Chutney Villa South Indian Cuisine

Came here for Dine Out ($ 20). Buddy and I actually wanted the regular menu, but this place doesn’t do the regular stuff during Dine Out season. Oh well.
Parking here is pretty awful, as everything is metered or restricted. Kingsway is your best bet.
The interior is quite nice, with (Hindu?) figurines decorating the place. Dark tables and chairs. Curiously, there’s a small display of a fireplace fire on the back wall. I couldn’t tell if it was a TV on the Fireplace channel, or a dedicated fireplace decoration.
Staff were friendly and professional.
Meen puttu seamed ling cod — nice and fluffy. Coconut and tumeric add a nice kick. Very light — almost felt like I was eating bread crumbs (consistency), but tastier. Special mention.
Pepper lamb — meat was a bit dry, but the sauce was great. Served on a stainless tray with rice, kootu, potatoes, and yogurt (the last 3 are in separate stainless dishes), as well as a piece of papadum. The side dishes were nice, and each one had a nice contrast compared to the others.
Kesari halva-​style — kind of like a really loose pudding with tiny gel-​like bits. They have 2 flavours (but they do the choosing), so I ended up with pineapple. It was pretty sweet, and had the consistency of a wet sponge. I could almost wring the spoonfuls in my mouth.
Overall the food was tasty, but the portion could’ve been a bit larger. I left hungry.
I will be back at some point to try their regular menu.

I attended during their Dine Out menu and had an amazing 3 course meal. All of the dishes were delicious, especially the mango ice cream. It has a creamy finish that is like non other. The service was incredibly fast and the staff were polite. I have been here during a non Dine Out night and the food and service are no different. I highly recommend this place.

Went here for a $ 20 Dineout menu at this Tamil/​Sri Lankan joint. This place is a conveniently located but easily overlooked place right beside Congee Noodle House at Main and Broadway. The décor is Hindu-​inspired and quite casual. The Dineout menu was mandatory that night and was a three-​course meal. The appetizer I chose was meen puttu, which is minced ling cod tossed in coconut chili and spices. Honestly, I thought it was oversalted and tasted very much like a garnish for something else than something to be savoured by itself. The main course was Mangalore chicken, which tasted simple and subtle but I could tell it’s quite a complex dish to make. The chicken was tender and it was served on good ol’ metal trays with basmati rice, papadum, lentil sambal, and curried potatoes. Delicious. The dessert was kesari-​halva, which was pineapple cream of wheat and went down so sweet (think gulab jamun level) that I couldn’t get past the first 3 bites.
Sri Lankan is hard to find in Vancouver and this place came recommended by a reliable source. If I were to return, I would go for the strong main dishes, but not really for anything else.

Used them recently for a catering event, and CV does an excellent job of looking after the details. Don’t assume that every restaurant will supply utensils.
They called and not only asked if we needed extra’s but offered to help us load into car when we arrived.
Tip, park in the side alley with the blinkers on, open up the hood ;)

Food was delicious, service was quick and friendly. The fried cauliflower is batter is delish. Lots of different chutneys given with the appetizers and mains. Dinner will be around 15 to 20 $ a person if each person gets a main and shares an appetizer. The portions are large and I walked away with leftovers.

Was a big fan of this place. Located right in the heart of Mt. Pleasant, this type of Indian food is a bit different than most other places locally. It’s very vegetarian and vegan friendly, offering a multitude of vegetarian dishes that you can order «a la carte» (with dahl, rice and a yogurt dish), or «Thali» (everything in the Thali, with dessert). Food quality is really excellent, with lovely spices and flavours. Big portions of food make up for the slightly expensive prices, but it’s no more expensive than typical Vancouver restaurants. Service is quick, friendly and accommodating. Definitely recommended.

Great place! I wish I’d known about how good it is here sooner. I’ve seen it for years and finally decided to try it out for lunch and a few weeks later for dinner. Both times were great and everyone I was with loved it too.

Amazing food and Amazing Service. Been to many South Indian food and this place has the best service, ambiance and food. Highly recommended.

Do your self a favor before you eat here next time:
Walk down the alley to the rear door of the restaurant. I have never seen such a disgusting kitchen in all my life. It’s a wonder that this food isn’t killing people

We often visit Vancouver from Seattle to eat good Indian food. This is among the better South indian food i have had in North America. Some of their items are actually authentic southy stuff that i have not seen anywhere else (like the kotthu roti). Tamarind fish curry was hearty and my father in law who holds the highest bar i have known for veg food, loved the utthapam.
They claimed to serve filter coffee but it was just instant coffee, which they admitted to later.

Love this place. The owner is friendly and the food is yum!
A group of my colleagues and I regularly head here for Friday lunchtime (hey, it’s a treat day thing) for their «fisherwoman’s» fish curry lunch special, which is an delicately spiced fish curry served with rice, yoghurt and sambar (stewed lentils)… if I’m feeling particularly gluttonous I get a paratha on the side, which is basically a delicious flaky fried bread that tastes amazing. My other go-​to dish is their butter chicken lunch special… best I’ve had!
The only negative I’d give is that they can have consistency issues when the owner is not present, but it is still better than a lot of the curry houses around the city.

Reading some of the reviews here makes me think that Vancouverites value service more than food quality. This place has AMAZING food. Does it have great décor — no! Does the waitress push certain items — yes! But so what! Get over it! The food is UNREAL! FThis stuff is as good as what I’ve had in India and the service and décor usually sucks there too. But I go to restaurants to eat, not to be pampered.

Flavours of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in one place. I’m a South Indian myself and I have been looking for an authentic South Indian restaurant for ages. My search is finally over! We were pretty satisfied with the food. My fiancé and I had 2 delicious thaalis. I had the fish mole and he had chicken curry. Along with Kerala paratas and South Indian coffee. We had prompt service despite how busy they were. This is will be our go to place for South Indian fix!

It makes me really sad to have to write this negative review. I decided to do Dine Out again here since we had such a good experience last year. I made reservations for 7 people.
The waitress was the only person working the whole restaurant (she was great despite how busy she was and the fact that at one point she was serving a full 9 tables with 4 – 6 people per table). That’s probably the only reason why I’m not giving a one star review. Last year there were at least 3 servers working the restaurant so service was much quicker. This was obviously a poor staffing situation…
When we were ready to order, the first thing she told us was that they no longer had any mango ice cream as a dessert option. This was very very disappointing since the whole table had decided on that as a dessert. The Gulab Jamun is just too sweet and there are some dietary restrictions for some of us in the group. Also — if you know that you are participating in Dine Out festival, and you know that you only have 3 options for dessert how are they not prepared. I was so turned off by this that I already felt sad about introducing this place to our guests.
The food was ok — one of the sides (the yellowish mung bean mixture with onions or spinach in it) was NOT mixed properly or something because some of ours were SOOOO salty and some were ok.
We waited a very long time to order and even longer in between servings. Again I felt so bad for the waitress working that night she worked really hard but this was a horrible experience for me and I will not be back. It’s really too bad I get the sense that they got too confident about their brand and just stopped caring about going above and beyond to make their customers happy.

We came here for Dine Out this weekend with Mary W. and Alex T. and had a great trip! Boyfriend and I arrived at 7.30 and the place was jam packed with diners. The server pointed us to a table for 2 but I hastily called across the restaurant that it was for 4 and I had a reservation. I don’t know that she heard the reservation part as she never asked for my name. Regardless, we were seated quickly and once our friends arrived we ordered a pitcher of beer to share. The regular pitcher was $ 16, with a free appy, or the Dine Out menu had a $ 15 pitcher with no appy; we ended up getting 2 free appies with our 2 pitchers which was A LOT of food with the 3 courses as well! Great deal for a regular meal though!
Our servers were run off their feet but still did a good job getting everyone’s food and order within a reasonable amount of time. Given how well they did during Dine Out, I assume they’re outstanding during regular service!
The pakoras that came with the pitcher were good, but a little bland for my taste — I was hoping for that specifically «pakoraesque» taste. The chutneys though… not for nothing are they called Chutney Villa! The apple was my favourite, but they were all delicious! And it was great to try them all with our different dishes — I appreciated that they were left on the table throughout the meal.
I had the dosa for my appy and it was great — crispy, thin, slightly sour bread wrapped around a tasty mushy filling, with a lovely lentil soup on the side (great for dipping!) Mary said their regular dosa is WAY bigger, but I was glad this was the size it was, knowing there were two more courses coming!
My main was the prawn curry in coconut cream sauce with fennel, fenugreek, and ginger. The coconut made it way lighter than other Indian food I’ve had, which was great. I asked for mine medium hot and it came with a healthy serving of birdseye chilis chopped on top! I couldn’t really taste the ginger, but the flavours were good. I loved the presentation as it came with small stainless steel containers of very flavourful potatoes, raita, and a dhal with veggies on the side, and a large serving of rice next to the curry. The flavours meshed well together, and it was fun to mix and match the chutneys too, and see which went best.
Dessert was gulab jamun, which essentially tastes like a ball of pancake that got soaked in syrup for a long time — tasty but you definitely only want a small portion!
Overall I had a great experience at Chutney Villa, and I’m certainly going to be back to try it on a regular day — I hear their brunch is fabulous!

3.5 stars
I am not familiar with Indian food so I asked my colleague, from South India, to take me here for lunch. He graciously explained the menu, and offered recommendations.
In the end he and I got the same thing:
1) 1 egg omelet
2) 1 chicken lunch special
3) add 1 paratha
4) I ordered a mutton kothu rotti for take out
We didn’t wait very long for our food to arrive. The egg omelet was nothing spectacular. It’s just a thin layer of omelette with chopped onions, sliced green onions, and black pepper. I do however have to say the seasoning was very good.
The chicken lunch special is kholi Varutha curry with basmati rice. I ordered my curry medium spicy and it was tolerable. The boneless chicken was tender and the curry wasn’t heavily salted. It was full of flavors. The lunch special came with a small cabbage salad, basmati rice, a small side of yogurt and lentil chutney. The paratha was delicious. It was not as doughy as I thought but that thing was filling. I only managed to eat only ¹⁄₅ of my food but packed the rest home for dinner. In that regard, the food prices are very affordable.
The mutton kothu rotti was delicious but too salty and too oily for my taste. Having said that I enjoyed the exotic flavors and spices. I look forward to returning so I can try some other menu items.
Service was friendly and attentive. We didn’t feel like we were rushed to get the bill.

Hands down the best South Indian place in Vancouver. These guys know their sh*t and they have kept the recipes authentic without trying to «North Americanize» em. Their Chicken Kholi Varutha curry (KVC) is my favorite. Also Their Chicken Biryani is to die for. When they say its spicy, it IS spicy. You get a good bang for your buck during lunch as the lunch menu is cheaper. They also do brunch South Indian style. They call it Srunch. Also if you ask for extra Sambar /​Chutney or Poppadoms they do not charge extra for it.
Food: Great
Service :Fast
Ambiance: Casual
Worth the price: Yes

Great Indian food at a good price! Every curry dish tastes different and the hotness id catered to your taste. Also this place doesn’t scrimp for example by charging extra for a poppadom or chutneys.
Delish!
Check it out now :-))

I went to Chutney Villa years ago, and because it was so long ago (probably at least ten years) and I don’t recall anything about the visit, I will consider my experience on Wednesday evening my first (and probably last) visit.
My mom and I decided to meet for an early dinner at 5pm since we had a movie to catch at the film festival at 7pm. Unbeknownst to us, Chutney Villa opens at 5pm, so perhaps our arrival right at opening annoyed the employee.
[Side story: My mom actually arrived a couple of minutes before I did, and was waiting in the restaurant for me. As I entered the restaurant to meet her, there was an odd man who entered just ahead of me, and he kept looking back at me and giving me strange looks, creeping me out. Thankfully he left the restaurant moments after he entrered. And while this encounter with the creepy guy has nothing to do with the restaurant and has no bearing on my rating, I’m still including it just because I feel like it.]
So my mom and I sat down in a booth (the employee there made no attempt to greet us or direct us to a table, so I’m not sure if it was the kind of reaturant where you seat yourselves), and after several minutes without the employee bringing us water or menus, or even acknowledging our presence (note: we were the only ones in the restaurant as it had just opened, and the creepy guy had left), I wanted to switch tables because the sun was shining right in my eye (and anyway, I figured that wouldn’t be a problem, since the restaurant was empty, and it’s not as if the employee had wasted any energy bringing us menus). While my wanting to move due to the sun is not the restaurant’s fault, perhaps us moving annoyed the already seemingly annoyed employee even more.
So we moved to a smaller table, and immediately I smelled an overwhelmingly strong chemical smell, like that of cleaning products, so I told my mom that I needed to switch tables (unfortunately I’m that person who has allergic reactions to strong perfumes and chemicals). The employee overheard me tell my mom that I smelled chemicals, and she said, in an accustory tone, «There are no chemicals in here!» That pissed me off. I smelled the chemicals, and so did my mom. While the chemical smell seemed to be only concentrated at our table and the rest of the restaurant smelled fine, do not fucking accuse me of lying about what I smell, and am reacting to!
So we moved to another booth, as far away from the chemical table as possible, but the two benches, which were stuck in place, were too far from the table to be comfortable. It was possible to move the table, but it wasn’t possible to move it so that both people on either side would be comfortable. So my mom and I decided to leave.
While I may sound overly fussy in this tale, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to not want to sit with light shining directly in my eye, be able to breathe, and to be seated at a table where the seats are not ridiculously far away from the table. Also, I did’t like the employee’s accusation that I was lying, and she seemed to be in a pissy mood from the beginning.
Maybe I’m unfairly judging the restaurant for a bad day, but there are plenty of other restaurants in the area, and I’m sure there are better Indian restaurants in Vancouver, so why bother going back?

What I liked most was how the food is very authentically presented. The variety of dishes is larger than any other South Indian place I’ve been to in Vancouver and the names of the meals are all in their native language. I love that they serve Indian sodas as well (try limca). The food is good but not always consistently so.