Madras Mantra Marietta

We've been to their Decatur location many times AND LOVED IT, although since COVID, Decatur changed to an electronic table ordering/checkout system so the only time we saw staff was when they put the food on the table, and it was *not pleasant*. We haven't been back in a while because of that. Reviews for Marietta suggested they DIDN'T do that, so we met up with our daughter and son-in-law for her birthday. They had arrived just a minute before us and had menus and water. As soon as we sat down, a server asked if we were ready to order. We ordered wine and beer (and 2 more menus!) and asked for more time. The beer came out quickly, and the (different) server again asked us to order. We are vegetarian and 1 of us is gluten-free, so we hurriedly chose 2 apps & 3 familiar dishes marked GF to share. The food came very quickly; still no wine. The servers would barrel in, drop the dishes and fly away. I finally asked twice more for my wine and got it after we'd begun on the entrees. The place is roomy and pleasant, similar to Decatur, and we appreciate "real" menus, which are huge. It was Tuesday, so not crowded, but it was quite busy and they seemed to be understaffed. At least, the servers we saw seemed frantic and overworked, and we were loath to flag them down. There was a minor communication problem between the soft-voiced accents of the servers, and my poor hearing, plus for each appetizer or drink we ordered (individually) they asked "One, or two?", which was damned confusing! The food is really good, although I wished we'd had more time to examine the menu and experiment. It's so rare for us to find a fully vegetarian restaurant where we can order IT ALL, and yet we got stuck with the very basics because we felt rushed. I would like to have asked about the Dosai, which are this location's specialty, and are supposed to be gluten-free, but aren't *marked* that way on the menu. But it seemed like asking that of our harried young servers would have broken them. I'd love to go back but not when we are entertaining guests, and it's a 45 minute drive from our end of town, so it seems unlikely.

Excellent all vegetarian restaurant! This place also has lots of vegan and gluten free options. Will definitely be coming back! Also this restaurant's atmosphere is peaceful with music playing. There are no obnoxious distracting TV's on the wall! Much easier to converse with the people you are eating with.