Saravana Bhavan — restaurant review — California
If you think Amber India is good Indian food, then stop reading right now. If you’re one for a little adventure, try Saravana Bhavan. Piquant, pungent, vegetarian South Indian (Tamilnadu, I believe) cuisine that won’t break the bank (prices have been steadily increasing probably due to popularity, ~$5.85/main dish) revolves around various categories of fried or steamed bread. The most popular here is the Dosa, which is an impressive giant foot-long paper-thin crisp crepe filled with your choice of filling, including curried potatoes or wilted onions. Many other carb-tastic staples include the UFO puffball Poori, the steamed rice/lentil cake Idly, the doily Aapam, the tortilla-ish Chapatti, and the dreamlogic fave, the flaky layered Parotta, served with Aloo Masala (tumeric tricked-out “potato salad”–my fave!) and the chef’s choice sambar/curry of the day.
We’ve had lentil sambar, garbanzo bean sambar, shocking albino looking coconut sambar, all packed with that fiery punch we crave. We don’t even care that half of it is pure oil and they don’t strain out the cloves or curry leaves. We don’t care that the water is tap and you pour your own — they tried leaving lukewarm liters of bottled water out for a fee, but that didn’t last long. We also don’t care that we are usually the only non-Indians in the joint. More heat for us!
The Mixed Vegetable Parotta (dinner only) is crazy tasty even though it is a bit of a false advertisement being it actually removes the veggie sambar side, unless hot green peppers are their meaning. The parotta is shredded and tossed with an orange-y savory sauce, served with a lemon wedge and low-key Raita (a cup of thin yogurt and raw onions). The lemon juice sharpens the spices, while the yogurt acts as an extinguisher. I personally never touch the Raita, while Chris likes to almost guzzle it down, even though our heat-meters have fizzled years ago. The yogurt smoothie Mango Lassi appears lightening quick and is one of the best I’ve tasted in the Bay, due to it’s unabashed acidic undertones.
The service at Saravana Bhavan is sometimes spotty when you want the check, but always courteous. The waiters now hold electronic PDA devices in lieu of notepads to take your order; kinda cool. The busboys and servers are hired migrants who sometimes speak no English and look like they’ve been working 20hrs/day but still have big smiles on their faces.
The mustachioed man behind the cashier counter also always has a big smile for us, although we seem to only share a 20-word vocabulary. Oh we resist when he occasionally tries to push extra desserts on us, which stifles our Pista Burfi (almost like a milky moist shortbread) craving, but when we cave in, he piles on things we don’t really care for like Jalebi (translucent sickly-sweet oily saffron-orange pinwheels) or Laddu (rainbow-striped lentil flour dumplings with the consistency of soaked papier-mâché topped with a maraschino cherry). I think he gave us lots of freebies, which is terribly kind, but just goes to waste.
The Saravana Bhavan website quotes: [s]uccess begets success. When the efforts are sincere, intention noble and the aspiration high, success is a natural byproduct. With franchises popping up in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and worldwide: Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, succeed they have.
Saravana Bhavan
1305 S Mary Ave – Sunnyvale, CA – (408) 616-7755 (formerly Coco’s)
HOURS: T-F 11a-2p; T-Sun 5:30p-10p; Sat-Sun 11:30a-3p
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