My encounter with Indian food in Dublin on this trip did not get off to a good start. In the first week I visited an Indian grocery in the vicinity of Trinity College (where my classes were being held) that had a “street food” counter. The things I ate there ranged from marginal to execrable. I was subsequently warned online by various desis about the quality of Indian food in Dublin. Nonetheless, I decided to try Dosa Dosa, a counter at The Place, a fenced outdoor lot that is home to a number of stationary food trucks. The little I’d read about them had intrigued me and it was conveniently located (I didn’t have an office on campus or access to a microwave so needed to eat lunch out on most teaching days). If it was good, I’d be able to hit them up for lunch between classes and get a good brisk walk out of it. How did it go? Well, I am glad to say that I liked their food enough to come back two more times.

Dosa Dosa started off as a regular food truck in early 2020. Then at some point during the pandemic it turned into a converted shipping container located in The Place on Grand Canal St. Lower. Since then the original truck has found a home in Stoneybatter, and that is now their second location. I don’t know what the response in Stoneybatter has been like but I can tell you that based on the random sampling of my three visits, each a week apart, that they are easily the most popular vendor at The Place, and that they are very popular with a young South Indian crowd (seemingly a mix of college students and young professionals). There are a number of other vendors at The Place–Thai, Mexican, Italian etc.—and I don’t mean to suggest that they get no custom; but at weekday lunchtime, at any rate, it seems clear that the action is at Dosa Dosa. And this is quite understandable.

On my first visit I got the Gunpowder Ghee Masala Dosa. I was not expecting it to be served broken into two pieces in a takeout container but once I got into the dosa I had no complaints: it was immaculate. Also immaculate was the coconut chutney (the sambar was fine but nothing special). There was definitely going to be a second visit. On that occasion I wanted to try their Kottu Parotta (basically, a Malabar porotta, cut up and given the mixed fried rice treatment); but they didn’t have them that day. Hmmm, I thought maybe whoever makes their parottas hadn’t shown up that day (this was to turn out to be a naive notion). And so I got an order of their Vada (with some more of that coconut chutney) and their Chicken Chettinad Curry, which came with a side of lemon rice. The vada was just great. The chicken curry was very good too (with more heat than I was expecting); would have been better with white rice though or served with a parotta.

Speaking of porottas, on my third visit I managed to order the Kottu Parotta (with chicken). Right after placing the order I noticed a stack of boxes of frozen Malabar parottas (and frozen grated coconut) lying outside the shipping container…so much for the parottas being made in-house. Anyway, I’d rather they use frozen parottas than make inferior versions themselves (but it might be nice if they actually held the frozen goods at the proper temperature). The kottu parotta itself was very tasty when it arrived (served with some raita).

For a look at the setup at The Place and what I ate across my three visits, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on price and to see what’s coming next.

Prices are not low. Dublin is an expensive place to eat and it appears that Dosa Dosa’s prices have risen in the last year or more. I saw a reference in one review to nothing costing more than 10 euros—this is not true anymore. That said I ate other lunches on the run around the city that cost as much and were nowhere in the ballpark, quality-wise. If you’re in Dublin and looking for food of this kind, I would recommend them highly. Everything tastes as it should. I had hoped to come back one more time to try their kathi rolls, which seemed to be popular with the desi student crowd, but, alas, it was not to be.

Okay, more Dublin food next week. Tomorrow I’ll have the last of my Tuscan lunch reports.