Madras Mahal (CLOSED)

Pasta is so over. Premarathon carb loaders will pass up the familiar curries on the kosher vegetarian menu for the starchy pleasures of Southern India, including wheat-and-rice-flour dosa with masala-spiced potato filling and thick rice-and-lentil pancakes known as uttapam. Add a can’t-miss appetizer like medu vadai, lentil-flour doughnuts, and you can easily build a meal of various shades of beige. But it’s far from bland—lush coconut chutney and spicy-sour tamarind-lentil rasam broth accompany each main course. Be prepared to share the dosa: The crisp, tissue-thin crêpe, rolled into a three-foot cone, takes up more room than your tiny table allows.