Rasoi Review

I've been to http://www.rasoi-restaurant.com/ plenty of times and in honor of Vegan MoFo, I'm gonna break down the sure-hit Saturday vegan gluten free brunch.

We were there for my aunt's birthday, and I totally blanked on a camera. One day...

The best part about the brunch is usually the masala dosa, a wafer thin super crispy crepe with golden buttery masala potatoes with wee bits of fennel seeds. Today, the dosas came to our table before we had gotten up to get our first plate, and so it took a few minutes before I cracked into it...unfortunately for me. Dosas (and potatoes in general) are at their best when they are hot off the pan, and this one had just passed its peak, so for the first time in history, I actually left half my dosa on the plate.

Lentil donuts (wadi) are usually my second love. More like fritters and less like lentils than a specialty of Rhode Island, clamcakes (joy oh joys, minus clam, natch). I slather them with a thick tomato red pepper sauce and coconut chutney. Strike number two, the donuts were cold. Much like dosas, they are not at their best when cold. So I left some on my plate (gasp!).

They usually have a salad, for some completely baffling reason. I never eat it.

Going down the line was sambar (thin, vinegary lentil soup), brown or white rice with peas, plaintain and okra curry in a tomato sauce, corn methi (in a green fenugreek sauce), roasted veg, and sweet potato kheer (puddin!).

I always try the sambar every time I go. My aunt adores it, and I keep thinking that I'll like it, but...this was no exception. It's just not my flavor profile.

The plaintain and okra curry was great. Thick matchsticks of starchy plantain in a nicely fiery tomato sauce. The okra...umm...not so much...when I split it open, I nearly gagged on the goopy seeds. Next.

Wow...the methi was phenomenal. It tasted just like spinach saag, but it was much thinner and slightly more savory. I had seconds so large that I couldn't finish it.

The roasted veg were the surprise of the meal. Steaming hot potatoes that tasted like they'd been bathing in a secret spice concoction for days, delightfuly surprising chunks of tofu, sweet potato, squash...yum. seconds on that one too

And then, sweet potato kheer (cold) which I ate waaay too much of (seconds and a half on that one). Very finely chopped sweet potato, just cooked through with some kind of non-dairy milk, coconut, almonds, and raisin. Divine.

If you're in Rhode Island, Rasoi is an absolute vegan must do. Do it!!