Restaurant Review - Ruchi Indian Cuisine - Toronto

Where:I have been to Ruchi ( http://www.dine.to/ruchi )twice in the last 6 months and just wanted to complete a review. They are at 650 Yonge Street, near University ( next to Brassrail :) for those more educated people out there) .We (me and a desi friend of mine ) went there on a Friday evening at about 9 PM - they were almost getting ready to leave - Not sure if that is a good sign when they want to close down the place by 10 PM on Friday night. To be fair it had just snowed (Yea I am at least 4 months late on this review:) ) -so business was slow.

Food: We started off by ordering some appetizers ( Pakora plate) along with the standard Indian beer ( they have the appropriate license to serve beer - whatever that means in Canada). Pakoras tasted fairly stale ( probably in the freezer for a LONG time before it made its way out). We went ahead and ordered Baingan Bartha and Okra along with a few Nans. The food showed up pretty quickly ( well we were pretty much holding them up from closing :) ). The food was nice - but tasted very south Indian. My friend started conversing - and we realized the folks running Ruchi were actually from South India. I have no issues with South Indian chefs cooking North Indian food and vice-versa. However, I firmly believe that a south indian chef can't do the BEST Khadai of Baingan Bartha ( just like a North Indian chef can NEVER make the BEST Pongal).

No real qualms about the food at all here. The entree was hot, spicy enough and good ( not GREAT but good). It just tasted like I am eating in an Andhra restaurant that was all.

Service: Service was fine - since there were only 2 other customers other than us.

Rating: My desism rating for Ruchi is a 6.5 out of 10. I think they can definitely improve in the appetizer department for sure as well as trying to make the food more North Indian.

Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhavan - Missisauga, ON

Where: Saravana Bhavan(http://www.saravanaabhavan.ca/), one of the real Saravana Bhavan's chain that has been around quite a while across the border in Hurantorio St., Missisuaga (near Toronto). We were there on a Sunday afternoon - about 11:45 AM. This was my second visit there. Turns out that they have started running some early lunch buffet program ( which is very unlike Saravana). In talking to the owner, he said that they were trying to shut down Udupi bhavan ( I think that is what he said) which was offering buffets by doing this pre-lunch breakfast buffet. The buffet runs until 12:00 and then they shift over to the regular menu driven fare.

Food: We opted for the buffet as we didnt want to wait during the transition time. Turns out that it was NOT a SMART choice to do the buffet. Saravana quality is definitely missing in the buffet. Sambhar was the only one that was upto PAR. While the buffet itself had quite a bit of variety ( Pongal, Vada, idly, some sweet halwa etc) - the fact that we were at the tail end of this buffet event meant that the food was sitting there for quite a while and there was definitely not going to be any replenishments. Interestingly enough - even with sub-par food (again compared to Saravana's regular menu) - I think Saravana still beats a lot of restaurants hands down.

Service: I thought the service was decent -given the fact that this is a buffet service.
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 6.5 out of a possible 10. I will review this Saravana again with regular menu to see if the rating will improve