Saravana Bhavan (Syed Alwi Rd)

This restaurant is a gem in Singapore (relocated to Syed Alwi Road, across from Mustafa Centre's gold section). I initially ate at their branch while travelling in Chennai, India and was eager to try the food here in Singapore.

Breakfast: try the mini tiffin set if you'd like to taste a variety of South Indian breakfast items, including: small masala dosa, savoury semolina, sweet semolina, mini idlis (steamed rice cakes) and chutneys. The freshly made pineapple juice and masala tea are wonderful, too.

Lunch: the Saravana special meal includes rice, 2 currys and 2-3 types of dals which are very well made; or choose from a selection of traditional Indian sweets and ice creams for dessert.

Dinner: after 5:30 you can order channa batura, a huge puffed bread that looks like a flying saucer on your plate. If you come in after 7:30, the menu expands to include nice soups (I recommend tomato) and other dishes.

My family prefers Saravana Bhavan out of all of the Indian restaurants that we've tried because the food is authentic, not very oily and there is a good variety. It is a family restaurant which has a nice atmosphere, especially at busier times. The waiters are friendly and tend to your needs promptly. Plus, they now use a PDA system at the Syed Alwi branch to ensure orders are accurate and quick.

After my office moved to the Newton area, I started leading my colleague to the makan places in Toa Payoh and Novena. As a result, I became the office food guide.

Today I changed direction and decided to revisit the makan places at Little India area. Saravana Bhavan was often quoted by many Indian colleagues and I tried it several times for dinner but this is the first time for lunch.

I am surprised that no one has written about Saravanan Bhavan cause I though it is quite a classic. Probably it's because there isn't much coverage on Indian food in HGW so far.

Lunch menu is limited to about 25 dishes and we decided to skip the rice sets and go for the more interesting & lighter Chappathi, Uttappam, Dosai sets. The chutney and curries the came with the sets were delicious.

4 of us consumed 6 sets, finished off with Masala tea which is milk tea with a hint of cardamom and anise. I also introduced the diabetes-inducing Gulab Jamon, drawing all kinds of contorted faces in response to its super sweetness. My colleague tried the Mango Lassi which is rather sweet and has a pineapple taste.

Service is prompt as lunch seating is limited to about 40 pax on the first floor, illuminated with natural lighting through the glass walls. The 2nd floor which has better ambience is open for dinner. One aspect I need to get used to is the incongruent body language of the waiters, I asked for papaddam and they will shake their head and say OK.

I spotted a double entry for masala tea and the waiter apologized sincerely for the mistake. So for S$25 for 4 pax, we had a satisfying taste of Indian food.

Business was brisk, compared to the other restaurants in the vicinity which had zero to up to three filled tables. I was there from 12 to almost 2, and there was a near constant stream of hungry customers coming in on that Friday afternoon. I presume they must have quite a following from their old location at Belilios Lane.

White tables and lime green chairs greet your eyes as you enter, but what stands out would be the bold green leaves against a black wall. The same curvy leaves on the remaining white walls made the overall effect simple and tasteful.

It can get a little noisy in there once the place fills up. Not a place to go to on a romantic date, but good enough for a nice (possibly boisterous? :P) gathering with friends.

On the Food

With the huge variety of dishes here, you'd be quite spoilt for choice like my friend and I were.

First up was the Ghee Roast Masala Dosa ($4) which is almost the length of my forearm. Crispy on the outside and very fragrant to boot with the ghee; yummy just by itself, or with the 4 chutneys that came along with it (friend loved the tomato and onion chutney; he thinks it deserves a special mention), or with the little mound of tasty masala potato right in the centre of this thin long rice and lentil crepe.

My friend had a Paneer Fried Rice ($5): "fluffy rice sauteed with onion, capsicum cottage cheese" that came with a yogurt-based chutney with bits of onions, ginger and green chilli. This isn't for those who like strong, intense flavours.

I also ordered a Mutter Paneer ($5.50) and a Garlic Naan ($2.20) to go with it. The chickpeas were deliciously spicy, so much so that once my friend had a mouth of it, he felt his fried rice was lackluster after that. The garlic naan was doughy, especially when tearing off a piece of it. There was a fairly generous sprinkle of diced garlic across it.

Their full menu can be viewed here as a PDF file.

On the Drinks

I had a Mango Lassi ($3) which tasted like they had added mango puree to it. It was a little too sweet, and it wasn't cold like I expected it to be, unfortunately. My friend ordered a Coca-Cola Zero ($1.50). I'd say the selection of drinks wasn't bad at all. There's also fresh juice and milkshakes besides the requisite coffee and tea.

On the Service

Prompt service. It seemed like they were watching to make sure we were done with the first dish before serving up the next. I must commend the server for recommending we finish our food first when we wanted to order more than three food items. He was right. We were so full at the end of our meal; we couldn't have handled more.

They let us sit around drinking water and chatting after the meal till they really needed the table. A lady politely asked if we were going to order again as they had a group outside waiting for a seat. We took the cue; we did sit around for quite a while.

Conclusion

I can only echo what's at the the top right corner of my review. I'd definitely be back. Hopefully some time soon.