Friday 21 February 2014

Restoran Saravanaa Bhavan: Indian Vegetarian Restaurant @ Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

Restaurant Saravanaa Bhavan is one of those Tamil Vegetarian Restaurants originating from India that had spread it's branches to more than 16 countries. Unlike Anjappar's, this is a pure vegetarian restaurant. It has been a long time since I had visited any of their outlets and recently, sometime early this year, that had been an ownership take over by one of the wealthy families of Tamil Nadu. I was told by some friends that the price has gone up drastically as a result of the takeover and today I am here to check the place out myself.

Restaurant Saravanaa Bhavan in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

Interior of the Restaurant
The restaurant in Brickfields was not really big but it had a very posh design. The restaurant was extremely clean and was very well organised. I was here sometime around 6.00 pm and it seemed that most of their customers if not all, were expatriates or tourists from India. I am confident to say that I was the only local person being in the restaurant at this hour. 

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu
Their menu had a good variety of food items. Mostly from the South Indian continent and there were a handful of dishes from the northern side of India. Besides this, there were also some Chinese dishes in their menu. Please note that their Chinese dishes are not like what we get here and they have been customised to the Indian taste buds which is very much different. I wanted to try their Rice Set (Thali Set) but was told that I had to wait until 7 pm for that to be ready. Not having much time to spare, I decided to go for some Vadai's and Tosai.

Ice Lemon Tea @ RM 3.50
I would usually order Filter Coffee when I am here and today I made a huge mistake of ordering the above Ice Lemon Tea. This was definitely the worst Ice Lemon Tea that I have ever tasted. It was bland and bitter and had no traces of lime or lemon in it. This only deserves a rating of 2/10 .

Medhu Vada Set @ RM 5.00

Their Medhu Vada
The Medhu Vada set, priced at RM 5.00 came with two Vadai's, some Coconut Chutney and some Sambar. The Vadai was not too large and that is why I placed the teaspoon next to it for comparison. For the price and portion size, it definitely was a rip off. The Vadai too was very hard though fresh. Personally, I do not think that it is worth RM 2.50 each. I could get better ones at half the price in any ordinary Tamil shop.  My rating for this is a mere 6.5/10 .

Sambar
The Sambar that accompanied the dish however was nice. It was filled with authentic flavours and the spices were just perfect. Really good. I would rate their Sambar at 9.2/10 .

Rava Dosai @ RM 6.00

The Rava Dosai

Sambar
Their Rava Dosa, priced at RM 6.00 EACH, came with some Sambar and three different chutneys. The Rava Dosai was nice but I think the price of RM 6.00 for each is way too high. Their Dosai however was nice and crispy although I would have expected more condiments to be added. I would rate their Dosai at 8.8/10 .

Three Different Chutneys
They served three different chutneys with the Dosai and that is something to applaud. All their Chutneys were very fresh and nicely made except for their Tomato Chutney which I felt could have been much better. I would rate their Chutneys as per the following: Coconut Chutney 8.8/10, Pudina Chutney 8.6/10 and Tomato Chutney at 7/10 .

In summary, their food quality has definitely dropped from my last visit which is sometime early last year and the prices have almost doubled to a point of it being daylight robbery. I know that even in Chennai, many have started boycotting their restaurants due to the price issues and I hope that they would soon adjust the pricing or else face the same here. I think the locals have already started doing it as I did not see any Malaysian in the restaurant today despite it being in a very strategic location. As Malaysians, we know the going rates and hope that these guys would adjust to remain competitive.

Address: 196, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.

Telephone: +603 2260 3755 

Opening Hours: 0730 - 2300 Daily

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