Mango Grove   

Mention Mango Grove, a nondescript suburban eatery, to a local vegetarian and it almost always elicits a gasp of delight followed by "you have to try it" and "it's worth the drive, you must go." As the only truly vegetarian Indian restaurant in the Baltimore/Washington area, Mango Grove inspires fanatical loyalty from veggies, vegans and other devotees of hard-to-find Southern Indian cuisine. The spiritually-oriented menu offers up a wide variety of options but most people recommend one of the Thali meals in order to experience the restaurant's stunning variety of tastes. (Thali is essentially a mystical tasting menu served in six bowls on a silver platter.) If you'd rather go a la carte, you'll find vegetable curries, dosai and oothappam entrees as well as papadom and mango chutney sides. Any time of day, Mango Grove is a bargain, but the lunch buffet is the best bargain and quite popular.