masala dosa, a Woodland special masala dosa – with a spiced chickpea curry in addition to the regular potato onion stuffing, tomato onion uttapam, idli, and a thali, or a platter.

The idli wasn’t as good as I’d expect. It’s safe to say I’m an idli snob, more because I prepare kick-ass idlis at home, so you’ve to really impress me on that department. Same goes for the masala of the masala dosa. The sambhar, I do a decent job as well. But hey, it’s not about me :p

Woodlands had good sambhar, the kind I like, with a balance of sweet sour salt, and the lentils not as liquid-y as some places. I like it a bit thick, so this was good.

The thali we ordered had nicely done vegetable curries and lentils, all of them, rassam, dal, a dry potato capsicum sabzi, a vegetable kurma curry and more. The puris were crisp and soft all at the same time, and not oily.

The dosas were good. As a general rule of thumb, they’re the most fool-proof things you can order at a South Indian restaurant. It has to be made fresh.

The uttapam was OK. Nothing bad about it. Nothing great about it either.

The chutneys that accompanied were good as well, with the coconut chutney being done really well. Its surprising how many places mess it up.

This was a Friday evening that we went here, the place wasn’t very busy. The service was good.