Rare South Indian restaurant debuts in a Peninsula city

Opening the doors at Bangalur Ootery, a new South Indian restaurant in Foster City, is the culmination of over a decade of entrepreneurship and nearly a lifetime of cooking for chef and owner Pallavi Ramamurthy.

The Palo Alto resident grew up in Shimoga, a city in southwest India, and often visited her grandparents in Bengaluru. There, she learned how to cook alongside her grandmother, who taught her about preparing seasonal produce and how to riff on recipes. Her passion for the craft only grew after she got her first cookbook, by Tarla Dalal, at 11.

Eventually, she found her way to the East Bay, but was disappointed in the Indian culinary scene back in the 2010s, especially the limited South Indian dining options. So, in 2014, she started her own delivery and catering restaurant based in Milpitas, called House of Lakshmi.

She took a break in 2017 when her twin daughters were born and her family moved abroad, but when her family returned to the Bay Area about three years ago, she decided to return to her culinary work — and this time, she wanted her own dine-in restaurant. She eventually found a location in Foster City.

Bengalur Ootery, which opened in November, serves up a panoply of vegetarian dishes, with many vegan items. Look for small plates like Pancharangi Kosambari, made with papaya, cabbage, bell peppers, onion, cucumber, peanuts and mango in a chutney dressing; an array of flatbreads griddle-cooked, fried or baked in a tandoor oven; rice dishes; soups and sauce pairings to go with both; an array of fresh chutneys and much more.

“We specialize in small-batch cooking,” she says. “We specialize in seasonal cooking. We specialize in home-style meals — the recipes are made exactly the way my grandmother cooks.”

The cozy 24-seat restaurant is frequently filled with customers and sometimes visitors have to be turned away, she says, so they’re working to add outdoor dining and a Sunday dinner service.

“That’s the one thing that we hear all the time: that it’s so authentic and flavorful,” she says.

Details: Open 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sunday at 939A Edgewater Blvd, Foster City; ootery.com.