We love a good breakfast, Indian, Continental, anything for that matter. And usually our time to indulge is on the weekends which is when I generally take a break from the kitchen and the madhouse routine that makes up the 5 working days of the week. Foodies in Bangalore has been a massive source of information as far as restaurants go and its thanks to the group that we found this place in our backyard literally.
Athityam is in Jayanagar and has on offer a great South Indian style breakfast - with more of a leaning I feel towards the Andhra and the Karnataka versions of breakfast dishes. They have a set number of special dosas a day which range from your fancy Chinese type dosas to interesting South Indian varieties, some of which I have not heard of. There are the other breakfast staples in place as well. We visited there twice and here is a picto-review of what we had.
The Guntur Idly was what inspired me to get here in the first place. I saw it as a photo put on Foodies in Bangalore and just one look and I was drooling, especially since it was described as a spice fest. The Guntur Idly is your regular idly dipped in ghee and then dipped in a sandpit worth of "gunpowder". You get two idlies with coconut chutney and sambar. I like the fact that they are not stingy with sambar or chutney. Sudhakar and I decided to share. He quit on me after half an idly and I ate one and half, long before which my tongue began to feel like a mortar where a full crop of chillies had just been pounded. Did I like it, of course I did! I paid the price later since the burning in my tummy took the whole day and 3 milkshakes to calm down. But I would do it all over again.
Now I know what it means when they say hell can be enticing ;-)
The kesari bath was something we ordered for two reasons - something to quell the clanging fire alarms in our mouths and for junior who has developed a fascination for "yellow sweet". Nice, not too loaded with ghee that will line your tummy walls. Nice amount of nuts and raisins which normally most places hold back on.
Junior is a puri fan and so we ordered the puri sagu/curry with chutney for her. You get three puris to a plate and I did not have to wring out oil from them like we normally have to. The veggie sagu was predominantly potato which she loves. Another thing I noticed was that the chutneys served vary - you have the traditional coconut one, one with red chillies ground in and another with pudina/coriander. Order different things on the table and you don't end up with a repetition.
The first time we went there, the MLA pesarettu was on the menu. I have vaguely heard of this term, but never really eaten it and so ordered it. You have a nice crisp dosa which is filled with upma. Yup!, That's what I said, upma, complete with the onions, chillies, tomatoes and the tempering of mustard. This may be an old concept, but to me it was new. And made for a really filling breakfast.
Sudhakar went in for the rava masala dosa. Nicely sized and amply filled. Am kinda fed up of all those smaller joints that act as if potato and sago fillings are as expensive as gold and hoard it instead of filling up your dosa. Here, we had no such problems. This was nice...
Another time, we started our breakfast with button idlies and button vadas. 10 idlies to a plate with chutney and sambar and six real crisp vadas with the same accompaniments. A nice set to share before you actually get into the breakfast mode.
This time round the specialty was the Prodattur dosa. Again something I have not heard of, till I Googled Prodattur to be a place in Andhra. By way of explanation, we were told that it was a dosa with three types of chutneys in it. When it came, it had a bit of gunpowder as layer one, a thick diced tomato chutney as layer two and a coconut chutney mixed into a potato filling as the third. Quite a massive filling and it did the job of covering Sudhakar's breakfast and lunch for the day.
I used to love the tomato dosas that Dad used to get from a small place can Indra Bhavan in Mangalore. And so decided to go nostalgic and ordered tomato dosa. This was the only thing I got thoroughly bored with after a couple of bites. It was more dosa and had a piddling amount of tomato in it. Neither the sambar nor the chutney could make up for it.
And finally the tea and coffee served with sugar on the side. I have long since given up the tea with milk style for green tea. But decided to give it a shot anyways. Loved my tea which was not too strong from over boiling. Sudhakar liked his coffee as well.
Service is relatively quick and I felt that every dish was put together when ordered, so you may to wait around 5 to 10 minutes. But since it is all steaming hot when it comes to the table, I don't think there is anything to complain. If you go there for breakfast, try and sit on the sofas and away from the glass windows, or else you will get baked in the sunlight. The windows will be great in the evenings though. On each of these two breakfasts we spent not more than Rs 300 each time. The loos are clean.
Address: 220, 39th A Cross, 9th Main, 5th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore
Phone: 26644334
Cuisine: South Indian
Wallet factor: Rs 300 for two
Wallet factor: Rs 300 for two
Parking: There is parking for bikes, but cars have to make do in front and at the sides of the place.
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