The Sudra

Outstanding! The happy hour is incredible– we tried one of everything. Amazing pakoras! Chic pea patties to die for! Black eye peas were heavenly! Distinct flavored & vegan! Awesome and very positive bartender– server! This place is now one of my favorites!

I usually go to Bollywood Theater whenever I’m craving Indian food but I wanted something different this time as I’ve become accustomed to Bollywoods menu.
Stumbled here by accident when I was on the search for Tacos and no lie, I was confused about the menu. Luckily there are Unilocal pics so I just went by eye as to which looked best. I found out they have tempeh (fake meat) and ordered a side of the curls.
Food is very hearty the chickpeas and everything fill you up but there’s none of that heavy comatic feeling. I loved the variety on my plate, many different spices then there’s the yogurt sauces. Mmmm…
Also get the sodas if you like aromatic drinks.

Awesome chicken less tikka masala but horrible service. Hats off to the chef fire the female server with long curly hair. I paid at the time of ordering and left a 25% tip, for that I got nothing. No water refills, no extra napkins, no checking in to see if everything was alright and not even an f’ing goodbye when I walked out the door. What I did get was a detailed story she told her coworkers about how much she drank last night.

Coming here was oddly reminiscent of my first time at Saburo’s. Even though it’s happy hour, if you assume they’ll serve you up like any other place, you’ve already ordered too much. Besides, unlike at Saburo’s, their neighbors serve equally delish grub. So save some room for more tastings. They didn’t even make me order a drink. So this light weight didn’t have to embarrass himself trying to think of something «cool and adult» to order.
The young lady who greeted me was very friendly but didn’t offer too much help when I asked for recommendations. She went over the entire menu and basically said everything was popular. I’d believe it so I guess next time I’ll just close my eyes and blindly pick something next time around.
I’m definitely bringing friends during my next visit.

Great, fresh, creative and veg-​friendly options. Great drink menu to boot!
But what I like most about Sudra is its laid-​back vibe. As much as I enjoy Indian food, I rarely enjoy it because it seems hard to find it in Portland without having to commit to a full-​blown sit-​down restaurant or buffet. So, for me, Sudra fits the bill. You can pop in by yourself and have a quick meal on the patio or in the small dining space, and it’s all good.
And the Ocean is pretty much unbeatable, really, if you’re planning a group Happy Hour. It’s awesome that everyone can find something to eat or drink within this marvelous little cluster of restaurants, and meet up to enjoy it at the outdoor seating (in the summer, at least).

Vegan Indian FOOD? WHAT ABOUT THE GHEE???
Came here with my Vegan friends from out of town and was pleasantly surprised. It was seriously good!
They server was quite helpful and answered all my questions with ease.
I hear the brunch is amazing… so I will be back.

Restaurants close too early in Portland, which is how I ended up here one night.
It’s not authentic Indian food, but I appreciate the greater focus on produce.
It’s still fairly tasty and gets the job done for a reasonable price, but it lacks the depth of flavor and nuance of quality, authentic Indian food.

This place combines two of my favorite things:
1) Good food that doesn’t necessarily aim to be authentic, just: GOOD.
2) Vegan food that’s not constantly trying to imitate meat.
1)
I’m not sure how authentic this Indian food is, and it really doesn’t matter. This is a fresh, local take on Indian food and it’s amazing. Strawberry habanero chutneys?! WUUUUUT?! Sign me UP!
2)
I’m not a vegan.
But I like vegan food.
OK, OK, I really like veggies. I think I’m compensating for years and years of veggie-​hatred in which I subsisted on cookies, chocolate milk, and microwaved burritos.
What frustrates me is that so so so many vegan places have times like this:
«chicken» sandwich
Vegan Rueben
«pork» roast
Field «steak»
STAAAAHP. Just stop.
I have no interest in eating gaudy, over-​processed, macerated vegetables/​nuts/​berries/​legumes/​sticks/​etc masquerading as meat. If you put a body-​kit on a Pontiac to make it look like a Lamborghini… it’s still going to feel like a Pontiac.
Anyway, there isn’t any of this nonsense here. Just quality, flavorful, properly-​portioned, generously spiced: Indian-​style meals.
I’ve loved everything I’ve had here.
This place one of the things I miss most about living in Portland, besides my friends.
Other pros:
Awesome outdoor seating.
Decent selection of brewskis.
(Was) very close to where I live (d).

Being obsessed with Indian food, I knew I had to try the Sudra when a friend told me it was also one of the most popular vegan restaurants in Portland. From reading the reviews on Unilocal,I decided to stop by during happy hour and see what the fuss was about!
Food: Fantastic, flavorful, creative. I was told that one plate was ‘snack size’, so I got two — the kale-​infused dosa plate and the root vegetables plate. In hindsight, two happy hour dishes is a BIG portion for one person, hungry or not! For $ 10 though, it was so worth it. I loved the dosa and chutney sauce, and also really enjoyed the black beans in the vegetable plate. The root veggies were a bit too oily for my liking, but there was so much food already that this detail didn’t really bother me. However, when ordering at the Sudra, keep in mind that the menu is Indian-​inspired, so it will not be completely similar to traditional Indian dishes.
Service: Order at counter kind of place. I came on a relatively warm summer night, so there wasn’t a wait. Food was served quickly!
Ambiance: Small, casual space near a few other restaurants on Gilsan St. Outdoor seating for the most part, which is really nice on a summer evening! However the set up can be a little daunting if it’s really hot outside (warm food + warm weather). There was a handful of people around 6pm, but no wait for a table.
If you dig ethnic vegan food, ball on a budget, or want to have a delicious happy hour, go to the Sudra! Wish they had a place like this in LA.

A YouTube video led me to Sudra and I couldn’t be more grateful. I landed on the Black Lentil Kofta Bowl while my friend chose the Pakora Plate. The price point is great especially for the amount of food you get, we both had to take boxes to go. Luckily, my friend and I are in the business of sharing so I was able to try his. Dining in Portland never gets old but I will have to say this has been my favorite spot so far.

Eh they seem to have gotten kinda bad. Haven’t been in about a year and not really digging it anymore.
Not sure I will try again.

At first I was a bit skeptical because: Indian food made by white people, but actually really sick

I went to try the happy hour food at the Sudra… had heard they make their take on vegetarian indian food and had to try it. I got the puri-​potato masala plate which comes with kale dressed in tahini dressing. The puri tasted good, but needs to be served piping hot, thats the way to serve it. Generally I’m not a fan of kale, but with the dressing it tasted good. My main issue was with the potatoes, they weren’t cooked all the way through. Puri-​masala is a hard dish to get right, and my standards for it are high too, this was a good attempt but still needs some work to get it right.

The Sudra might just be the best happy hour value I’ve found in Portland. Although, the sport of happy hour hunting is in no way over.
The Sudra offers happy hour every day from 4 – 7 p.m. and again from 9 – 11 p.m. So, if you pay full price for food at The Sudra, I’m going to call you a poor planner.
The food is mostly vegan and Indian, the portions are large, and at $ 5 a plate during happy hour, the food is a steal.
The Peacock Salad is a must. The salad is full of kale, root vegetables, corn, peppers, and topped with tahini dressing. The dosa plate is another must order. For those who haven’t experienced a dosa, it’s basically an Indian burrito. The Sudra’s version is stuffed with black eyed peas, potato masala and collards. Did I mention, all happy hour dishes are $ 5!?!
The cocktails are inventive, all with an Indian bent to them. My Kali-​Ma drink was a chai-​based concoction with rum, coconut syrup and coconut milk. All cocktails during happy hour are $ 1 off the regular price.
The operational logistics at The Sudra are a little batty. If you’re in a hurry, this isn’t your spot. You pay at the counter, and your cashier is also your bartender, and he/​she will make your drink after you order, which causes the line to order food to back up. If you’re impatient, this may drive you crazy. However, a fantastic happy hour makes the wait worth it.

I am pretty bummed that I live in Oakland, and The Sudra lives in Portland. We ordered the small masala dosa plate and the chicken-​less tikka masala bowl (I’ve never had the oft maligned chicken tikka masala before, having been a veg my entire life! I wanted to know what the british blokes were on about). We were so full that we didn’t even eat breakfast the next day!
The dosa plate was really good, if a bit «deconstructed». Maybe I’m weird, but I like my dosa (the crêpe itself) soft, and wrapped around the nomzy filling. This came with the filling on it’s own, with a crispy «kale infused» dosa on the side. Ignore the kale infused bit (sounds ridiculous), and focus on the tastiness. While it was not soft, nor wrapped around the nicely spiced potato filling… it was totally delicious!
The beyond meat tikka masala hit the spot. It is definitely more heavy and creamy than I would regularly eat, but for the tail end of vacation it was perfect. Comfort in a bowl? Perhaps. Slightly spicy (I would have liked more spicy), tangy, savory, and slightly different than what I usually eat (I lean towards veggie, legume, grain rather than fake meats). Overall we both enjoyed it, but David has the more petite appetite and tapped out pretty early, leaving me to devour the majority of it. hahahaha.
Nice outdoor picnic tables, but is next to a burger joint, so there’s that (ick). We will return when we are next in Portland!

This place is great! This is the sort of vegan place that even a non-​vegan will love (I’m not vegan, for example). It’s more of an Indian fusion sort of place than traditional Indian. I had the Kale Dosa plate, and it was fantastic. The dosa is nice and crispy. The beans are super flavorful. The highlight for me though were the collards. They’re not long cooked to softness like southern US collard greens. They’re still really firm and green. But the flavor is outrageously good – a deep sort of grilled umami flavor that I found particularly striking. Can’t wait to go back and try another dish.

I’m a sucker for places that offer happy hour every day with a healthy selection of food options. The Sudra’s is from 4−7pm and 9pm-​close every day. You can get a good serving of food for the real cheap price of $ 5. Although, there’s a catch: it’s vegan… but that’s okay sometimes, right?
A buddy of mine won’t go to a bar that doesn’t offer vegan food (don’t even get me started on that), so I’ve recently been making my way through bars that pass her criteria. The Sudra is a cute lil place tucked off of Sandy on NE Glisan. It shares a bathroom and seating area with a couple places, including 24^th and Meatballs. So your buddies can order from another establishment and get their food brought out to the same patio table. The Sudra has a full bar with a long list of cleverly concocted cocktails. My friend tried the Coral Tree, which is made with Aperol, Krogstad Aquavit, Cucumber Juice, and Lemonade. It was very cucumbery and delicious and came in a generous-​sized glass.
My dosa plate was filling, although it was sort of just curry-​flavored mash that you put inside an empty dosa, which is like a cross between a tortilla and injera bread. It paired well with a $ 2 Montucky Cold Snack, which is maybe the best «crappy beer» you’ll find in a tall can.
The patio seating is perfect for those unexpected 66 degree, sunny March evenings. Although, there’s no smoking and lots of families, so you’ll be keeping things PG here.

What a lovely little find!
In town with the boss and we’re both vegetarians. Always on the prowl for a great, healthy meal with enjoyable ambiance we came across this place. Glad we did!
You order at the counter and then find a seat inside or out.
There were options from plates, to bowls, to sides. Appetizers available during happy hour too!
Everything looked great but in the end we both ordered the chickpea plate. Yum! The flavors were complex and fabulous with lots of food on the plate. Rice, kale salad (which was so tender and NOT tough) chickpea cakes and more!
They also have an extensive drink list (both alcohol and non-​alcoholic). We had the sparking mint soda… such a inquire and good flavor!
Would come back here again for sure.

Excellent take on Indian food. While this isn’t exactly where you’d go if you’re craving authentic Indian food (you should invite yourself to my apartment for that!), if you are hungry and simply want some good vegan food with an Indian twist to it, then Sudra is your place.
They have a variety of really good chutneys and are, overall, much easier on spices than many Indian places I’ve seen in the area. Based on some rather lukewarm reviews of the place, I ordered some ‘safe’ dishes — poori plate and pakoras; there’s no way you can go wrong with those! And they indeed turned out to be really good. The pooris were big and crisp, and the potato curry was perfectly mashed with a good amount of garam masala. Oh, and make sure you nicely mix the tahini sauce into the kale when you get it, as most of sauce tends to settle down at the bottom.
They have a great happy hour deal, each single-​item plate being only $ 5. Fast service, good location. Will definitely come back to try out the other items on the menu.

I decided to check out Sudra after reading the Unilocal reviews, and of course, always being down to try new takes on Indian food. Overall, we were pretty satisfied, and I would recommend trying this place if you like Indian and/​or fusion food.
The place itself is quite small — it’s one of those converted garage type deals. We had a group of eight people, which wasn’t ideal, but we fit into the side by joining two tables together. The walls are covered with old Bollywood movie posters, and they have a projector, which when went was playing Charlie Brown Christmas (it was December 20^th). It’s also a little dark inside.
Since we were such a large group, we decided to just order one of each plate on the menu. I don’t really think the plates were meant for sharing, so this wasn’t ideal, but it worked out for us. Each plate comes with a side salad type thing as well. My favorite dishes were the chickpea cutlets and the pakora, which were flavorful and tasty. The peacock salad was good as well; the tahini dressing was especially good.
We also each got a cocktail. Some of them were average, and some were really good. The best ones were the King Louie, which was like a chili piña colada, and the Rikki Tikki Tavi.
Overall, I think this place is good, but not excellent. The food was an interesting, modern, vegan take on Indian food, but I do feel that it was missing some spice and flavor as compared to other Indian food. The lack of cream or yogurt in the food means that you don’t taste the creamy flavors typical of some Indian food. Also, would love to see some dessert additions to the menu!