Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhawan, Chennai.

In my opinion and as far as I have heard, this is the best south Indian restaurant in terms of food quality and uniform standards of food preparation and service. Saravana Bhavan is a chain of restaurants head-quartered in Chennai and located at many places in India and around the world. There is one in Connaught Place in Delhi and many in Chennai.

The best thing about this is that they are time-tested. They have rendered quality since day 1 and are continuing to maintain and striving to improve quality even to this date. They also have diversified into Italian, Gujrati and Rajasthani cuisines wherein they have performed decently well. But South Indian cuisine is their forte. The yummy dosas, uttappams, vadais, rice items, meals etc are hallmarks of this chain of eateries. 14 idly is a speciality of this place. It is nothing but 14 small idlies in a small tray drowned in yummy sambar. A more recent addition has been paneer dosa. It serves masala milk in the evening which is again a Saravana Bhavan speciality. It has self-service as well as full-fledged service restaurants. So, this caters to all segments of people.

Pluses: Quality, standard, good service, self as well as full service and diversification into other cuisines.

Limitations: Some people, especially Chennai's locals find this place too costly. They have another complaint, viz. quantity of food has reduced considerably over the years vis-a-vis the cost. For example the size of Dosa or uttapam or quantity of rice has reduced.

But still, they have maintained the same flavour and taste in their delicacies over a period of time, which many restaurants have failed to do.