There aren't many places in NYC that have been on my list for the past 10 years that I haven't crossed off already - but eating at the Ganesh Temple has always seem to escape me every year for some reason. It's located in Flushing, so it's not the easiest place to get to but in this day in age of Uber there really is no excuse of not going.
Luckily, Aarti, Will and some other friends of theirs had rented a car to drive up there which made it much easier. Aside from the fact that this place serves incredibly authentic and traditional South Indian food, it's an actual worshipping temple that Hindus come to pray and pay respects. It's quite a lovely site given all the grey concrete buildings in NYC. You have to walk around the corner and down a set of stairs to get to the basement and this is where the magic happens. It's a very simple and basic set up - you order at the counter and seat yourself at the no frills plastic/metal tables. The menu is strictly South Indian vegetarian - so no curries, chicken tandoori, or other more common Indian foods. I'm going to do this entry a total dis-service in that I can't remember all the things that we ordered but I would say that everything we had was delicious.
Aarti ordered for the table because, well honestly, it just made the most sense. We got the masala dosa ($4.50), idli ($3.50), and vada ($3.50) as well as a ven pongal ($4.00) as well as one other dish that is totally escaping me. We stuck the basics which was fine but we left kind of wishing we had branched out a bit more. The menu is long and very intimidating but I can't imagine you can go wrong with anything on there. There are tons of dosa options, uttapams, and specials like a mini tiffins to choose from.
The masala dosa came with spiced potatoes, onions and spices. What I loved most about this dosa wasn't the stuffing but the actual dosa batter - it was light and crispy with the right amount of softness in the middle. Idlis are like little steamed rice cakes and you can eat with the sambar and coconut chutney that they give you - on that note, I want to mention that the sambar was amazing and addictive, I must have had 2 full bowls myself. It's the perfect "gravy" to dip everything in. The vada are little "donuts" made out of lentils - again a great dipping vehicle for the sambar. The pongal was a mixture of rice, lentil, spices and ghee. It was a soft mushy pile of spice and flavor that I really enjoyed.
While the food may not sound filling and despite not having a single bite of meat, we all left there bursting at the seams and very happy. I'm thrilled that I finally got to check this place out and go with my bestie. I highly recommend going with someone who knows South Indian food but even if you don't, just be adventurous and order one of everything off the menu - it's dirt cheap anyways so what do you have to lose?
Photo Credit: Yelp
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