Restaurant
Staten Island
Dosa Garden
On a forlorn strip of halal meat shops and Indo-Pakistani eateries, under lemony yellow lights, Dosa Garden lets you choose from more than a dozen variations of rice-lentil crêpes, which might be spread with chutney, stuffed with potato and onions, or topped with chicken or egg. The menu’s other 100-plus items include mutton fry, pancakelike utthappam, and fried doughy samosas, paneer, or idly patties. A ghee-slathered Kashmiri naan has a buttery peanut pancake feel, unlike its usual flakey rotilike texture. The half-vegetarian menu devotes a lot of space to South Indian staples: Malai chicken tikka, bite-size spiced kebabs, arrive moister than the bone-dry salmon tikka, but still fairly parched. The shrimp khoruma, cradled in a mini-wok, bathes in a thick coconut-milk curry, while the chicken biryani subtly meshes juicier chicken with flagrant rice and wild red spices. The sweet gulab jamun, starchy fried cheese balls in a hot honey soup, is a satisfying meal-ender, if you have room. — Janie Ho
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