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    Kovai Cafe

    4.0 (319 reviews)
    ModerateIndian, Vegetarian
    Open 8:00 am - 10:00 pm
    Updated 3 months ago

    Order Kovai Cafe Takeout or Delivery

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    KOVAI CAFE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for groups
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Kovai Cafe

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    Isabella P.

    One of my favorite South Indian spots. I've tried a handful of different dishes here and liked them all. Rlly flavorful & loved how crispy the dosas are

    Fely L.

    Stumbled into this place since place I usually go to had a long wait time. This place satisfy my dosa craving! The dosa was nice and crisp and lots of potato masala filling! Coffee was nice too. Need to come back and try more.

    Henry M.

    Stopped in to get some tea as we were waiting for my bird to get some medical attention. We were greeted right away and asked if we were dining in or taking it to go? " Dining Inn please " we were given menus that had items on it that honestly I had no clue what they were so I started google searching each item. The person working there saw me looking things up so he came to our table and went through the whole menu with us and explained the differences between the the menu items. I thought that was very nice of him to spend the time explaining everything to us, 10 stars for him!! I now have a better understanding of what's what :-) The tea came piping hot and was fantastic! I noted a nice Bergamont and cardamom flavor, so good. Bottom line: the place is clean, the service is fantastic and I can tell you for sure that the tea is wonderful.

    Mini-tiffin Breakfast Combo special
    Chet M.

    Sai at the front was super helpful and made the whole experience! Stopped here on a rainy morning drive down 280 and SO glad I did. Rainy day + this mini combo breakfast = perfect pairing . Crispy dosa, vada, pongal + like 6 chutneys all on one tray -- colorful, flavorful, every one of them different . Sambar was legit, and filter coffee in the steel tumbler on a rainy day? That's a whole different experience . Very old school Tamil Nadu vibes. Mention this review to Sai for extra smiles! ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

    Paruppu Vada
    Prem D.

    This time we tried the Benne Masala Dosa. Not authentic, dosa itself is bigger, but not thicker or taste like the Bangalore style where it is famous for. Masala was like baby food, a bland potato mash. Lot of butter was there , but it doesn't taste that great. Thali was decent, not bad but not great either. Paruppu vada was too thin and spoiled by trying to improve this by adding masaa ingredients. Idly vada combo was suppose to serve first but came later after dosa, which mad it difficult. Idly itself was very soft even though it was not hot. Idly is not the regular type either it is kusboo idly or something like that. Vada was hot but not good though. Millet combo was different, dosa itself was little sour, may be not many takers? Pongal was ok and the sweet was not great. We do make the dosa and pongal at home. Also mixing up millets may not be beneficial as you think. Not all millets work together. Service was lacking, order if the food delivery and lost our coffee to a different table. Kovai cafe needs to decide to go authentic or appease local customers, I think they are struggling with a direction.

    Filter coffee

    Authentic dosas with super fresh and delicious chutneys. Service, ambiance, and cleanliness were spot on. Try the filter coffee as an aperitif or a digestif :)

    Mini coffee
    Neeta M.

    I had come to Kovai cafe when it had just opened - I would not have recommended them at that time. I came for a breakfast this morning - wow! What a change - for $9.99 (8am to 10am) the tiffin is very good value for money. The filter coffee with jaggery (ask for it) and the millet kesari was super yummy. The chutneys were unique - the sambhar was more like daal. It used to be very oily - it has improved quite a bit! The staff was very polite and explained all the options to us. Kovai is another name for Coimbatore - city in India. It's a very simple canteen style ambiance :)

    The thali
    Tahir N.

    We arrived here, pretty hungry, after a walk at Shoreline Park. this was a Sunday morning at 11 AM and the parking lot was crowded and we had to get on the waiting list. Good signs! We used the QR code to explore the menu while we waited. Inside it is a clean spare dining room. We ordered two vegetarian thalis and a Payasam to eat there and a Gobi Pachamiligai to take home. Our orders arrived in a short amount of time. I will post a picture of what is in the thali. Suffice to say in writing, the flavors were excellent! Although my rasam was cold. The payasam is a sweet so I wouldn't order it again, but it had been praised by friends. It was good. I still prefer the gulab jamun at Yellow Chili up the road. We had not heard of Gobi Pachamiligai but it was as marked with a so we tried it. It seems to be based on the green sauce you get with a samosa but with raw onion and chili mixed in. Good chili heat and good flavor. We'll be back with friends. Adding pix of a couple more dishes.

    Filter Coffee
    Ni G.

    We ordered paper masala dosa , rava masala dosa and coffee . They both came with the perfect amount of sambar . The staff was friendly and would come by the table to check on us every few minutes to see if we needed anything . The ambiance is indoor informal .

    Thenga Manga Pattani Sundal
    Apoorva R.

    I have to rate this 5 stars and it totally deserves it for the efforts put into the menu and making every dish so fresh with the best ingredients. I could tell so because I did not feel like I had a heavy lunch after eating a good meal here. This is a pure vegetarian south indian restaurant (tamil style food). I tried kothu idly (loved it), mini podi idly (LOVED IT), sundal (tasted good but could be steamed for a little bit more), and vada (fresh and crispy)! The ambiance of the restaurant is nice and clean, the service was super quick (although they are pretty busy on weekend evenings), food tastes great and they offer eco friendly to-go food containers. I am definitely going here again to try rest of the things on their menu.

    Sambar Vada (3 pcs)
    Ashwini A.

    SERVICE - located in a busy shopping complex next to India cash and carry - parking can be hard to get especially during the weekends or weekday evenings - tables for 2-4 diners - very short wait on weekday evenings and weekend afternoon - service is fast and wants you to order within a few minutes of seating - food served as it is prepared and comes out relatively quickly - restrooms and hand wash available - ambiance good for a casual meal MENU - wide selection of South Indian dishes - all vegetarian with vegan options - well priced FOOD - sambar vada (10/10): three pieces of fried vada soaked in thick vegetable sambar. This has to be my favorite dish I ate here. The sambar is thick and spicy while the Vada is fresh and soaks up all the flavors from the sambar. I would go back just to eat this. It does have to be eaten fresh otherwise the Vada gets soggy, so I would not recommend getting this as takeout. - mysore kaaram masala dosa (8/10): dosa filled with spicy chutney and potato masala and served with four chutneys and sambar. This was also very tasty. I liked how the mysore chutney was spicy but not overwhelming. It is one of the few places to give four chutneys as most only give one or two. - kara podi babycorn (5/10): deep fried baby corn tossed in spicy podi. In theory this sounded really good. And it was for maybe a few bites. If you were going in a larger group then I would get this to split as a side or appetizer. Between 1-3 people, it lost its flavor after the first few bites. - kovai kothu idli (9/10): idli sautéed and mixed with a vegetable curry. This was a unique way to eat idli. I was not exactly sure what to expect in terms of taste or texture. The texture felt like eating upma but the taste was like eating a coconut korma. I would get this again. WOULD I GO BACK? Yes! Very comforting and flavorful food that is served quick and has lots of options for every palate.

    Curd Vada
    Srujan N.

    Good food and great service. We had dinner here on Saturday night, and it was quite busy with a 30-minute wait. The staff we interacted with were very polite and welcoming. Regarding the food, the Curd Vada and Elaneer Payasam were delicious and stood out as the best dishes among what we tried. The Kal Dosa and Mysore Kara Masala Dosa, along with their accompanying chutneys, were good and had very little oil. We also tried the Kovai Roadside Kalan, which was a little underwhelming.

    Filter Coffee
    Sankit G.

    This place is not for you if you have an infant in stroller who cannot sit in high chair. They do not allow strollers. I visited with a friend and a 6 month old baby, even though we mentioned we can adjust it ourselves and put the stroller in a corner seat, they didn't allow it. Additionally the music and crowd is too loud for infants to overstimulate and makes them fuzzy. The coffee was pretty good. Very strong, stronger than any other filter coffee I had in Bay Area. The paneer 65 was nice, hot, crispy, flavorful. It wasn't oily or dirty spicy at all, we all really liked it. My friends got onion uthapam, and millet Mysore masala dosa, and I got the Guntur masala dosa. The guntur masala dosa was really spicy but like flaming hot Cheetos- good spicy. I really liked their sambar too. I'd give 4/5 for food. But only 2/5 for the service. The staff seemed overly sensitive to things and rather than explaining why it is being done a certain way, would just say the guidelines and walk away. I think they could have handled the situation better

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    The KC special dosa is very good. I like that they rotate their chutney so that there is always something new to try.

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    Good food ! best south indian food ! Great service! Mr. Raju is great! Love their hospitality

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    Page 1 of 8

    Ask the Community - Kovai Cafe

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