The quest for the original

You may not be able to find this elusive dosa place — Vinayaka Mylari Hotel — easily. But that makes the binge more enjoyable.

By Mehak Mudassir

Vinayaka Mylari Hotel at Nazarbad, is an 80-year old eatery in Mysore known their hot and crispy Mylari dosa served along with thick coconut chutney and pallya. This dosa comes from a place that boasts of using the traditional recipe for 80 years. People from all over the city and even those visiting Mysore, especially come here to savor this delicacy and find out the secret that makes it so special.

Chandrashekar, the owner of Mylari says that this dosa was started by his grandmother 80 years ago. “It became famous for its taste. Our dosa is not like any regular dosa, we use some special ingredients to make it so and we have potato palya inside the dosa along with a specially made thick coconut chutney. We don’t serve various kinds of dishes but our dosa and idli are famous,” says he.

The dosas are done perfectly and are so soft on the corners that you feel they are like Japanese cheesecakes. After finishing one, you will not be satisfied and will call for another one. And yet another one after that. The dosa, round and folded in half, comes with butter on top, coconut chutney on the side.

Mylarri sells about 200 idlis on a good day and upto 300 on weekends. So we also tried out the foamy idlis and found them to be delicious.

The name

The dosa borrows its name from the name of the restaurant -- Vinayaka Mylari. The tiny restaurant serves only three dishes to maintain their quality and taste and has no plans to expand its menu because they are happy catering to their huge number of fans.

Despite its popularity, the Mylari Dosa isn’t easy to track down in Mysore. A combination of factors like impostors, fake signs, and misdirection from Google Maps makes the hunt very exhausting. But dont give up! Eventually, when you will see this plate of the most delicious butter dosa coming towards your table, you will forget the hardships and pounce on the dosa.

How to identify the original

So how can one identify the real Mylari dosa? In the neighborhood of Nazarbad with tiny lanes and even tinier shops. The difficulty in locating this one plave is not surprising. The neutral coloured walls mergeinto one another, and at least three joints stake their claim to be the original Hotel Mylari. Follow our directions and you will land at the right place. Keep in mind that the original place has a green signborad proclaiming ‘the Old Original Hotel Vinayaka Mylari’ painted in bright red. It’s at the the corner of a building, next to Giri Stationery store.

So if you live there or are visiting Mysore anytime soon, you know where to go for the best dosa in the city.

Location: 79, Nazarbad Main Road, Near Police Station, Nazarbad Mysore