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Red Chillies (Formerly Tiffin and Udupi Palace) - Northern and Southern Indian in Langley Park


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Kanishka said:
I contend that the Bagel Place is one of the best places for a bagel in the Metro DC area. And a second on the Kimi and Phil's China Cafe recommendation. I'm also a sucker for Udupi Palace in Langley Park (up 193 away from Greenbelt, on the left) which, despite Rocks love for Woodlands, has for my money the best dosa around these parts.

Hmm... it is a shame that Mandalay is now gone. That would be a top suggestion otherwise.

[former Terp here too]

K

 
My wife and I recently 'discovered' Udupi Palace and have been several times. Great stuff, cheap, and close enough for it to hit our rotation (we live in Laurel). Plus, the neighborhood vibe is so mixed and frothy and loaded with piles of ethnicity. Recommended.

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The first time I went to Bombay, I went for the lunch buffet, and was thoroughly underwhelmed ... except by the fried chicken. Like you, I've learned never to judge a serious Indian restaurant by its lunch buffet - I recently had one at Saravana Palace in Fairfax, and was similarly unimpressed.

Cheers,

Rocks.

My recent experiences with Tiffin's would say the opposite is true. Their buffet usually has really unusal dishes with deeper flavor while their regular dinner menu is somewhat lackluster (and their meat is never butchered properly usually I get at least once portion that is full of gristle)

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Lunch at Woodlands on Monday failed to rid me of my jones for Indian, so we headed to Tiffin tonight for an early dinner. We took it easy on the spice, since my mom had never had Indian food. We all shared palak paneer, raita, chicken malai kabob, chicken curry, garlic naan, & dal makhani. Nice level of spicing on everything, excellent naan, and very friendly service. It's a bit more expensive than I remembered, so next time we might hit the lunch buffet.

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Tiffin tends to be my buffet location of choice when I feel th need to eat profuse amounts of indian food but Sunday I decided to hit up Udupi's instead. That place is packed on the weekends. It's funny how Tiffin and Updupi seem to have the most ethnically diverse clientele.

Udupi's buffet is 8.95 on weekdays, 10.95 on weekends. They serve complimentary potato dosas and when you order water they give you a huge carafe, which is welcome. In addition to a full buffet of curries, rice, uthappam, and breads they also offer different snack mixes. Highlights for me were the Chana Masala and the Palak Paneer. Both of which had complex spicing. I could have handled more spice but the flavors were delicious. The Baigan barta was also very good, and had a lot of tomato flavor. My husband liked this sour curry that had okras in it. The service was not so attentive as Tiffins (although tiffin's can be attentive to the point of being overly agressive) and it was a great experience.

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Oh dear lord did I have a killer meal at Updupi's.

It all started with my husband and I craving Indian. On a whim I suggsested Upupi instead of our usual Tiffin. It was delicious! Everything we tried was very complex and full of flavor. To start out we had Pakoras, which was plentful (although the breading was a lot heavier than that at Passage to India) and then we also had Spinach Kofta which is spinach gravy which was smooth, creamy and complex with these veggie dumplings, moist little vegetable balls of goodness. We also had channa batura, which was I think channa masala with fried bread. The Chickpeas had so much depth of flavor and we put a little tamarind n the chickpeas for extra flavor.

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I've been back here twice recently, despite things I have heard that Woodlands is supposedly better (I guess I will get there one day).

I opted for vegetables jalfrezi which was nice, but not as good as other items I have had here before (like the mushroom mutter). My wife had an eggplant dish that was better, but a tad too hot for her (just right for me). The breads are always good, especially the Puri, but not always stellar. The vegetable samosas are always dependably good, too.

Service there is awkward at times, but always friendly.

I'll be back (especially when dining with veg-friends and family.

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Went here on Sat night with the +1 and had a great, inexpensive meal ($21/person, including tip).

I always end up ordering the Mysore Masala Dosa because I love it so much. As on previous visits, it didn't disappoint. Not very spicy, but flavorful. Yellow lentils were very rich, mildly spiced and yummy. The sambar is nice and spicey. They started making their coconut chutney-ish accompaniment really spicey, which I like. Broke out of our rut a bit and we also ordered the Special rava Masala Dosai. Different kind of crepe around it, good in a different way, and hot chilis cooked in with crepe. They don't have a liquor license, so it can't all be washed down with a beer, which is a pity.

They have a buffet area, but I've never gone when it's been available, so I can't comment on the quality of it. I've never been to Woodlands or Tiffin, so can't compare to those.

A great, inexpensive meal. Service was friendly and competent. The most significant barrier to regularly eating meals at Udupi is the distance from my home.

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Udupi has been a family favorite for years - and has never disappointed. I love the coconut chutney and sambar that come with all the dosas and other pancakes, plus they have uttapams (thicker, steamed pancakes made of rice? flour), which are much harder to find than dosas.

They also have a case full of Indian sweets out front that you can take home. If you are in the neighborhood I also recommend the Indian grocery store in the next strip mall down. The store is a bit small, but the father and son that work there are super-friendly and they have homemade samosas and meat patties

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Well I found out today that Udupi is closed. The entire strip mall is being torn down to build a walgreens. I spoke with the owner (who also owns tiffins) and he said that they had merged the two menus so now tiffins has more vegetarian options. Kind of a bummer, although the buffet has some new items like iddlys and they give out complimentary dosa and naan when you order the buffet.

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Well I found out today that Udupi is closed. The entire strip mall is being torn down to build a walgreens. I spoke with the owner (who also owns tiffins) and he said that they had merged the two menus so now tiffins has more vegetarian options. Kind of a bummer, although the buffet has some new items like iddlys and they give out complimentary dosa and naan when you order the buffet.

Thank you for posting this - sad news for me, because Udupi has been a long-time favorite.

Retired in italic.

---

[Note: Udupi Palace "moved in" with Tiffin sometime in 2012 or 2013, so even though the original, standalone location is gone, the restaurant has reopened in Tiffin's building. Rather than keep Udupi Palace's thread retired, I merged the two threads into one.]

Edited by DonRocks
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Yeah I really enjoyed Udupi but I guess I should try out Woodlands now.

Most of my favorite Udupi dishes made it over to the Tiffin's menu (utthapams, chana batura) but not my all time favorite spinach kofta, which is these amazing vegetable dumplings served in a spinach gravy. I'm not sure where I can find another restaurant that makes it.

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Well I found out today that Udupi is closed. The entire strip mall is being torn down to build a walgreens. I spoke with the owner (who also owns tiffins) and he said that they had merged the two menus so now tiffins has more vegetarian options. Kind of a bummer, although the buffet has some new items like iddlys and they give out complimentary dosa and naan when you order the buffet.

I am speechless. This is really, really lousy. But I will make a point of it to go to Tiffin (always meant to try it and have yet to). We all so obviously needed another drugstore. Sheesh.

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On 6/11/2010 at 5:35 PM, DonRocks said:

Thank you for posting this - sad news for me, because Udupi has been a long-time favorite.

Retired in italic.

---

[Note: Udupi Palace "moved in" with Tiffin sometime in 2012 or 2013, so even though the original, standalone location is gone, the restaurant has reopened in Tiffin's building. Rather than keep Udupi Palace's thread retired, I merged the two threads into one.]

On 4/9/2020 at 11:03 AM, mr food said:

Our reliable Indian- Red Chili-formerly Tiffin though listed as Tiffin?-is on DD and UE. Food continues to be excellent. We tried Masala Story last week-one and done. The entrees were sweet not savory. The garlic naan resembled a green tortilla. Portions were slightly cheaper than RC but much smaller in size. We did like the veggie Pakora

[Udupi Palace, Tiffin, and now Red Chillies are all merged into this one thread. I'm not certain if the original owners of the standalone Udupi Palace are still involved in Red Chillies, but at this point, it's moot. You can see my 2010 post above, and there was also a Q&A on Yelp six months ago which reads as follows.]

Question:
I'm confused- did they change the name of the restaurant? Thought it was called Tiffin?

Answer:
Yes we changed the name from Tiffin to Red Chillies. But nothing changed with menu and prices. We renovated the restaurant and look awesome. Please stop by if you get a chance. Sincerely Red Chillies

The website is here, and the etymology of the name is of particular interest:

Screenshot 2020-05-14 at 12.39.14.png

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