Pavan Foods

Reviewing again, about 3 years after my first experience review from 2013… I’ve gone back here several times with my kids — who love the dosa. Pretty much every time I go I get the same thing: pani puri and masala dosa and masala chai for me, dosa and mango lassi for the kids. This last time I went with a Groupon worth $ 20 with my wife. We ended up stuffing ourselves! Her parents immigrated from India in the 60’s and always go to Pavan when in town.
The pani puri were fresh and crispy, the pani so spicey and delicious. (My wife recommends you add some chopped onion from up by the counter.) The dosa was delicious and crispy as expected, with heavenly sambar. She introduced me to papri chat. Wow, I can’t wait to go back for more of that! Crispy crunchy bits of a fried puri or some kind of bread with veggies and chickpeas and yogurt, sweet and spicey chutney, just so flippin good.
I would actually recommend that you bring your web device and look up the various dishes on Wikipedia or something if you’d really like to check out the menu. If you’d like to try some delicious crispy snacky street foods that are very similar to what you’d find in an Indian city — this is the place!

It is not fancy at all but the food is all vegetarian and delicious. People who work there are either very friendly or completely aloof. I have to give a warning about the grocery side of things. I came in today to find quick and easy vegetarian meals and headed over for the boxed goods that had ready meals and boxed mixes for dishes and found almost all items were expired or soon to expire. Quite a few were expired since 2014 while others had just expired December of 2015. They should definitely take these items of the shelf and restock!

First bite of the Dosa and I knew it was the real deal. Delicious reasonably priced food. Lot of variety. Snacks like khaman, samosa, dal vada to full thali meals (includes vegetable, lentil, sweet, roti, savory snack etc). It’s a small unpretentious place but well worth a visit.

An Indian grocery store in front but a small restaurant (buffet) in the back that is spicy, all veg. Southern Indian. They make samosas, pacoras, soups. It’s a terrific deal.
This is not fancy… its mamas cooking which makes it authentic, real, terrific!!!

Great place to be. Run by a family and it tells in their food. its very much home made cooking.
Tried vada pav, dabeli and pav bhaji and everything was Amazing!
Also bought some Ghugra & Sukhadia for Diwali!
Worth a visit, unfortunately too far for someone like me who lives in DC

My friend Anthony and I had a day exploring LaDew Gardens. We were very hungry and looking through google of options near by from our location.
Prices: cheap.
Service: The people working here were not very friendly. Not even a «hello» or «do you have any questions»
Food: I love every thing that I ordered from the menu. Chana Marsala tasted different with a sweet taste to it. Lemon rice was really good. I got those dosa crepes stuffed with onions, potatoes and spices. Very spicy, but I took in all in my my voice turning horsy and eyes dripping in the best way possible. Samosa, delicious with a tangy, sweet sauce and minty green one.
Verdict: I would come back.

Hands down the best vegetarian Indian food in Baltimore. Go hungry. Go for the food, the typical South Asian atmosphere and the cheap prices. Service is fine, and not doting. They will even prepare food for you to take home and cook (in 3 sizes and including uncooked Roti if you call in advance). A lifesaver if you are busy. Don’t miss the Masala Chai (which they will bring after your meal — one of many small, but significant things to remind you of how authentic it is). We ordered one pani puri, two masala dosas, a samosa chat, a pau bhaji, and two masala chais for 26 dollars (including tax). Hard to beat that.

Incredible, cheap food. Doesn’t get any better. Their curries are gorgeous, spicy, satisfying. Awesome lassis. And, they have various kinds of «street food» appetizers, which are delicious.
Definitely not for those who don’t enjoy spicy food! I guess you could eat the rice, though.

This is a wonderful little place! The store is a bit bare bones but the lunch buffet is wonderful! All vegetarian Southern Indian food made fresh in the back of the store. It’s 9 dollars for all you can eat and it is scrumptious! There are always two entrees, rice, a soup, a pakora and a dessert and everything I’ve tried has been wonderful. They bring you fresh chapati after you sit down.
The ambiance is zilch but it’s comfortable and the food is so good and cheap you won’t be complaining. Service is minimal but pleasant and usually prompt.
I’m always sad to get full.

This place is great. It has good prices and good portions of food. It seems to all be cooked to order, because each item was brought out piping hot as it was completed. I got three items and tea for only $ 13. After having lived in India, I’m always so annoyed with the high prices and low quality of most Indian restaurants, but this place surely isn’t part of that trend.
The sambar here is very well spiced. A tiny bit of heat but an emphasis on balance of flavor. If you aren’t familiar with Indian food – especially the snacks and street food genres – you might have a hard time with the menu. But for the knowledgable, this place will tickle your fancy.
Unpretentious, delicious, cheap, and friendly. I’ll come back again and again.

Excellent South Indian food (a cuisine not easy to find in our area). Everything on the menu is great, but I usually stick with idli sambar and masala dosa. Try some of the snack mixes in the grocery, and have them mix you a pound or two of sweets to take home.

Ok. So, me and my husband just moved to parkville. I found about this place through internet search and saw the reviews on Unilocal and thought to give it a try. The restaurant can’t even be called a restaurant. I don’t know what it is. I was very excited to try indian snacks after long time. Me and my husband ordered masala dosa and samosa chat. So we waited for about 20 minutes before the food was brought. At this time i was still positive about the place. Now, before our food was brought an older man was cleaning the tables and taking out the trash. As soon as somebody from the kitchen brought the food, the old man who had just taken the trash out and did not have gloves on rushes to get the masala dosa and brought the food to us. Me and my husband were shocked to see that. I didn’t feel like eating the food. After another five minutes samosa chat was bought by the young man working the kitchen and counter. So we ate that. Plus i think the place is run by old people so the service is really slow. There was only a young man who was attending customers. He had to go back and forth to the register nd to the kitchen which was like in different corners of the shop. So every time someone was done eating, they had to wait for the young man to come out of the kitchen area and go to the register. It slowed down the business. At first we thought the items are so cheap, until we saw the portion size. The masala dosa was ok for the price but we didn’t eat it much but the samosa chat cost us $ 4 and all we had was one little samosa with a little chickpea curry. It was total ripoff. The chickpea curry even smell like it was leftover from yesterday or something. After this experience we decided we are never going to this place.
This so called pavan food also had some grocery isle but i would not consider buying anything from them. Most of the items are overpriced.
We don’t recommend anyone to visit this place.

Tried Chole– puri and masala dosa. Liked the Chole puri. But dosa was not as good as I thought it would be. I really liked the gulab jamun (sweet/​desert) though!

Recommended by a local friend and simply loved the food. Yay «» I am fan. Taking out 1 star for space limitation in the sitting area and lack of professionalism .
Definitely gonna recommend it to any Veggie food lover.
The Mini thali — must try and also loved the Kachori & Khaman & Frankie .
Most of the items had that peculiar taste of fresh out of a pan food that we get back home. Samosa“s & Kathori“s were hot and fresh. Definitely a BIG yes yes for the tasty food .
Positive:
Very affordable & Delicious food.
Variety of selections in the menu is a big plus.
It has got small Indian grocery store also so added advantage.
Negative:
Had to wait for like 5 – 10 mins to be attended at counter and same was the experience 2^nd time, we visited .
Not a great place for larger groups, about 25 – 30 people can seat at max.

City Paper called it correctly; the best Indian food in Baltimore.
Pavan blows all the places in Mt. Vernon out of the water on flavor; there’s no competition. I got the masala dosa. The dosa was fantastic, and the coconut chutney was amazing. The potatoes inside were fine, and the sambar could have had some lentils in it (instead of just veggies), but the combined flavors were so exactly what I wanted, I honestly did not care in the slightest. It’s been years since I had a tasty masala dosa (I used to go to the dosa cart at the south side of Washington Sq. Park in NYC and enjoyed the offerings at Woodlands in Silver Spring), and this was just the greatest.
My husband had the matar paneer (green peas and paneer cheese in a moderately spicy sauce) over rice, and we split the khasta katchori (fried non-​greasy dough surrounding chickpeas, cucumber, and onions topped with a combination of delicious sauces — yogurt, possibly tamarind, and a cilantro-​based something with crunchy bits sprinkled all over the top). The matar paneer was delicious… paneer was great, and the sauce was appropriately spicy, something we’d been after since we moved up here. And I’d definitely suggest the khasta katchori to anyone looking for a light, bright-​tasting, wicked flavorful snack or appetizer that still manages to feel indulgent.
The icing on the cake — or should I say crunchy bits on the khasta katchori? — is the price. You can die of fullness for ~$ 10. $ 5-​$ 7 will leave you full, happy, and satisfied. Also, everyone seemed really nice; they happily answered questions about the menu. I kind of wish I could keep Pavan a secret, but I’d rather see them get more business, so go! Indulge. Enjoy the best Indian in Baltimore with the change you fished out of your couch and pants pockets…

I have eaten food from Pavan Foods three times over the years. I REALLY wanted it to work out between us; it’s location is so convenient for me. After three times, I have given up. It is Off the List of places I will patronize.
The first time I went, the food was pretty tasty. I had some chaat and other little dishes that I enjoyed. However, both my dining partner and I had weird unexplained pain in our chest and gut over the next few days. We also found that the leftovers had EATEN THROUGH the take out containers. Weird, huh? yeah…
Eventually, years later, we thought we’d try again. This time the food was less impressive, but caused the same disturbing physical symptoms. I will take this opportunity to mention that we regularly order our food «very hot» in restaurants and also cook food at home with hot peppers from our garden & spicy dried herbs from the store. We do not have mild palates.
The last time we ordered food from Pavan (again, a few more years later) we once again had odd physical reactions. On top of that — the food that was cold in the center, and really small portions. And maybe 2 out of 5 on taste.
I have noticed som people comment on the low prices at Pavan Foods. This is untrue, as the portions are actually very small for the prices charged. On our most recent visit, we had to wait quite a long time for our order. This would be ok if the food was made to order. It obviously wasn’t — as the cold center shows!
I am done giving this place more chances — Pavan Foods in Parkville, Maryland is not very tasty, causes serious heartburn, and is not thoughtfully prepared.
I will mention that I do still see value in this store. Besides housing a restaurant — it is also a grocer. I still buy large quantities of dried herbs and some produce here. And, if you are looking for movies, music, or clothing from India — they are still worth visiting.

The Indian food here is above average, and very affordable. Love the Puri they make here, its very legit, and not that greasy!
The store part of this business, is stocked with all the ingredients you would need to make your own Indian food, including frozen Naans, and Indian breads, so stock up, like I did!!! The restaurant part of the business has a small family-​friendly dinning area with at least 5 – 6 tables.
Overall, solid friendly service, and its a nice spot if your tired of eating crab cakes and greasy American fast food :)

It’s true. It really is that good. My husband has been trying to get me to eat here based on these reviews for a few months now. Having only ever visited the grocery/​spice area, I didn’t feel any particular draw back to the restaurant area.
But finally, this past Saturday, we picked up some lunch here. Really really good, flavorful, down-​to-​earth Indian food. Being a recommendations kind of guy, my husband just ordered what had been recommended by previous Unilocalers – palak paneer, samosa chaat (wow!), and chana masala with some rice. We also got a tasty aloo paratha. But I would be willing to explore the menu more thoroughly now that I have had an introductory taste.
Would it be some sort of sacrilege to say that the samosa chaat is kind of like Indian Nachos? Well, it is, and it is delicious.
Prices are amazing. I can see us changing Friday from Pizza Nite to Indian Nite.

I’ve been buying my spices and Indian groceries here for at least 3 years. Spices are dirt cheap and high quality — you’ll never need to buy overpriced flavorless dust from your supermarket again. You can get giant bags of rice and beans here for pretty solid prices, too. They also happen to make some of the finest samosas, dosa, and pakora in the Baltimore area.
It’s not that restauranty; don’t expect soft lighting and karnatic fusion and fancy décor and the like. It’s more like a takeout joint with a couple of tables. The staff is indifferent, the price is low, the quality is high, and I like it that way.

Thank you, fellow Unilocalers!
My wife and I have lived near this restaurant for 7 years, and went in for the first time today for lunch. It was fantastic. I am usually a meat-​a-​tarian, and eating a purely vegetarian meal was a bit outside the norm for me – but I was very pleasantly surprised!
We had the samosa chat, aloo matar, palak paneer, and chapati. All were great, but the samosa chat really stood out as really fantastic! The whole meal for 2 was around $ 15. The service is very friendly, and our lunch was made to order. There is also a buffet, which looked good, and the patrons eating there looked very happy.
The food was mild-​to-​moderately spicy, and tasted just as good as many of the restaurants we’ve visited in SF, NYC, and Seattle.
As previously noted, the shop is set up very much like an Italian deli, with some grocery items up front and the casual dining area in back.
Pavan is a hidden neighborhood gem, and we will definitely return for more!