Mysore masala dosai ($6.95), a long crepe rolled around a mixture of onions and potatoes, is slightly spicier in its lentil sauce spiked with black mustard seeds.

Main dish options are chicken dhansak, boneless meat in an aromatic lentil sauce; lamb curry, and fish tandoori, which is mako shark marinated in hot mixed spices and roasted.

Main-dish choices are chicken dhansak, a combination of boneless meat in an aromatic lentil sauce; lamb curry, and fish tandoori, made of cubes of mako shark marinated in mixed spices and roasted in the tandoor oven.

Stir into lentil sauce and toss.

The bhaji is rather plain - just onion and potato thinly sliced, dipped in spiced flour and fried, but very light and crisp - while the murgh dal consists of tender chicken in a cumin-spiced lentil sauce.

Uthappam, a huge rice-and-lentil pancake incorporating onion, green pepper and tomato, was a delight, well accented by a lentil sauce and coconut-cardamom chutney.

These light vegetarian protein foods, called tiffin, are popular snacks served with a chutney and a lentil sauce.

If your wallet allows, try slices of sublimely buttery tuna ($18.25), seared on the outside, crusted with sesame seeds, and almost raw within, with a tart, chunky red pepper chutney and a smooth lentil sauce.

When pasta is cooked, drain and top with lentil sauce.

Chicken dhansak, a comforting combination of boneless meat in an aromatic lentil sauce, did not reflect the promised hot spices - but it was good nonetheless.