Breakfast Ride to Explore the Taste of Masala Dosa at Vasu Hotel, Kanakapura

Whenever I discuss my plan to ride hundreds of Kilometers just to taste food, usually people react with phrases like “Are you Mad!??” , “This is insane dude” , “You gone crazy Man” , etc etc… But all these years, nothing has ever stopped me by adding adventure to my foodie tales. But this time it was little different as I planned a short road trip with like minded people who love food as much as I do! And getting into an adventure for the primary passion has excited many…

PC: Vinay Nagaraju

So… Here is how we planned; Creating an exclusive WhatsApp group for this plan was the first step, creating curiosity and temptation by posting pics and delicious discussions has backed up our plan very well and out of 25 Members 10 people turned up to the plan.

THE PLAN

PC : Naveen Suresh

Simple, just drive to Kanakapura - a small town situated just 6o KMs away from Bengaluru and visit the legendary Vasu Hotel to taste their famous Masala Dosa. This was our first ‘official’ plan with fellow foodies. And when we fixed the assembling time to early morning 7 AM on a cold Saturday, automatically some people choose comfy beds instead of riding with us. Without bothering much, we continued with our plan as 10 members assured about their attendance.

JOURNEY TOWARDS KANAKAPURA: We assembled at Metro - Cash and Carry near Banashankari between 7 to 8.30 AM. After a short introduction we started towards Kanakapura. When it’s a single lane road, bikers will always have advantage to save time by reaching the destination faster. Same thing happened with us, we bikers reached Kanakapura 30 Mins before and waited to welcome the luxury riders by sipping hot coffee.

VASU HOTEL

It's a legendary restaurant which is currently celebrating 75 Years of serving excellent Masala Dosa for the commuters of the infamous State Highway - 948 which use to connect Bangalore - Mysore - Coimbatore. This restaurant has served many generations and reserved the same charm till date. 

I have been on this route so many times during my road trips and solo bike trips. But I came to know about this restaurant very recently by my foodie friends. Since then I was planning to visit this. And finally when we visited this restaurant on last Saturday I felt that I have accomplished my goal.

AMBIENCE

A very small entrance will surely mislead you and this is how people miss this restaurant. Once you enter the restaurant you can feel the nostalgia of this place by its raw ambience. Way the serving bay has been designed with wood arches, long dining tables, cement sheet roofing and of course the gray kitchen, it all takes you back in time. It can easily accommodate 70 people at once with its huge dining area. Kitchen occupies 30% of the whole restaurant.

SERVICE

Straight and  forward. Many people who work here has more than a decade full of experience and it can be easily recognized by their organised working style. This restaurant offers only self service and the men at the service counter serve the dishes according the first come first serve priority. The amount of order each individual handles is a real amazing factor. They are quick and precise.

FOOD

To be honest, this place is good only for Masala Dosa. Rest of the things are just average or above average. We ordered Masala Dosa at first and when it arrived the size of the Dosa really surprised us. It was too big and the dark brown texture tempted us to attack and finish it in minutes. Taste!?? I won’t say it was extraordinary or out of the world… I can just say that it was perfect. Perfect in taste, crispiness and size. The chutney supplied with it blended well with the dosa. Palya (Subji) was too good. Potatoes were smashed well and cooked very precisely. It was overall a delicious package.

Chow-Chow Bath: Another south Indian delicacy which tasted good other than Masala Dosa. Khara Bath (Upma) was warm, moderately spicy and had perfect texture. Kesari Bath on the other hand had right amount of sweetness with few dry fruits being less oily at the same time.

Bisibelebath : It was more like a sambar rice. But a tasty sambar with a sweet twist. Though it was completely opposite to Bisibele taste, I liked it!

Menthya (Fenugreek) Rice: It was average as the flavour of Methi was too heavy which resulted in pungent kind of taste. 

Poori Sagu: This was above average. They won’t fry poori freshly which results in over crispiness. However, the taste is manageable with chutney but Saagu was poor.

Rava Idli: Not at all impressed. Firstly the sagu supplied with it disappointed me then the idli itself was hard and rubbery. Couldn’t able to eat more than two chunks.

Idli: It was kind of okay and you can get such Idlis in any normal restaurants. Yes, it was soft but there was no ‘wow’ factor in it.

Muruku: Our final trail of the day and this too failed to impress as it was too salty. We were not able to munch even half of its portion. 

AMAZING FACTS: 

• Hard work and consistency always pays. It’s absolutely holds true when we look at the history of Vasu Hotel. The man who joined this restaurant as a normal server 50 years has bought this place and continues the legend of serving Masala Dosa. It’s an inspiring story and tells us the moral that no service / work such as small or low. If you work hard you will come up in life eventually. 
• The pricing of the food is damn cheap and makes you think that you have entered the era of 90’s. They still follow the manual token system and the highest denomination token they have is of Rs.25 only. It costed just Rs.56 per head for such a lavish breakfast experience.
• They haven’t renovated the building for decades to preserve the old charm of this restaurant.

EVERYTHING ELSE: There are two Vasu Hotels in Kanakpura and both are claimed to be of single owner. However, the Vasu Hotel which is in the middle of Kanakapura is the oldest. You can depend on Google Maps to reach this place or you can seek local guidance once you enter Kanakapura.

Hygiene factor is quite low and parking would be a real problem as it is located on the narrow highway. 

FINAL VERDICT: In my experience riding all the way to Kanakapura just for the sake of this restaurant is not worthy. But if you are travelling in the same road it’s a must pit stop for breakfast.

I can guarantee that Masala Dosa won’t disappoint you but I’m not sure about other dishes. 

BAKASURA RATING

3.5 / 5

FOODIES JOINED OUR JOURNEY:

Sujay Krishna - Yamaha Fazer (Food Blogger, www.BeingBakasura.com)
Vinay Nagaraju - RE Bullet (Food Blogger, www.wompblr.wordpress.com)
      Navneeth Thimappa (Food Blogger, www.LifeOnPlates.com)

Harshavardhan Reddy (Foodie)
      Hari Camla (Food Photographer)
      Naveen Suresh (Food Blogger, www.BangaloreEpicure.com)
      Kiran Munipalle (Food Reviewer)

Jaideep Gaandhie (Food Blogger, www.thehungryjedi.com)
      Vinay Setty (Food Blogger, www.voiceofmytastebuds.wordpress.com)
      Manoj Kumar K (Food Reviewer, www.zomato.com/manojkumark)

In Action

Look at the reaction of people behind

       

GALLERY

NEARBY PLACES TO EXPLORE:

1. Shivanasamudra :

2. Talakadu:

3. Biligiri Rangana Betta (BR Hills):

4. Male Mahadeshwara Betta (MM Hills):

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