How far would you go to satisfy a craving? For Akhil Iyer and Shriya Narayan, it meant starting Benne – a Bengaluru-style dosa café in Bandra, without having any experience in the F&B industry.
On a lazy afternoon, as I mindlessly scrolled through reels, the phrase “dosa café in Bandra” caught my eye. As I waited and saw more of their content, I learned about Benne in Bandra. But the hype was something I failed to understand. Why were people queuing in this sun and now rains for a dosa – something you get so easily across Mumbai in local Udipi establishments, on the streets, and in the South Indian hub of Mumbai, Matunga.
It was clear that Benne did not need a celebrity chef to vouch for the popularity or even a known restaurateur to be the one behind this tiny café in Bandra. As you open the wooden doors to enter, you see two kiosks – similar to the ones you see at a McDonald’s – but instead of ordering a coke, you can order an iced filter coffee along with a plate of piping hot podi idlis or a dosa with a dollop of butter on top.
While it opened towards the end of May, we decided to take the back seat after looking at the long queue outside this little café and go at a time we assumed it would be less crowded. But we were wrong! Even during their time off, people were enquiring when they would open and people were already waiting in line. It was a little amusing to witness this in Bandra because the only queue I have witnessed for South Indian cuisine is at Ramasharya or an Arya Bhavan in Matunga on a Sunday afternoon.
Benne Dosa soon started doing the rounds on social media. But what’s the difference between a normal dosa and a bene dosa? The Davangere Benne dosa traces its origin to the Davangere region of Karnataka. “Benne dosa” in Karnataka literally means “butter dosa” and naturally what sets this dosa apart from others is the generous amount of butter used to make it.
After nearly a month of opening, I braved the Mumbai monsoon and found myself entering Benne – a slice of Bengaluru in Bandra to catch up with Iyer and Narayan over dosas, and filter coffee.
Starting a café is a dream for many. But do you ever have a craving for something so intense that you actually decide to start your café to be able to have it? This was precisely the case for Iyer and Narayanan, the couple behind Benne. “Every time I would go back to Bangalore, I found myself eating a dosa before I went home [in Mumbai],” admits Iyer. The couple hail from Bengaluru but Iyer has made Mumbai its home for roughly 11 years and Narayanan has been living here since she married Iyer two years ago.
It seems that while they left Bengaluru, the city was not ready to let go of its impact on them. This dream for this dosa café was in the pipeline for almost two-and-a-half years.
“There’s a certain emotion that I feel when I hear the word Benne,” says Iyer. “I have a visual of a dollop of white butter, that’s pure, unprocessed and unsalted and is just local and fresh. It’s a Karnataka thing where you see a dollop of butter in small darshinis in Bangalore. It’s just buttery goodness,” he explains. Going by this description, Benne dosa in Bandra has nailed introducing this variety in the suburbs of Bandra. Benne is their way of paying an ode to the darshinis that the couple ate at in Bengaluru. “We’re not trying to be a fancy dosa place or something else,” clarifies Iyer. “We are trying to be a neighbourhood café where you come for a dosa and a cup of coffee,” he says.
Starting a dosa café has been a dream and the couple still can’t believe that they have managed to translate it. “Benne us an extension of us,” Iyer smiles.
Mumbai is not new to South Indian cuisine. From Matunga’s humble eateries to fine-dining restaurants such as ITC’s Dakshin, Tanjore Tiffin Room, Avartana, and more to even the fusion whacky dosas you get on the streets of Mumbai – there is something for everyone. “The popular dosa that is available in Mumbai is a Tamilian-style dosa and ours is Bangalore dosa,” says Narayanan. The differentiating factor between the two can be seen in the way it is served as well. “We are not serving it with sambar and the reason for that is because the old places we have eaten at don’t serve it with sambar. They serve it with chutney,” she explains.
The reason why they chose Bandra is simple. “The first time I came to Mumbai 11 years back,” says Iyer, who is a producer by profession, “I stayed in Bandra. So, I have some sort of connection with this place. So, for me, opening in Bandra was a no-brainer,” he states.
To ensure that the dosa is as authentic as the ones the couple grew up eating, Iyer actually went to a local dosa master in Bengaluru to learn it and then passed on that training to the chefs at Benne.
The décor is minimalist. It’s mainly self-service and standing tables – similar to a Bengaluru-style dakshini. Two ordering kiosks with their menu allot a fun nickname to the diner. “The names were Shriya’s ideas,” says Iyer. “We basically didn’t want to give people just a number and make them feel like they are a kaidi [prisoner] number 420,” he jokes. “We wanted to make them people like they are in Bangalore even if it’s for a second.” This led to them brainstorming 100 different names that were inspired by the city. These names include area names, cricketers’ names, Narayan’s ex-boyfriend, Iyer’s math teacher from school, and much more. “My favourite is Sultanpalya Shakir,” grins Iyer, telling us that SultanPalya is an area in Bengaluru.
Iyer and Narayan do not come from the hospitality and culinary business. Iyer is a producer and Narayan is a psychologist and yet their café managed to create a pre-launch buzz that only popular restaurant outlets or a celebrated chef can achieve. They credit this social media buzz to a “fluke or pure dumb luck.”
It was because of social media that we saw Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh enjoy this heritage Bangalore dosa. “Social media is a little bit like a lottery system where you just try to do your best and if something clicks, it clicks,” says Iyer. The couple wanted to document the process, the blood, sweat, and energy that goes into starting a restaurant. “More people than we know have this dream somewhere that at some point they open something and we just wanted to document what it’s like to actually follow that and have people see where that leads you,” says Narayan.
Just like other restaurateurs, Iyer and Narayan’s aim is to ensure that diners keep coming back again. “Consistency is our main goal,” states Iyer. “Consistency in food as well as guest experience.” From learning when the staff has to signal when something is out of stock, to refilling it, and constantly tasting the chutney – they too are learning along the way. “At this point, I am 30% chutney,” jokes Narayan because of the number of times she keeps taste-testing it daily. Currently, they are working on standardising recipes which is proving to be one of their biggest challenge.
Around mid-way through our interview, as we sipped on the iced filter coffee – a refreshing take on the traditional one – and the buttery benne masala and podi dosa, we already noticed a long queue standing outside the café, waiting for them to start again. We realised that even after two months, the hype had not died down and perhaps having a dosa café in Bandra is not such a bad idea.
