Madurai Modern Cafe is a small, simple spot near my work that is easy to miss. It was quiet on a weekday, which made for a relaxed visit. I really like dosa, so I was glad a friend brought me here. They have a long list to choose from, and while great to have options, I might need a little help selecting on my own. The dosa was very good, and the chutneys added a lot of flavor. The medu vada had a nice crunch, though I expected a bit more sharp flavor. It is a simple place that delivers. I would go back. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Medu vasa - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

Hidden gem! I don't see too many people here, but the uttapams are incredible and the idli melts in my mouth. I especially love their coconut chutney and sambar. The owner is so thoughtful and even remembers exactly how my dad likes his dosa. Great food at a very reasonable price! read more

See all

We've lived in this neighborhood for years and this is an easy Cafe to miss. It's the same parking lot as 7 11 facing Wolfe Avenue. There was just one worker that we could see when we have been here. He took our order at the register, let us pick our seats, brought our chai immediately and then our masala dosa's out in less than 10 minutes, two at a time. Dosas were hot and crisp, each flavor for the accompaniments were distinct, tomato, coconut & green (not sure) and the Sambar was hot. Tables and chairs were clean. Silverware, napkins, stir sticks and sugar on a counter in the back. Chai was not sweetened. It's not crowded like Madras Cafe and UlavacharU Tiffins. There was a couple, a family and a few individuals eating when we have been here. My family are happy to come here for the convenience, taste and masala dosas. We've had the masala dosa and mysore masala dosa. We may try some others on the menu. read more

See all

A hidden gem that has slowly become my family's go-to spot for homely, vegetarian South Indian food. While there's no shortage of Dosa-Idli places in the Bay Area, I keep coming back here because the food is just as good--if not better--than some of the more well-established spots like Madras Cafe and Saravana Bhavan. The ambience here is quiet and cozy and the focus is on the food. One note: don't confuse this place with its namesake, Madurai Idli Kadai, which is also just five minutes away. What draws me here is that it's less crowded, the food is always freshly prepared (my test is the Idli and Vada combo). Many places tend to pre-make these and serve them warm or even cold, but I've consistently had them hot and fresh here, no matter the time of day I order. Be sure to try their three-flavor dosa, featuring Mysore, Malli, and Kara chutneys, all in a single dosa topped with some podi and onions. I loved it! Definitely worth a visit--you won't be disappointed. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Masala Dosa - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

Extremely slow and I am a bit iffy on their hygiene. I feel bad giving this review because they were just two people but hoping the owner sees this review and staffs up. read more

I gotta start off this review saying the 5 stars is purely for their food! The service is pretty slow and the place definitely needs a bit of maintenance but once you taste their food, you'll know why they are always crowded despite their issues :) Their sambar is one of THE BEST I've had in the bay. You can try any combination of dosai and you won't be disappointed - everything is delicious but especially ghee rava, do not miss this! If you love a bit of heat, try their kara malli dosai. Idlies are fantastic and vadai is crissspy (a bit too oily for me though) & the Poori channa is made the South Indian way which needs a special mention cause got don't get this at all Indian restaurants. read more

See all

I stop by this place whenever I'm in the mood for something different, and it's never been a disappointment. The food is consistently flavorful and a bit outside the usual routine -- my go-tos are the Lemon Rice and the Ghee Cone Masala. Both dishes have great balance and taste fresh every time. That said, the portions run on the smaller side, and the prices feel a bit steep for what you get. The interior is very plain and utilitarian -- clean, but it has more of a cafeteria vibe than a spot where you'd want to linger. A bit more character or warmth in the atmosphere would go a long way. Still, for something tasty and out of the ordinary, it's a solid option. I'll keep it in rotation when I want a quick, interesting meal. read more

Poor hygiene. Some food is authentic. But I will not go here again. Dishes tried Sambar vada Vada is not good, sambar was ok Curd vada Vada is not good, curd was tangy and spicy Schezwan veg noodles Madurai malli masala dosa. Nice spicy and tasty, too. Kal dosa with korma Kal dosa was thin and should be thick. Korma was very good. Poori masala Masala, no spice, very bland. Less onions mostly potatoes. All the chutneys were authentic. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Display - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

Love this little south indian place! Its tucked in a corner, lowkey but the food is delicious. They got their sambar and chutneys right! The mysore masala dosa is my fav over here.. do give it a try! Food is not too spicy which is great! The taste and flavors are very authentic south indian and seems like they use good quality ingredients (ghee was amazing in the dosa). The service is pretty quick as well. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Rava Masala - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

Good vegetarian options and tastes good! Call ahead of time in case you want to order togo Recommended for South Indian breakfast. read more

This place serves south indian breakfast items, which are very much like home made and are unassuming. It runs in a self-serve style, where you have to wait on a single person at the counter to place your order or ask for any more items. The menu is very affordably priced. My favorite breakfast combo is - Idli, Vada, Pongal. Amongst the sides, sambar was very well-made, although I would have really appreciated had the chutneys not been very cold (as if they just took it out from the fridge). read more

Always hot and fresh food, comes out quick, clean eatery. We like this more than other similarly themed restaurants :). Less cramped for space, not crazy crowded. I hope more people visit this place than waiting at other places. Dosas are crispy, idlis are soft and pillowy, vadas are crispy, they do all dishes well. This is our go-to spot for south indian breakfast foods. Home cooked style, modest, totally affordable for everyone. Coffee is always strong and delicious. Remember this is small business, they operate with minimal staff, so have patience and wait at the counter. You can ring a bell if you need things urgently (Dont be that person!). Please remember to clean up after yourself. read more

Deducting 2 stars for the ridiculous wait time of 60 mins to get a plate of idli served on Saturday morning. Deducting 1 star for lack staff hospitality and management. The food was alright. Idli was soft. The sambar and accompanying chutneys were just average- nothing spectacular. Given the other reviews, the wait time seems to be a constant issue. As there are so many other better options in the area for South Indian food that I think I wont return here to eat again. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Idli (3No) - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

Nice small place. Very friendly fast service. Economical and food quality is pretty decent. Thanks

Consistently delicious. Excellent sambar. Sambar is the real measure of any south indian restaurant, and the sambar here is the best, flavorful without being too spicy hot. The update is a good value, Dani vada has a good texture and taste. Chana Batura , especially the chana is very tasty again without being too spicy. The natural is consistently well made. Friendly family business, always polite and attentive. read more

You enter and you instantly get the feels of a local Indian south Indian food joint. They have a board for 'unlimited dosas coming up' since at least 4 months but it hasn't started yet. You place the order on the counter and then they assign a number to you. During lunch/dinner times the place is really crowded. Also you have to wait atleast 25 mins (i have visited 4 times and every time waited for 30 mins). But maybe its a good sign they are making it from scratch I ordered dosa and idli. Both come with three chutneys and a small portion of sambar. The chutneys are very limited and they don't instantly give you more if you ask. It's apparently supposed to be enough for the amount of dosa/idli in one plate. I only eat coconut chutney and i asked them if they can give that to me in all 3 compartments instead of the other two which i waste they said no. The dosas are crisp and tasty so is the sambar. Idlis are really soft and they just melt in the mouth. Filter coffee is the winner. Dont miss it. The place is NOT clean. Washroom is dirty. I wish they pay more attention to cleanliness! read more

See all

Still the best south indian idli and dosa in all of california . Service is slow as its a family run business and place can be dirty at times but still worth it for the food . read more

Amazing taste, hardworking service with a smile. Comfortable. Food is served hot, the best idli and dosa hands down. The idli is always fresh. read more

Best to try if you wish vegetarian meal. Simple menu and fresh prep can be sensed. Must try their veg kothu parotta, idli always they are soft to the core very impressive Neat restaurant Service and staff are good !!!! read more

Food was great. Service was great. The service was awesome. Dosa was awesome. Idliwas fire.

This places has the best dosa outside of India! Yep, I said it. The place is ideal for a person like me, you've probably even passed by it a bunch of times as it sits on the corner of the street quietly next to a 7/11. Quite literally a Dosa hole in the wall. I love everything about it. Once you're inside, it's small and spacious at the same time, but so cute because the family that runs the place makes it cozy and cute. I have my favorites after trying many of their items (see the pics) and usually ask for extra spicy option available. Highly recommend, trying multiple dosa's and asking many many questions to the nice family running the shop, they are super helpful and no question is a bad question. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Paneer Dosa Chili Onion Dosa extra spicy - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

This place has so much potential to be 5/5. The dosas are top notch! Extremely crisp, well made and flavorful. We ordered the podi dosa and the onion Kara rava masala, both extremely well made. The chutneys taste pretty good as well and tasted pretty fresh. The only major let down was the Sambhar. They serve huge portions of the Sambhar and the chutneys but I only wish the Sambhar was more flavorful. This made our Sambhar vada dish feel very watered down and bland. I hope they improve on this recipe. A lot of reviews mention long wait times but an early saturday morning breakfast was a pretty quick service in my case. They only have one chef and one other person for taking the order and service so expect delays if going in at peak hours. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Entrance - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

The food was good. Service was a little odd but the TV playing Bollywood songs was a nice distraction while waiting for our food.

We were hanging out at the playground on a blustery spring day and I was craving Indian food. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the day, and Madurai didn't open until dinner time, so we went home hungry and tried not to snack too much while waiting for the restaurant to open. Once the restaurant opened, I called in an order for ghee dosa, masala dosa and chana/chole bhature. Ghee dosa - thin and crisp. Yum. Masala dosa - we loved the spiced mashed potatoes with the crisp dosa. Chana/chole bhature - fans of the fried dough, but I didn't like the chana masala. I love chickpeas, but this version had too much ground turmeric. Sambar - oh my. Delicious, but too salty to share with the toddler. Chutneys - dipping the dosa into the watery coconut chutney was not worth the mess. Wait time was 25 minutes. I showed up 30 minutes after calling in the order and all the employees were busy in the kitchen. After waiting a few minutes, I rang the bell, but either they didn't hear it or it was ignored. The restaurant was 40% full and only one table had food. Everyone else was waiting to eat. Finally someone came out to help me, and I gave them my name. My food order was sitting on a counter behind the kitchen doors. Since I called it in, I still needed to pay. Maybe pay extra and order through a third party app so you can pay ahead and have the food waiting on the third party app table. Don't let the restaurant name fool you. It's a no-frills casual family restaurant. I was the only non-Indian customer, so that means it's authentic, right? Wrought iron outdoor commercial patio seating. No heat lamps. Definitely recommend the masala dosa!! read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Masal dosa, chole bhatura and ghee dosa - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

Very authentic taste. No frills... My favorite south Indian place in the bay area. The ambience or service may not be the best. But can't beat the food taste and quality! read more

Authentic dishes. Service is a bit slow but that is the trade off for decent food. Vada, and idly were delicious

Loved their food! One of the most authentic South Indian places in the bay. Their service is pretty slow but the food more than makes up for it. It's self service for ordering. They bring the food to the table. The cleanup is on you as well. We ordered their idli vada- DELICIOUS! Their chutneys and sambhar were insane! Also ordered onion rava dosa and kara onion rava dosa- both were good. Filter coffee to wrap up the meal.. wasn't the best I've had but definitely not bad. Will visit again for sure- probably going to become my new regular read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Onion Rava Dosa - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

Best south Indian food in the bay area. They have the softest idlies and crispiest vadas. Their coconut chutney tastes like the ones made back home. The sambhar was very good as well and the taste was similar to the one we get at Saravana Bhavan from Tamil Nadu. I highly recommend this small, clean and authentic restaurant for south Indian food. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Idly, vada - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

Food here never disappoints! It feels like eating at a good restaurant in India. Their chutneys and sambar are scrumptious! We ordered rava onion podi dosa, pongal vada, ghee podi dosa, Madurai malli dosa and sambar vada. Every dish tasted damn good, Madurai malli dosa being exceptionally tasty! A must visit for nice South Indian tiffin if you are in the area! read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Sambar Vada (2No) Dipped in Sambar - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

A casual South Indian restaurant that serves a variety of South Indian breakfast. The menu is big and budget friendly. Medhuvada- served hot. The inner batter could have been cooked a little well. Probably the oil was too hot and uneven cooking was a result. But, since it's hot, we were able to eat -3.5/5 Mysore plain dosa - 3.5/5 - dosa -5/5 for the size chutney -2/5 they were straight out of the fridge and tasted bad. The sambar was hot and good. Rava dosa - 2/5 - it was over cooked. The dosa was brown and bitter at a few spots. It's crispy but it was brown. Again chutneys that came out of the fridge Coffee - it is good. I did not expect great service for the pricing. So wouldn't comment. read more

Been going here for years since 2018 and the quality of the food they serve has been consistently great over the years. I rate them much higher than Madurai Idli Kadai/Madras Cafe and others in the area just in terms of food. Purely talking about food, - They serve the best sambar in the area, other places do not come close. The chutneys are good as well. - The Dosa is perfectly cooked most of the time (not too crisp, not too soft), this is what stands out to me, it's the right amount of crisp - Most of the dosas are great but the Kara Dosa stands out to me - The Kara Onion Rava dosa is also a repeat order of mine - The Masala Vada/Uthappams are also other items I order - Pongal is heavenly (approved my some of my Pongal loving friends) - Kurma/Channa with Puri/Chapathi are good - The Indo Chinese fare I have tried once a few years back and did not like it that much, was ketchup dominated - The combo rice/bisibelabath/parottas are just okay Had a habit of going here for lunch from work with a couple of colleagues almost once or twice a week, so we used to have a lot of conversations with the owner. He takes pride in serving great food, and has owned other restaurants around the area in the past (Madurai Idli Kadai for one, Pesarattu and maybe others). The restaurant is just run by the family, so they are understaffed and slow in handling a full house sometimes, and that's the only reason I docked a star. They didn't have a very large sign in front of the restaurant so most people wouldn't notice that this restaurant exists other than through Yelp/Google. (I've been told so by friends). They've started getting crowds only recently. The owner had some plans to introduce a breakfast buffet (since 2019!) and other new items in recent times but has not acted on it yet. read more

We ordered delivery through DoorDash and we were not disappointed! We order a Ghee Paper Masala Dosa which was spot on. Crispy , flaky and just delectable with a masala filling! We also ordered idlis and they were just perfect: soft fluffy and absolutely freshly steamed mounds of goodness! Gone in seconds !!! And the chutney too was spot on and the Sambar was absolutely fantastic ! Talk of great accompaniments! Will be definitely re-ordering from here and that too, very soon read more

Ordered 1 Dosa, Idly, and Wada. It took 45 minutes to be served. We were first in line, and others came after us. Order at 6:35 pm. Saturday read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Restaurant view from main entrance - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

The Kara Masala Dosa was great - spicy and garlicky! The spiciness creeps up on you after you have several bites. And the aloo masala was quite good too. The medu vada and ghee podi dosa were yummy as well. The sambar and chutneys were average. For a place which specializes in idli/dosas, it seems strange that the chutneys which are served with pretty much every dish are so meh! The green mint chutney especially was quite strange and didn't go with dosas at all. The dosas are quite a bit larger than at some other restaurants like Madras cafe, which we weren't expecting, so we ended up over-ordering! Like other reviewers have mentioned, the service is quite slow. We had to wait around 25 min for our order even though there were only 5 other people (2 tables) in the restaurant at that time. I guess they are very short-staffed. The interiors are very similar to most of the other dosa restaurants in Sunnyvale where you go for the food, not the ambiance. read more

This offers vegetarian entrees. My favorites are masala vada and masala dosa. Everything is made on order so everything is hot and crispy. This is my go-to place on days when i want vegetarian foods. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe - Masala Dosa - Indian Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

See all

While I love the food here, I think the service is terrible. And that's because it's literally a one man army at the restaurant. There's ONE guy who's taking orders, cooking, serving and billing. I feel sorry for him and also hesitant when I want to ask for an extra (chutney, sambar etc.) I don't know if/when it's gonna come and don't feel like complaining about it as he's running the whole show! In short, Modern Madurai should hire at least two more people at the restaurant. Without that, it's really discouraging to come here and I don't look forward to returning any time soon. read more

The South Indian food is on point every time we are here and made fresh, so a wait is expected . We usually go ahead of dinner time or order on the phone and eat in store. There is no wait staff except the owner so slow service is to be expected always. Large eating space and ambiance is average for most Indian places. Some favorites are triple flavor dosa, paneer dosa,channa bhatura, pongal, vada, idly and rava dosa. read more

We returned after 3 years and the vadas were as crispy as last time! We also got the masala dosa and poori with kurma. Everything was delicious and made to order including the excellent coffee. The food did take a long time to come, so keep that in mind if you are in a rush. read more

Madurai Modern Cafe is an understated, casual restaurant turning out perfectly crispy dosas and other South Indian breakfast foods! The decor was humble but clean and featured two screens playing Indian music videos in the background. The item on the menu that caught my eye was the Triple Flavor Dosa, which consisted of a perfectly thin and crispy rice and lentil crepe brushed on the inside with three different flavorings. On one third was a peanut powder; the middle third had a green cilantro paste; and the final third had a spicy red chili chutney. The dosa was finished off with chopped red onions and cilantro, and the flavors were uncompromisingly spicy and really made me break a sweat! The crispy dosa was served with three chutneys on the side: tomato, coconut, and herb, which were all on the watery side but complemented the flavors of the dosa nicely. There was also a spicy sambar soup made of lentils and chopped vegetables including onions, tomatoes, and carrots, and all of the different components came together to make a delicious flavor experience! read more

See all

We've been here a few times, and I have to say the flavor is there! The Sambar has wonderful Chinese of veggies (we go some places and it's more like dal soup), the chutneys are super good, with the right mix of spice and flavor, the dosa is crispy and well made, the masala portion of this dish was well mashed- we personally favor small Chunks of potato so that it is easier to eat with the dosa.. the dahi vada was super good! It has a nice sour flavor similar to American buttermilk (chaz) , the idily are rather hit or miss- often one side is a little mushy, but they still taste good as ever! The korma! OMG!!! Let's talk about it, probably the best Korma I've had besides my friend's that we make at home. When it comes out we initally mistook it for Sambar, but the first taste was AMAZING!!! Creamy, and flavorful, the masala really shines through in this dish, and the poori are delicious, and not super greasy. The service isn't super fast, but at the same time there's maybe two people in the kitchen, it takes time, and no one is a robot. For the variety on the menu, and the delicious flavor it's totally worth the wait. Besides, enjoy your time with your family, significant other , or date. It's an enjoyable experience, and the staff are very nice. It's our go to, I enjoy watching the movies, or music videos on the Tvs. read more

See all