Saapaaduu

Saapaaduu is located in a quiet strip mall among office parks in San Jose, but the crowd gathered at this restaurant is after one thing: their authentic, homestyle South Indian food, inspired by the cuisines of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We started with the Chef's Special Pallipalayam Chicken, made of boneless dark meat chicken in an oily mixture of spices, sliced coconut, dried red chilies, and curry leaves. The star dish of the restaurant was the Chatti Choru, their version of a thali but served in a single bowl of white rice with a daily selection of toppings listed on a menu board. My bowl included beetroot thogyal (a chutney made of beets), mathanga erissery (pumpkin coconut curry), urulai kilangu varuval (potato fry), vendakkai moorkuzhambu (ash gourd in yogurt), thangaipal rasam (coconut milk and tamarind soup), and sambar (lentil vegetable stew). My protein selection was the goat, which came with chunks of mutton in gravy and kola urundai (a meatball made of minced mutton). All of the components of the bowl were delicious and came together in a balanced meal!My favorite dish of all, however, was the Kizhi Parotta with Chicken Curry, made of parotta flatbreads wrapped with boneless chicken and salna (curry sauce) in banana leaves, all wrapped in foil and grilled. I never thought I would like a soggy version of parottas, but the flatbread absorbed the delicious curry sauce and had a pleasantly soft yet chewy texture, and the spicy flatbread and curry mix was complemented nicely with a side of thick yogurt sauce. Overall, the food here was simply delicious, and the flavors, spices, and prices were all on point.

I will start with Ambience since most Indian restaurants barring the expensive ones don't care much about it. I appreciated the use of quality and good looking flatware and dishes. Service was good . The restaurant is in a strip mall so it's not the greatest of ambiences due to that but they have made their effort to look as good as they can.Food:We loved the cauliflower appetizer. It was crunchy had had that chaat masala zing to it. The mushroom biryani was ok. Not like the biryanis we are used to . I would just call it a pulao and move on.The kottu paratha could have used more spice and sauce. It was a little dry and lacked flavor. Overall it's a great restaurant to try out. I was intrigued by the bowl type thali dishes. If you eat meat you have more interesting options as well.

This place was referred by my friends so drove all the way to south bay. There is a wait time for lunch because of limited seating. Chatti choru- 5/5Chicken 65- 4/5Special biryani- 3/5 nothing special very blandGreat ambiance and service. I would definitely visit again but limit to the specials.

TLDR : Great food, good and pleasant service, small place for seatingTried Saapaadu per a friend's recommendation and were not disappointed.Loved the food - everything we ordered was great - from the filter coffee to the apps- mutton suka, Apolo chicken and the mains biryani and curry.The parothas and rumali roti was awesome! Decuting a star because they have a limited seating Capacity and the wait times are long during peak lunch hours on the weekend.Overall great experience!

Having heard a helluva lot of hype about this place from my friends, I finally got to try this place over the holiday weekend. Quite a loooong drive from Mountain View.We felt spoiled for choices when we saw the menu and had to take some recommendations on what to order.Even after the recommendations, we were still confused . A larger group would've helped to try more dishes.1. Seeraga Samba (Rice) Chicken Biryani - 5/5 really really good. One of the best I've had in recent times. Fresh, super high on flavor, really well cooked chicken, gracious on the portion of both the chicken and the rice. We had a big appetite on the day but still had a good amount of biryani rice to take back home. Definitely not very oily, felt fairly healthy. Raita and Salna were just ok.2. Chatti Choru (Chicken) - 3/5 This is supposed to be their most popular dish. We contemplated going for the goat but went with the chicken. I like the idea of the rice bowl/plate this way with the variety of chicken 65, chettinadu chicken curry, rice, poriyal, kootu and additional thali accompaniments (payasam, appalam and more). But we felt this was just okay. This actually lacked a bit of flavor on most of the dishes that came as part of the bowl, and was also a little cold. Portion of the rice was fairly big but not the other accompaniments for the price, but I suppose it's understandable with the variety.I was really tempted to get the tawa sukka biryani and the kal choru (supposed to be a fusion between a fried rice and a biryani) as well, but they're for next time!Not super large in terms of space, so probably might have wait times when busy. It wasn't that busy on Christmas afternoon a bit after opening, we got seated immediately. I was a fan of the utensils they used, felt a little rich. Decent ambiance for sure.

I had a great experience at Saapaduu! The food was flavorful and authentic, with a good variety of dishes to choose from. They have a unique menu with various fusions. The portions were generous, and the spices were perfectly balanced. Although the bowl came with plenty of rice and slightly less sides. The service was quick and friendly, which added to the overall positive experience. My only minor critique is that the seating area felt a bit cramped during peak hours, but it didn't take away from the delicious meal. Highly recommended for anyone craving South Indian cuisine!

The restaurant is located in a business district, but don't let that fool you. This establishment has very nice decor, excellent service and very good food. This is a South Indian restaurant with their specialty being rice bowls with a little bit of everything. Sambar, yogurt and a small soup come as little side dishes.Our meal and recommendations+ Chatti choru with chicken has all of the flavors of the standard rice bowl fixings but they add a topping of curry chicken and chicken 65 which is essentially yummy Indian fried chicken (5/5)+ Chatti choru vegetarian is hard to describe other than lots of goodies in a bowl. My only gripe is that I ate most of the toppings with plenty of rice to spare (4/5)Towards the end of the meal we were given fresh off the fryer fritters that I think is called Vada. They look like fried chickpeas but they could also be made of lentils. They are super crispy and a great ending to a wonderful South Indian lunch.

My wife and I have been planning to tick this restaurant off our bucket list for quite some time , for months and finally decided to try out here and nevertheless it didn't disappoint us. Read reviews about waiting time but we got seated pretty quickly as we went on a Saturday around 12:30 PM. Restaurant was not crowded but slowly getting busy around 1:30PM. It's better to reserve table to avoid waiting if coming in large groups. Customer service was excellent and ambiance was great. Utensils they serve was clean and well maintained. I like their designs. It gave me true Chennai vibes especially the feel with music and people who work were always friendly. Coming to food , my wife ordered satti soru with chicken and poriyal, sambar and Kootu. Rasam, curd and other condiments which was finger licking good. My wife and I savoured the dish like no one was seeing us and it made us happy reminding of our mom's cooking. Truly must try dish in Saapaaduu. Being a Chennai guy, I always wanted my Wife to try authentic Chennai dishes and this place is must try for it. I ordered chefs seeraga sambha chicken biryani, even though I'm a big fan of Chennai Muslim style wedding basmati biryani , this dish took me out of surprise and it was so flavorful and delicious. My wife is from andhra and she has had more authentic Hyderabadi Biryanis and she loved dindugul style. We did to go with the left over biryani and sweeped off. Generous pieces of chicken , whole egg and served with Raita and saalan. Definitely another top dish. I ordered masala buttermilk to finish off our meal. Definitely satti soru is must try guys, their finger licking chicken 65, chicken kulambu, along with sambhar, rasam, moru, poriyal and appalam will take you back home and please eat with your hands. I licked off every bit. Definitely recommend this place and ample car parking available. Tummy happy and my wife was also happy

Got the paneer biryani and kothu paratha for takeout. Food was made quick and seemed like there was pretty good seating inside. The kothu paratha was AMAZING it was light but filling and spicy. The biryani was also really good. I would definitely come back to try more of the menu

Awesome service, modern ambiance, popular South and North food choices. Dosas, Uttapas and appetizers were epic.