Saravanaa Bhavan

Last night, we visited here. We had been here few other times, this time it was different. My daughter ordered Paneer Pulav. She could not finish it full, she had to pack it in a togo box and today when she ate that, she gave me a piece of something she could not chew and quickly figured out it was a piece of rubber band. Seriously, very disgusting! Thank god, she did not swallow. We trust children can enjoy quality and safe food from your kitchen, but you failed. Do not compromise on your quality at any cost.

Seriously the best Indian good I have ever had… And also probably the best in Houston. I am not an expert when it comes to Indian food but I am not a neophyte either but this place impresses the heck out of me. So many dishes I have never tried, I’m sort of speechless. Cannot wait to come back!

The good: —
— the ambience.
— the lights
— the colors and décor
the bad : —
— not tastes like south indian
— not good taste
— north indian dishes were all discolored
— nothing was crisp and as it should be
— food is not good overall
— service was just ok, the waiters are little pushy on the ordering part.
Bottom line : —
We don’t care about your lights and decoration. You customers need good food. That’s all

Decent food but not worth the prices charged. Quantity is also less for the price. Dosas are
Among the thinnest I’ve eaten.
Also they nickel and dime you for extra sambar, ghee, etc.
Customer service is not great.
All in all not up to the standard of the other Saravanaa Bhavans and way over priced.
If you want good south Indian for better prices go to a place like udipi or Balaji bhavan.

Abstract
OK place for south indian cuisine.
Close to authentic (by US standard). Bearable spice level for those who are not fan of spicy food.
Food selection/​taste
They have enough options to choose from on the menu. Their specialty is south indian food, so you see a lot of options for
Dosas and uttapams.
They have north indian food options as well but I would not order that here.
I went to this place for lunch with my husband and cousin. We ended up ordering madras coffee, inion uttapam, veggies uttapam, dosa, dahi wada, medhu wada, and rava kesar.
The coffee was refreshing. Everything else was average nothing incredible.
Staff
This restaurant gets an extra point for their super quick service. Literally, you place the order, the waiter goes in to the kitchen, and the food is on your table in less than a minute.
Ambience
Cleaner and welcoming compared to most of other similar mid-​priced restaurant
Price
A bit overpriced for the quantity and quality you get compared to similar other south indian food places.
Parking
Shares a Common lot with nearby restaurants. I wont worry about finding a spot.
Negatives
Food was good but not great for the extra $ you pay. The rice-​to-​daal ratio for dosa and uttapam was off. Too much of rice and less of urad daal. (You would probably know this if you are indian)
Conclusion
Good place to try once. I would prefer going to another restaurant than spending the extra bucks.

Food was 3.5 stars. But the Service was 6 stars! The food came out amazingly fast and wait staff was very friendly. And that too on a very busy holiday weekend at 9pm with the restaurant completely full.
Definitely recommend giving it a shot.
Food in their NYC location is still a cut above their other locations.

I am a total carnivore, but this food is so flavorful you don’t even miss the meat. I’ve had the aloo gobi masala and the onion uthappam. Both were amazing, and the chutneys made me question why I am not Indian. If loving curry is wrong, I don’t want to be raita.
Also, they give a discount for paying in cash. *air guitar*

One of my first tastes of authentic South Indian food that wasn’t at any of my Indian friends’ houses! My roommate is South Indian and took me here with two other friends to try dosas for the first time. I have to say I really enjoy South Indian cuisine from what I have experienced so far.
The place itself is very colorful and vibrant, and though most people here are Indian they seem to serve everyone with equal enthusiasm. For dessert we ordered coffee and a mango lassi and both were very sweet and a great way to end a meal. Be aware that this place is completely vegetarian! But all the portions are more filling than they seem!

Their Saravana special meals are spectacular ! A regular here with my husband the staff is amazing ash the service is quick and the choice of music takes you back to south india.
Love it!

Name should be changed to Something else. This place diluted the brand of Sharvana Bhavan. Here is why!
Vada is very hard
Rice served is of cheap quality
Dosa is paper thin and roasted too much
Poori is fried in burnt and old oil
Sweet is too cheap quality
Curries are tasteless
Only Sambar and chutneys are little better

When my wife and I were planning our trip to India, we read about this chain, which started in Chennai. We had great food everywhere in India, but Saravanaa Bhavan was one of the highlights! Our guide recommended the thali plate and mushroom curry which were incredibly tasty.
Then we noticed in their menu that they were planning to open a restaurant in Houston – how psyched we were! We’ve been to this location four times and we have never been disappointed in the dosas. They are always hot and crispy and flavorful, especially the onion masala dosa and milagaipodi masala dosa. The thali plate was good but we prefer the dosas. The gobi (cauliflower) masala is also very delicious.
The staff is a bit terse and unfriendly, or I’d give them 5 stars, but they bring the food very quickly. It can be very busy on weekends, but they turn over tables quickly so you won’t wait long.

I absolutely love this place. I am quite surprised to see that it only has a 3star review overall right now. The ambience is good (better than most HSB’s in India). The staff is not as well mannered as I would like, but the awesome food totally compensates for that. I don’t typically enjoy watching my food being prepared. if you are like me, avoid the seats right across from the kitchen (as they have a glass you can see through). Dosa is my favorite at this place. I have been tempted to try the North Indian speculators at this restaurant from time to time and have been disappointed often (which is fine, given that their specialty is in the South Indian dishes). Occasionally, I enjoy my «full meals» on weekends and have mostly enjoyed it. Occasionally they have weird veggies that I don’t enjoy. but overall okay. The Rava dosa and paper dosa are my favorite!!!

4 stars when you know what to expect! Hotel Saravanaa Bhavan specializes in South Indian vegetarian cuisine. The original restaurant is in Chennai and it has since then spread all over the world. I came to the Houston location with my Uncle who has dined at multiple franchises — a few in Chennai, almost all of them in the UAE, NY, Dallas, and now Houston. He, and many others, claims that none of them compare to the restaurants in India. The Houston establishment is on par with all of the other outside India branches, except that it looks a little fancier.
This place is good for lunch and can get pretty packed. The menu is expansive. I would consult Unilocal or an Indian friend if you’re clueless on what to order, because the descriptions aren’t very descriptive and the waitstaff is pretty useless in giving suggestions — anything you point at, they will say is good. I can’t tell if it’s a language barrier or a knowledge barrier of what customer service expectations are, but just FYI, people don’t come here for the service.
Having been to the Dallas location as well as several other South Indian restaurants in the area, I had an idea of what to order. You can’t go wrong with ordering a dosa — but WHICH ONE? My favorite is the rava dosa, but I suggest exploring your options. I would stick with the South Indian items, since that’s what this place is known for. Get your North Indian fix elsewhere. We ended our meal with the filter coffee — pretty authentic, heavy on the milk.

We went to this restaurant unplanned and ordered a Rava masala dosa and it was the best Dosa I had in Houston… Taste of Sambhar and chutneys was awesome and unexpectedly awesome.
Looking at the crowd and Menu it looked like it’s knows for South Indian dishes. Next time we visited here, we thought to try out North Indian and orders Palaak Paneer, Nan and Onion Kulcha. and the taste was unexpectedly awesome again. Probably the best I had in Houston for far…
Looking forward to try something new this weekend…
Taste — awesome
Staff — awesome
Ambience — awesome…

Our trip here happened when the kids were at school, and my wife and I happened to have an off day together. Rarely do we get to have Indian food when the kids are in the decision making equation. I was craving a Masala Dosa, so off we went here after browsing Unilocal looking for the best Masala Dosa.
The restaurant was very easy to find. There was no wait to be seated. We ordered a Masala Dosa, paper thin onion dosa and another dish I can not recall the name of. The food came out really quick and tasted fresh and extremely good. Whats cool is the food and drinks are served in steel dishes like you would see in India. The sambar and chutneys that came with it was excellent as well. We finished off our meal with some hot Chai. The meal totally reminded me of my mom’s cooking.
If I’m in the area, I’m definitely stopping here when I have a dosa craving!

We found Saravanaa Bhavan while driving down Westheimer looking for a spot to heal our hunger pains. As soon as I saw «Vegetarian Indian» I made an immediate right into the parking lot. I love Southern Indian and was thrilled to see this place.
Upon entering, I felt assured this was probably going to be pretty good. If you walk into a restaurant of a specific region’s cuisine and find 95% of the customers are of the same regional background — you might have made a good choice. The interior was also upbeat and bright, which is also refreshing for an Indian restaurant. It also had a large windowed kitchen so you could see your food being prepared.
We were lead to our seats, but I wanted to sit elsewhere and was appeased with no fuss. Our table was clean and had stainless steel water pitchers and cups ready to go. We scanned the numerous Dosas that were on the menu and once we made our selection our very nice server came over to take our order.
First we started with the Mini Ghee Idly. They were soft and smothered in very delicious lentil gravy. I really enjoyed this dish. For the dosas we ordered the Rava Masala Dosa and Mysore Masala Dosa. They came out quickly and had tons of flavor. The Rava was very crisp and if you like them crispier I do recommend this one. My mysore was yummy and had crisp edges and nice spongy interior. The chutneys were also very scrumptious. I really loved the Coconut and Coriander. Our server noticed I was finishing up the coriander and came to ask if I wanted more. The mango lassi was also very delicious.
I’m a fan of this place for sure and can’t wait to go back and introduce it to my other South Indian loving friends.

So I came here with my good friend from New Deli who told me in India the sister store is always packed and in NYC takes hours to get seated. Tried and trued I suppose, because this place was hopping on Wednesday night to the point It reminded me of a Saturday or Sunday in a dim sum restaurant in Bellaire… seriously it was nuts!
We got the Paneer and one of the dosas. The paneer was rocking out of control and according to my buddy was near perfect. Literally a party was exploding in my mouth.
The butter nan we ordered was good the first go, but for some reason it degraded when we ordered more. The last batch came out soggy and half cooked. Minus one star.
The dosa was OK, but I feel like I ordered the wrong one because the spice spread inside of the dosa I was apparently a cause of the destruction of the epic crispy I was anticipating. Minus one star.
Lastly, not sure if this is typical of Indian restaurants in Houston but the service was really slow. no reduction in stars for this until I start to see an up tick in service I receive in Indian restaurants in Houston.
I’ll come back for the paneer which is a solid 5 stars!!!

My only complaint is minor: a couple of the wait staff was in the dining area just talking instead of noticing that my party wanted the bill. Which was a bummer because the food was quite good.
This might be the best dosa in town, because i actually liked it and I am not a dosa fan. The dosa’s texture was snappy, I sampled two different types of ingredients cooked in the thin dosa. The potato goods inside were tasty and in good supply.
I personally had the mushroom biryani, and was impressed with the quality, flavor and even the consistency of the yoghurt given as a side. The rice was flavorful and not crazy spicy or oily, so the yogurt might not be needed. More mushrooms please, that would be nice.
I am still not a huge fan of vegetarian South Indian food, but I’d be happy to join my family again here. Reasonable price, good atmosphere and a convenient location.
Not surprised that this is a large franchise, it’s good enough to keep people coming back.

This place only recently opened up in Houston, Texas (December 20^th, 2014). I was very excited because this place is famous worldwide for their masala dosa. When I first tried it here, I was not disappointed. Don’t listen to the haters; if you want some authentic South-​Indian food, try this place out.
What to order:
–Masala Dosa
Pros:
–Price
Cons:
–None

I have heard from coworkers that this is a famous chain restaurant in India. I had high expectations which it did not meet, but overall I enjoyed the mysore masala dosa I had each time I went. This place had all types of dosas so it’s hard to pick one when you are there. I just want to add that the dosas come with three awesome chutneys — one seems like tomato based and spicy, one is coconut, and the third was a green chutney which wasn’t spicy but I can’t recall what flavor it was. However all three was so good tasting!
The menu has a lot of items so it is hard to select just one item! I also thought the uttapam was quite tasty the one time I had it. The Indian coffee was also very bold and tasty. I would definitely go back and get the dosa and coffee.
The atmosphere was clean and spacious. There is a see through kitchen so you can see the cooks working on preparing the dishes. Several times I have seen a huge football shaped batura (fried dough) that can take up the size of a tray! I’ve never tried it before since I always get swayed by dosas, but it sure catches people’s attention!