35-66 73rd St in Jackson Heights, near the Roosevelt Ave.—74th St. subway stop

I cannot speak highly enough of this Jackson Heights gem. It opened only a year ago, but it has quickly become my favorite place in the neighborhood for small-menu, regional Indian food. Come on a weekend at 2 pm, when the seats start filling up with happy South Asian families, and you'll be in for a treat.

If you've ever had a soggy, stale or stiff "masala dosa" at one of the Indian lunch-counter clone restaurants of Manhattan, you owe it to yourself to make the trek out to Jackson Heights and taste a dosa that has reached its full potential. The Diner does it right — thin and crispy on the edges, spongy and slightly sour towards the center, folded over savory potatoes and served with spicy sambar and fresh coconut chutney. These wonder-pancakes are one of the most delectable snackfoods to come out of the subcontinent, producing a fine balance of crispy and smooth, sour and salty.

Interestingly, you can order dosas here with creamy spinach or pan-fried chilli paneer (sort of a hot paneer hash) inside, in place of the traditional potato mixture. Both are delicious.

Other specialties include excellent uttapam (think Indian pizza, made with the same fermented rice flour as dosas) and, surprisingly, a knock-out chole bhatura (spicy tomato chickpeas, served with a puffed-up fried bread, home-made yoghurt, and bitter lemon pickle). Chole bhatura is a famed Delhi specialty, but somehow this south Indian dive gets the dish pitch-perfect.

Like any good restaurant, the beauty of the Dosa Diner is in the details. Like their quartet of south Indian chutneys, which are served in the classic Indian restaurant stainless-steel chutney tree (see left) but taste nothing like the stale mango puree you're used to. The coriander chutney alone is a revelation, made fresh and shot through with black mustard seeds. Another is made from dried chickpea flour and red chilli oil. Yum yum yum.