Mysore Woodlands Review

Mysore Woodlands Restaurant, 2548 W Devon Chicago

I began my quest for Chicago's best Indian food at Mysore Woodlands in the standard Devon corridor in Rogers Park.  Known for its vegetarian South Indian fare, Mysore Woodlands had received high marks from eaters at Yelp and Citysearch.  As I neared Devon, my appetite for Indian food was nearly rabid, and I couldn't wait to dive into a dosa.

A little about what I am looking for: Indian food is all about taking a few mostly modest vegetables, spicing them, cooking them with love, and turning out incredibly delicious food.  Freshness is key.  Eating out at some of the finest Indian restaurants in India, I often found that the tastier places would run out of certain menu items.  This indicated three things to me: the food was made fresh, likely with crisp, new vegetables.  The meals were not mass-produced.  And most importantly, I needed to show up a little earlier to get the goods!

Dosas, a breakfast staple in South India, should be savory, with a tender pancake shell that's fluffy in the middle and crisp on the edges, not tough, and made with new batter.  A dosa is easily ruined with overcooking, and the potatoes should be similarly fresh and not stored in a steam table or refrigerated overnight.  The chutney should be made daily and the sambar should contain potatoes and exude a mixture of glorious spicy smells.  Triangle shapes aren't really the real deal - we are looking for cylinders here. 

Mysore Woodlands failed in a number of my lofty expectations.  The dosa shell was tough and not shaped into a cylinder; it was just folded in half.  Old dosa batter seems to be the likely culprit. It was far too chewy, and not savory as it ought to be.  Strangely, the chutney was served in a massive dish, and it seemed to be mass-produced.  Dole out the chutneys in tiny servings, guys!  You can't just slop a trough with chutney, you got to ration it out!  The sambar accompaniment also seemed tired and dated and overall the dish didn't seem to be cooked with much passion, essential to all cooking but especially South Indian fare.  The potato filling was the saving grace with the tumeric powder shining through.

My final item was a bowl of Mulligatawny soup.  This is more of an Anglo-Indian dish and I don't recall encountering during my travels in South India, but it sounded interesting and tasty so I decided to give it a try.  It tasted like lentils and possibly some carrots, but again it didn't appear to be made fresh.  It was completely homogeneous and the texture was boring, although the spice was slightly interesting and flavorful.  I probably wouldn't order it again, but it would be reasonable to warm up on a cold winter's night.

Overall I was not very impressed.  If this restaurant was located in India, it would be closed down within a week, and much more passion should be coming through with the flavors. My biggest concern was with the freshness of the food.  If the freshness improved, this restaurant has a chance of being quite tasty, but it's nowhere close to the proper South Indian food I enjoyed so much in Tamil Nadu and other locales.  I'll return and hopefully I can revise my opinion.

4/10

Mysore Woodlands Site

2548 W Devon Av
Chicago, IL 60659

Phone: (773) 338-8160