Time has played tricks on us this year, alternately crawling at a snail’s pace, then moving at warp speed. I wonder how summer managed to stealthily slip by, leaving us closing in on the fall holiday season with little to show for the six months we’ve been in various stages of closings and reopening.
I’m not a patient person, so the wait-and-see modus operandi has been frustrating. I can imagine how much worse it must be for restaurateurs whose businesses have closed, livelihoods are threatened, or whose projects have been delayed or put on hold.
When Sarithra debuted in May, I rushed over, to find that the restaurant was only serving takeout. The owners were too spooked by the coronavirus to open their dining room, even though restaurants had government approval to do so.
I walked away empty-handed. To me, Indian cuisine offers an experience best enjoyed on the spot with others, so diners may sample a variety of side dishes, breads and curries, instead of being limited to only one or two dishes.
After that I was calling every other week to see if they were open for dining in, only to hear, “maybe in two weeks” or “maybe next month,” etc. A few weeks ago I finally got a “yes.”
The restaurant is across from the Hawai‘i Convention Center, a site formerly occupied by a string of Japanese restaurants, such as Ojiya and Yacchaba. The interior remains unchanged, and a former horigatsu room, with its low table and sunken floor, has been converted into an Indian grocery with shelves standing in the recessed floor.
Also remaining are call buttons, common to Asian restaurants, that summon servers. I wondered whether they were still working, so I pressed one, only to see the staff looking all around in confusion.
The cuisine of Southern India differs a great deal from what is most often served here. We’re more familiar with dishes that represent Northern India, Mumbai in the west, or with Nepali-style restaurants and their mix of Chinese, Tibetan and Indian influences.
At Sarithra you’ll find a menu absent of naan in favor of crepe-like dosas, fermented pancakes called uttapam, rice cakes called idly and other breads such as chapati, poori and parotta.
Their watery curries are meant to be eaten with rice, unlike hardier curries eaten elsewhere with naan. For diners with a palate for rich foods, it may take a while to warm up to this cuisine.
Sarithra’s owners hail from the state of Tamil Nadu, known as the land of temples. In the capital city of Chennai, one of the most famous dishes is Chicken 65, which originated as an appetizer at the Hotel Buhari. Sarithra owner Santhana Kumar Chellappa said the dish is named for the 65 ingredients that go into it, although the restaurant uses only 25 ingredients because many are unavailable this far from the motherland. Chicken 65 ($9.99) served here is nevertheless tasty, bite-size boneless morsels marinated in chiles, yogurt and spices, and might be considered a deep-fried version of tandoori chicken.
Other starters include samosas ($7.99) or onion pakodas (better known here as pakoras, $9.99), fried onions with a crisp coating of chickpea flour.
A large portion of the menu is devoted to dosas, served on a tray that nearly fills the table. These crisp rice crepes are served with tomato and coconut chutneys and sambhar, a thin stew of lentils, vegetables and potatoes. Although the dosas have very different descriptions, they were mostly the same in terms of flavor. For instance, it was difficult to detect the ghee in a ghee masala dosa, and the addition of podi (a coarse spice with lentil powder) made no significant difference, beyond the visual, when comparing a masala dosa to a podi masala dosa. In other words, if you try one, you’ve basically tried them all. You can get the dosas plain or stuffed with potato masala. I enjoyed them best with tomato chutney.
Another style of pancake is made from slightly sour leftover dosa batter. Uttapam are typically eaten for breakfast but are available for dinner at Sarithra. The fermented pancakes reminded me of Ethiopian injera bread in flavor, though the pancake is much thicker. You can get the uttapam plain or topped with mixed vegetables ($14.99), tomatoes and onions ($14.99) or onions ($12.99). They are also served with chutneys and sambhar. With these I enjoyed the added salt of the coconut chutney.
Curries are my favorite part of an Indian meal, and the best here were mutton curry ($17.99) of goat that was tender and tasted more like lamb, and the Chettinadu chicken curry ($15.99), another regional classic. I have never tasted any other curry like the Chettinadu. Although it most certainly contains turmeric and fennel, an exquisite balance meant other usual curry ingredients did not reveal themselves. There was an overall smokiness of dry-roasted chiles and the presence of fenugreek.
Following the abundance of breads and rice, dessert is another carb-filled affair with gulab jamun (milk-flour dumplings, $4.99) and puddings of rice kheer ($4.99) and semiya kheer ($4.99). The latter is Indian vermicelli cooked in sugar, dried fruits and milk, heavy on the flavor of cardamom.
SARITHRA SOUTH INDIAN RESTAURANT
1718 Kapiolani Blvd.
Food: **1/2
Service: **
Ambiance: ***
Value: ***1/2
>> Call: 226-9672
>> Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays
>> Prices: About $40 for two
>> Covid protocols: Temperature check, social distancing, mask-wearing, contact tracing info collected
Ratings compare similar restaurants:
**** – excellent
*** – very good
** – average
* – below average
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
