Where: Went to saravana palace (http://www.saravanapalaceva.com/) - a relatively new restaurant in the ever increasing count of Indian restaurants here in the Northern Virginia area. We were there on a Saturday evening - about 7:30 PM and the restaurant was not very busy at that time. However, by the time we were leaving the place got real busy and there were folks waiting to get in. It definitely has become a popular indian restaurant and for all the right reasons.
Food: We ordered appetizers -Spring Rolls and Chinese Hakka Noodles - turnaround time was pretty quick on both - Spring rolls seemed to have either come out of a box or from some deep frozen section -but was very kid friendly. Chinese Hakka Noodles was very well made - I am sure if you asked they would spice it up some more.
Tomato soup arrived on time and was reasonably decent - there was a clear rasam taste to it indicating that they at least tried to use some south indian flavor for the soup.
Our entrees came in reasonably good time as well - we had ordered Dosas (Sada dosa and the Rava masala dosa) along with a Malabar Parotta. Rava masala was pretty good and the sambar and the ginger/tomato chutney that accompanied it was pretty well made. In general the sides that came (various chutneys) were pretty good.
The Malabar parotta itself was decent - the avial needed some help though and was pretty bland. The mango lassi was standard Indian restaurant fare, but the salt lassi was more like "Buttermilk - South Indian style" - Reminded me of "Tower - Indian restaruant in Raleigh North Carolina - which I think is by far the BEST South Indian restaurant in the entire North American continent - a new review for Tower will follow later.
Overall the food was pretty good.
Ambience: Standard Indian look and feel with Green sofas/booths and chairs in the middle. I dont understand why any darn indian restaurant would use tables that keep dancing from one side to another - even if you touch them. No special theme was visible. It looked exactly like going to Woodlands (which is literally 1/2 mile away from these guys).
Price: Extermely reasonable prices. I didnt see any entries other than Thaali that went over 10 dollars.
Service: These guys need to really improve on their service. They are alright -but given the fact that Woodlands is NOT a whole lot different in fare than what these guys offer - they need to definitely provide service that is better. Their table management needs serious improvement (they should play Diner Dash Online game at yahoo to get their table management skills right!) and they could do a little bit of checking with the customer to see if they are doing alright and such. Small niceties go a long way and for some reason most of the Indian restaurants DONT get it (starting to change though)
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 7 out of a possible 10. Their price/food quality is the key driver for this rating. If one of the two falls they are on deep trouble.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
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