Destination Dishes: Vegetarian Indian in West Broward

John Linn

Gobi Manchurian is a good reason to visit Udipi Cafe in West Broward.

​Navigating the sprawling expanse of South Florida can be difficult for even the most seasoned foodie. With Destination Dishes, we're looking to make your food travels easier. Each week, we'll highlight the most interesting food finds, broken down by region. Want to find great roti on 441? Or how about the most satisfying late-night slice in Fort Lauderdale. If you've got a region or foodstuff you'd like Destination Dishes to tackle, email us here.

We've got a hankering for: Vegetarian Indian food. When looking to go veg, the southern tip of the Indian peninsula works best. That means dosai, fried breads, pilaf, and plenty of spicy, meat-free dishes, some with Chinese influences.

Where we go: Two West Broward joints on University
Drive that are barely two miles apart from each other. The first is Woodlands Vegetarian Indian Cuisine, a small South Indian restaurant between Commercial and Oakland Park boulevards. The second is Udipi Cafe, a Kosher/vegetarian Indian restaurant between Oakland Park and Sunrise. The prices are so low at both places that two people can order a feast and not spend $50.

What we get: The menus at both places feature a broad range of South Indian and Indo-Chinese dishes anchored by an assortment of delicious starches. Big hits at Woodlands include the dosai, which are massive lentil or rice flour crepes stuffed with curried potatoes and vegetables. We also like Woodland's take on baingan bartha, a roasted eggplant dish with plenty of heat, and muttar paneer, a tangy tomato curry filled with mild cheese cubes and green peas. Woodland's best dish, though, is the chana batura, a bowl of sweet, curried chickpeas served with a disco-ball-sized sphere of fried bread. You peel the walls of the bread off and use it to scoop up the chickpeas. It's phenomenal.

At Udipi, the menu skews similar. Everything is great, but the Indo-Chinese dishes and house curries are showstopping. The restaurant makes probably the best version of gobi Manchurian I've ever had called "cauliflower 99." It features big pieces of cauliflower that have been deep-fried in lentil flour. The pieces are then stir-fried with chilies, garlic, ginger, and spices until the breading moistens up and becomes extremely flavorful. The tender pieces have a meat-like texture and big umami flavor thanks to a rare ingredient in Indian food: soy sauce. Served with sautéed onions on a sizzling platter, this is one vegetarian dish anyone can get excited about.

If you go: Folks coming from East Broward should avoid Oakland Park Boulevard -- its Western strip has a stoplight every ten feet, it feels like. Stick with Commercial or Sunrise. Both places take credit cards and are open until 10 p.m. most nights and feature lunchtime buffets.

Woodlands Vegetarian Indian Cuisine
4816 N. University Drive, Sunrise 33351
954-749-3221

Udipi Cafe
2100 N. University Drive, Sunrise 33322
954-748-5660
udipicafe.com